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By controlling the flow or composition of liquids, optofluidics provides numerous possibilities for devices, and so has great potential for transformation optics. Here, a multi-mode optofluidic waveguide is presented, which manipulates light to produce controllable chirped focussing and interference.

Confined within a porous aerogel, superfluid ³He loses its long-range order owing to random microscopic disorder, and becomes a glassy superfluid. Intriguingly, this effect can be switched off and the superfluidity restored.

White-nose syndrome, caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, is decimating North American bats. Here, Palmer et al. use comparative genomics to examine the evolutionary history of this pathogen, and show that it has lost a crucial DNA repair enzyme and is extremely sensitive to UV light.

Lithium is depleted in mid-F dwarf stars, known as the lithium-dip since 1986, which challenges standard stellar models. Here, the authors show that rotational mixing uniquely explains this depletion using spectra from NGC 188 subgiants.

The authors study the charge-density-wave (CDW) compound 2H-TaSe₂ by inelastic x-ray scattering combined with photoemission spectroscopy. They find evidence for a precursor region above the CDW transition temperature, which is characterized by an overdamped phonon mode and is not detectable by photoemission.

The Einstein Probe has discovered a fast X-ray transient, EP240414a, associated with a broad-lined type Ic supernova. Its unusually soft spectrum and weak jet add to the diversity of stellar deaths and suggest a previously unknown Wolf–Rayet star explosion mechanism.

The rotational orientation of a molecule affects the outcome of a molecule-surface collision. Here, the authors achieve control of this quantum property for H₂ colliding with a nickel surface and study its role in elastic and reactive collisions.

Nitrogen pollution is influenced by many stressors, and their combined effects are poorly constrained. Here the authors used a global land biosphere model to analyse the past two and a half centuries of land N pollution budgets and fluxes to the ocean and atmosphere and found that land sequesters 11% of global annual reactive N inputs.

Public untargeted metabolomics data hold great promise for discovery but are difficult to access across repositories. Here, the authors develop universal identifiers and harmonized metadata to integrate major databases, enabling streamlined analysis and expanded research possibilities.

Observations of the Schwinger effect—the creation of matter by electric fields—have been hindered by the high required field strength. A mesoscopic variant of the Schwinger effect has now been realized in graphene transistors.

Daily climate 45 million years ago is reconstructed using fossil snail shells, revealing monsoon-like conditions in Europe. The findings help predict how future warming could affect rainfall and seasons.

Long-persistent afterglow can be achieved in organic materials, but understanding of the processes is limited. Here, the authors report the study of acceptor matrices with dopants for insight into energy transfer processes.

One of the obstacles to improving the efficiency of organic photovoltaic solar cells is the recombination of polaron pairs at the interface between donor and acceptor molecules. By doping cells with galvinoxyl radicals, Zhanget al. demonstrate a mechanism that overcomes this problem via a spin-flip process.

The Kondo effect can serve as a powerful paradigm to understand strongly correlated many-body processes in physics. Here, Guo et al. utilize single molecule transistor devices as a testbed to study multi-level Kondo correlation and show electrical gate evolution and the universality of the two-stage Kondo effect.

The structure-performance relationship of single-atom catalysts remains unclear. Here a data-driven approach with high-throughput DFT and machine learning is used to screen 1248 single atoms arrays, to provide a better understanding of the hydrogen evolution reaction mechanism.

Filamentous phages are micrometer long and encapsulate their circular ssDNA genome with five coat proteins. Here, authors report the cryo-EM structure of a mini M13 phage and the results reveal the coat protein assembly and structure of the ssDNA genome.

How does the brain define a useful decision variable (DV) when many possibilities are available? The authors show that rather than committing to the DV used to solve the task, the mouse’s premotor cortex entertains several strategies in parallel.

Multiple scattering with wave-like atoms is known to produce non-trivial many-body effects. Here, the authors investigate multiple scattering in the semi-classical limit using deviations in the scattering halos produced by the collision of indistinguishable ultracold fermions.

Pluto’s haze could have a major icy component created by the condensation of organic molecules such as C₄H₂. This is different from Titan whose haze, despite a similar atmospheric composition, is mostly macromolecular aggregates. Triton’s haze, instead, should be dominated by ices, particularly C₂H₄.

This study uses climate model experiments and shows that global mean sea-level rise can reshape atmospheric circulation and intensify winter cold extremes in East Asia, threatening not only coastal but also inland regions.

Free-electron lasers are a powerful new tool for studying properties and transient states of matter. Here, the authors use a novel seed scheme for generation of two XUV laser pulses of controlled wavelength and time separation that enables access to ultrafast phenomena with elemental sensitivity.

Advancing solid-state batteries relies on high performance solid electrolytes. Here, the authors report a family of superionic halides (e.g., NaTaCl₆) driven by the paddle-wheel mechanism, emphasizing the key role of anion dynamics in facilitating fast cation transport.

Precise qubit manipulation is essential in quantum computation; however errors can occur from fluctuations in the magnetic field. Wanget al. propose a robust scheme for universal control of qubits in a semiconductor double quantum dot, cancelling leading orders of error in field gradient variation.

The coherence time during which two energetic states in a semiconductor are synchronized can be very short. Here, the authors demonstrate that despite their brief coherence times, coherent control of such states can be achieved at room temperature.

Gioblastoma tumours consist of different niches defined by histology. Here, the authors use proteomics and machine learning to assign protein expression programs to these niches, and reveal that KRAS and hypoxia are associated with drug resistance.

Mid-infrared 2 μm InAs/InP quantum-dot lasers is first demonstrated, with a low threshold current density of 118 A cm⁻² per layer and a maximum operating temperature of 50 °C.

In cognitively normal older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s dementia, physical inactivity was associated with faster tau protein buildup and cognitive decline.

The generation of ultrashort X-ray pulses with a peak power exceeding 100 GW offers new opportunities for studying electron dynamics with nonlinear spectroscopy and single-particle imaging.

Viral vector integration can affect the safety of gene and cell therapies. Here, authors introduce MELISSA, a regression-based statistical tool that quantifies integration site risks and clone growth effects, aiding the safety evaluation of therapies in both research and clinical settings.

Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, has comparable anthropogenic and natural sources, complicating emission control. Increasing reactive chlorine has been proposed for mitigation. This study assesses the global environmental impacts of such proposal.

The study reveals that the Southern Ocean hosts a unique and largely underexplored DNA viral community. It explores the diversity of viral communities infecting all domains of life and their seasonality, emphasizing their role in ecosystem dynamics.

Thin films of a single-crystal dielectric—antimony oxide—can be epitaxially grown at wafer scales on graphene-covered copper surfaces and then used to transfer dielectric/graphene stacks, or be integrated as a two-dimensional dielectric onto other materials.

Oxide memristors exhibit noise in excess of 2–4 orders of magnitude above the baseline at quantized conductance states. Here, the authors measure anomalous electrical noise at these states in tantalum oxide memristors and relate it to thermally-activated atomic fluctuations by numerical simulations.

This paper proposes a knowledge-guided self-learning mixed platoon control strategy for the coexistence of autonomous and traditional vehicles. The framework provides a generalizable and scalable solution for the development and adoption of connected autonomous vehicle systems.

Here, the authors show that high alpha diversity, differences in beta diversity, and a high abundance of Bacteroides in the gut microbiome are associated with positive vaccine take and stool shedding following administration of RV3-BB vaccine in the neonatal schedule, but not in the infant schedule or placebo groups, suggesting that the early-life gut microbiome provides a gut environment that optimizes the potential for a positive vaccine response.

Electrochemical hydrogen-participating processes are commonly relevant in multiple clean energy technologies. Here, authors achieve in situ quantification of H sorption kinetics during Pd-catalyzed CO₂ reduction, unravelling its key role within the interfacial network of local pH, proton donors and CO₂ molecules.

Double quantum dots are proving themselves to be an excellent test bed for many-body physics. These artificial atoms now demonstrate a phenomenon in which the capacitive coupling between them causes the spin and charge degrees of freedom of the electrons in the system to become entangled—the so-called SU(4) Kondo effect.

Neutron stars contain matter at extremely high densities, the properties of which are reflected in the corresponding equation of state (EoS). Here, the authors argue that the inferred properties of the neutron-star-matter EoS point to the likely presence of deconfined quark matter in the cores of the most massive stable neutron stars.

Post-translational modifications potentially alter the biochemical and biophysical properties of the extracellular matrix in significant ways. Here, the authors discover that glutathionylation alters the properties of the matrix protein fibronectin.

A biophysical model uses knockdown or overexpression data to infer splicing factor activity.

The authors fabricate graphene barrier films with low transmission (5·10⁻⁵g·m⁻²·d⁻¹) using reactive ion etching and oxygen plasma treatment, highlighting the importance of surface modification and intercalation in enhancing barrier performance.

Ruptures on more structurally mature faults are more localized and therefore expected to host faster ruptures with less off-fault deformation, according to remote-sensing and field measurements from historic strike-slip earthquakes.

The gluonic gravitational form factor of the proton was determined using various models, and these analyses showed that the mass radius of the proton was smaller than the electric charge radius.

Performance of triboelectric nanogenerators is primarily restricted by contact electrification, air breakdown, and dielectric breakdown effects. Here, field emission and its limitation for triboelectric nanogenerators performance are investigated.