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Forest carbon source and sink processes may have contrasting climatic sensitivities. This analysis on 177 coniferous forest sites shows that carbon fluxes and wood formation are coupled but not fully synchronous at intra-annual scales, with peaks in cambial activity preceding those in photosynthesis and respiration.

Data on marine litter are scattered. Harmonizing worldwide aquatic litter inventories, this study finds global litter dominated by plastics from take-out food, followed by fishing, with litter being trapped in nearshore areas and land-sourced plastic reaching the open ocean mostly as small fragments.

The atmospheric terminator region of WASP-39 b, a hot gas giant exoplanet, is inhomogeneous, despite past assumptions, with the evening terminator being hotter and thus probably clearer, and the morning terminator probably being cloudy and consequently cooler.

Active emulsions and liquid crystalline shells offer a unique framework for exploring topological matter due to their complex morphologies and dynamic properties. Here the authors report how activity generates diverse nonequilibrium states, from defect-free motile states to complex topologically active configurations, providing insights into controlled flow and topology in active systems.

Seismic waves sampling the top 100 km of the Earth's inner core have revealed that the eastern hemisphere is seismically faster, more isotropic and more attenuating than the western hemisphere. It is now shown that a single model of thermo-chemical convection and dynamo action can account for all these effects by producing a large-scale, long-term outer core flow that couples the heterogeneity of the inner core with that of the lower mantle.

β-actin and γ-actin are nearly identical, and yet incorporate into different cytoskeletal structures. Here, the authors create isoform-pure reconstituted networks and study their structural and mechanical differences, underscoring the significance of the isoforms in diverse cellular functions.

Motion is a key characteristic of every form of life. In this work, the authors use graphene drums to probe the nanomotion of a single bacterium and develop a new way for performing antibiotic susceptibility testing with single-cell resolution.

There is a growing interest in performing time-resolved cryo-EM studies. Here, the authors present a time-resolved sample preparation method for cryo-EM called trEM, which uses a microfluidic device to initiate the biochemical reaction by rapid mixing of the components and then spraying the sample onto a cryo-EM grid to snap-freeze it in a blot-free, automated manner within several milliseconds.

The kinetochore is a multiprotein complex that tethers chromosomes to the mitotic spindle for accurate chromosome segregation. De Wulf and colleagues now show in budding yeast that the protein Cnn1 functions at the kinetochore and is recruited to the inner kinetochore, in a manner dependent on its phosphorylation mediated by the Cdc28, Mps1 and Ipl1 kinases.

Molecular chaperones from the Hsp70 family can break up protein aggregates, including amyloids. Here, the authors utilize microfluidic diffusional sizing to assess the mechanism of α-synuclein (αS) disaggregation by the Hsc70–DnaJB1–Apg2 system, and show that single αS molecules are removed directly from the fibril ends.

Ice core data show a breakdown in the long-term temperature-atmospheric CO₂ correlation during interglacial-glacial transitions. Here, via a novel modelling approach, the authors reveal marine volcanism, triggered by a fall in sea level, as a likely mechanism for the observed delayed decline in atmospheric CO₂.

Inspired by the design of peptide and nucleic acid sequences to adopt particular three-dimensional shapes, natural glycan motifs have now been combined to construct a glycan that adopts a hairpin conformation in water. Thus a designed glycan can now autonomously fold into a stable secondary structure absent in nature.

Here, using an integrative experimental and computational approach, Imle et al. show how cell motility and density affect HIV cell-associated transmission in a three-dimensional tissue-like culture system of CD4⁺ T cells and collagen, and how different collagen matrices restrict infection by cell-free virions.

A series of early-time, multiwavelength observations of an optical transient, AT2022cmc, indicate that it is a relativistic jet from a tidal disruption event originating from a supermassive black hole.

Multiplexed single cell measurements provide insight into connections between cell state and phenotype. Here Lin et al.present CycIF, a high throughput, public domain immunofluorescence method for multiplexed single-cell analysis of adherent cells following live-cell imaging.

An analysis of the localization and intensity of intracortical microstimulation in three participants with cervical spinal cord injury shows that overlapping projected fields from multiple electrodes produce sensations that are more easily localizable.

Microarray analysis of butein-treated adipocytes results in the identification of the PR domain containing 4 (Prdm4) transcription factor, which stimulates WAT browning and lipolysis and protects against diet-induced obesity.

Understanding the factors that hamper immune therapy in breast cancer may increase the range of patients who benefit. Here authors show that breast cancer cells produce and subsequently transfer active TGF-β type II receptors to CD8 + T cells to render them exhausted, thus paralyzing the anti-tumor immune response.

Changing temperature of thermoresponsive microgels is typically used as a proxy for modifying volume fraction based on the assumption that doing so does not alter the interaction potential. Bergman et al. shows that this picture is oversimplified and microgels are better described by a multi-Hertzian model.

There is a need to further improve the automation of cryo-EM sample preparation to make it more easily accessible for non-specialists, reduce sample waste and increase reproducibility. Here, the authors present VitroJet, a single device, where sub-nl volumes of samples are deposited by pin printing thus eliminating the need for sample blotting, which is followed by jet vitrification, and they show that high-resolution structures can be obtained using four standard proteins.

Microplastics have spread across the globe and reached even the most remote locations, but an understanding of their origins remains largely elusive. Here the authors quantify and characterise microplastics across the North Pole, finding that synthetic fibers like polyester are dominant and likely sourced from the Atlantic Ocean.

A wearable electrochemical patch for the real-time monitoring of the biomarker C-reactive protein in sweat detects elevated concentrations of the protein in patients with acute or chronic inflammation.

Packing nanoparticles into ordered superstructures finds applications in photonic materials, but fabrication over large scales is challenging. Zhao et al. show a roll-to-roll approach to prepare flexible films of ordered polymer nanoparticles via an oscillatory shear-induced structural transition.

Gene-regulatory networks are thought to be complex, and yet perturbation of just a few transcription factors (TFs) can have major consequences. Here the authors apply DNA polymer modelling and simulations to predict how 3D genome structure and TF-DNA interactions can give rise to transcriptional regulation operating over broad genomic regions, where small perturbations can have long-reaching effects.

Metal nanocrystals are used in an ever growing list of applications, but precise control and understanding of their formation can be difficult. Here, the authors show a route that allows the controlled formation of metal nanocrystals to be carried out and observed at an atom-by-atom level.

Transcriptional profiles of single living cells are generated from Raman imaging data.

Binary nanocrystal superlattice metamaterials are arousing significant interest due to their potential for use in functional devices. Here, the authors endow the nanoparticles with polymer brushes which enable control over their spacings and thus mesoscale structure and properties.

The effective hygroscopicity of organic matter and inorganic ions in atmospheric aerosols can be efficiently and accurately parameterized by global average values to constrain a critically important aspect in climate and Earth system models

High spatial and temporal resolutions are required in order to follow chemical and condensed matter transformations in real time. Here, the authors compress single-electron pulses in time, with low jitter and high repetition rates, and demonstrate atomic resolution via diffraction from organic molecules.

Hydrophobic interactions occur between nonpolar molecules in water and their experimental quantification can help the understanding of biological self-assembly. Here Jianget al. examine the kinetics and thermodynamics of hydrophobic aggregation in a bulk environment and characterize its cooperativity.

Ballistic delivery with micro/nano-particles has been successfully used to transfect plant cells, however, has failed in mammalian cells due to toxic effects. Here, the authors report on a self-assembled nano-ballistic delivery system for the delivery of functional macromolecules and demonstrate efficient transfection of mammalian cells.

Based on thorough single-molecule analysis of off-target binding by the CRISPR-Cas surveillance complex Cascade, a mechanism-based model is presented that quantitatively describes the recognition dynamics of mutated targets by this protein.

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves and plasma instabilities can be studied during solar flares. Here the authors show evidence for an MHD sausage mode oscillation periodically triggering electron acceleration at a magnetic null point in the solar corona, indicating MHD oscillations in plasma can indirectly lead to loss-cone instability modulation.

Acoustical tweezers can exert forces several orders of magnitude greater than optical tweezers but the absence of spatial selectivity and their limited resolution has prevented their use for many applications in microbiology. Here the authors perform spatially selective contactless manipulation and positioning of human cells.

Growing nanoparticle crystals typically requires strict control over interparticle interactions and assembly. Here, the authors show that a trace amount of polymeric impurities induces reproducible, rapid growth of high quality 3D nanoparticle crystals in solution and on patterned substrates.

The ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis suggests that the rate of ageing tends to be constant within species. Here, Colchero et al. find support for the hypothesis across primates, including humans, suggesting biological constraints on the rate of ageing.

How prioritization affects the format of visual working memory representations is currently not understood. Analyzing iEEG recordings in epilepsy patients, the authors demonstrate the critical role of recurrent computations and beta frequency oscillations during the selective attention to particular visual working memory content in the PFC.