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This study harnesses reductive catalytic fractionation to produce lignin oligomers within a design space that enables efficient epoxidation. The developed epoxidation process activates aliphatic hydroxyl groups, yielding low-viscosity lignin epoxy resins with high functionality that form thermosets with near-benchmark properties while offering improved biomass-to-resin yield and sustainability.

Global analysis of obesity trends from 1980 to 2024 in 200 countries and territories using data from 4,050 population-based studies reveals that framing obesity as a single global epidemic masks the highly varied dynamics across countries and age groups.

Women of reproductive age may have specific concerns relating to perceived impacts on fertility and menstrual cycles that make them hesitant to receive COVID-19 vaccination. In this study, the authors explore COVID-19 vaccine uptake rates in women of reproductive age using linked data for ~13 million women in England.

The real space magnetic texture of kagome materials is often complex and temperature dependent. Here, the authors demonstrate spectroscopic access to a single magnetic domain in kagome metal DyMn₆Sn₆ and provide insights into the orbital magnetization.

DNA-sequencing data from primary tumours and paired metastases from participants in the TRACERx lung study and PEACE autopsy programme are used to analyse the metastatic diversity of advanced non-small cell lung cancer and the seeding patterns that underpin it.

Coastal nitrogen pollution is a critical sustainability challenge with environmental, social and economic consequences. Upstream ‘sweet spots’ where interventions will have maximum mitigation effectiveness and social buy-in are attractive but may prove difficult to implement in urban stream networks.

This study identifies four essential apical polar ring proteins in Plasmodium falciparum that are required for parasite cytoskeletal organization and host cell invasion.

Cells regulate metabolic enzymes via ubiquitin-mediated degradation, yet responsible E3 ligases remain poorly defined. Here, the authors identify LRRC58 as a cysteine-responsive E3 ligase substrate receptor that selectively ubiquitylates CDO1 distinctive from degrader-induced protein degradation.

Airborne hexavalent chromium nanoparticles were found at concerning levels in debris-cleanup zones after the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and can travel several kilometers downwind, posing potential health risks to nearby communities, based on mobile air measurements and 3D chemical transport modeling.

This work introduces the Runs N’ Poses dataset for benchmarking deep learning methods on the protein–ligand complex prediction task. It shows that current methods rely on memorization, challenging their effectiveness for real-world applications such as drug discovery.

Lineage tracing of alveolar fibroblasts in the aged mouse lung reveals persistent expression of Adamts4 during delaying resolution of pulmonary fibrosis. Targeting this metalloproteinase attenuates fibrogenesis in ex vivo models.

Whole-genome data from 249 yellow-eyed penguins (hoiho) identify three lineages with high geographical and genomic divergence, and candidate gene variants associated with differential susceptibility to neonatal respiratory distress syndrome.

RNA velocity is a widely used method to predict the fate of single cells. Here the authors show that the concept can be adapted to predict the fate of individual human subjects, using RNA velocity of whole blood at a single point in time to predict future clinical outcomes and treatment responses.

Schöndorf and Petrychenko et al. show that mitochondrial translation speed is coupled to OXA1L-mediated inner membrane insertion, with cotranslational nascent chain folding and insertion driving structural changes and translational pausing.

An autonomous robot system, Ace, combines event-based vision and reinforcement learning to compete with elite human table tennis players, highlighting the potential of physical AI agents to perform complex, real-time interactive tasks.

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

How angular momentum is exchanged and conserved among lattice modes has been difficult to measure experimentally, but has now been observed via a coherent three-phonon scattering process in a topological insulator.

Global Burden of Disease analysis found that in 2023, suboptimal diet was estimated to be responsible for 4 million deaths and 97 million morbidity burdens from ischemic heart disease.

Multi-viewpoint and coordinated observations unravel the unexpected failure of a violent solar eruption, driven by a dynamic, competitive interplay between internal and external reconnection processes.

Solar power is critical to the energy transition, but aerosols emitted from co-located coal plants suppress solar power production, diminishing realized energy gains. Although stricter emissions controls can partially mitigate these effects, a phase-out of coal-fired power would more effectively remove this performance constraint.

Comparative genomics and high-resolution mass spectrometry reveal the biosynthetic gene clusters, and vast chemical diversity of natural products that they encode, in Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus, bacteria that interact with hosts as symbionts and entomopathogens.

Endocrine therapies are the main adjuvant therapy for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, but 30% of patients recur. Here, the authors discover that endocrine therapy upregulates Rac1 signalling component P-Rex1, and inhibition of Rac1 reduces tumour growth in refractory breast cancer models.

The authors conduct a national inventory on individual tree carbon stocks in Rwanda using aerial imagery and deep learning. Most mapped trees are located in farmlands; new methods allow partitioning to any landscape categories, effective planning and optimization of carbon sequestration and the economic benefits of trees.

The authors identify a cluster of proteins that target human complement and bind plasminogen, revealing a conserved structural fold and a multifunctional immune evasion strategy that enables survival of Borrelia recurrentis in the human host.

Johanns and colleagues report the results (including safety, efficacy and immunogenicity) of a phase 1 clinical trial of a DNA-based personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine administered following surgical resection and radiation in patients with MGMT unmethylated glioblastoma.

In this work, authors show that the nucleoside prodrug obeldesivir has potent antiviral activity across respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) clinical isolates with a high resistance barrier. Once-daily obeldesivir treatment was efficacious against RSV in a non-human primate model.

A device for simultaneous photometry and electrophysiology allows recordings in freely moving mice without restriction or inhibition of movement or entanglement of the fiber and cables.

Molecular motors have predominantly been limited to circular or linear directional motions. Here, the authors design a molecular motor that moves unidirectionally along a more complex figure-eight trajectory by a distinct four-step mechanism that alternates between photochemical and thermal reaction steps.

The study presents CLUES, an open-source workflow that automates linking global environmental data with geolocated biomedical data, enabling scalable research while supporting FAIR data practices and privacy-aware integration.

Mitochondrial dysfunction in dopaminergic neurons is a pathological hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. Here, the authors find a conserved mechanism by which a single transcription factor controls mitochondrial health in dopaminergic neurons during the aging process.

For solid-state spin ensembles achieving a quantum-limited readout has been a long-standing issue. Here, a nuclear spin-assisted readout technique is applied to reach the quantum limit in an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and correlated spin ensemble states are investigated.

Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

ATF6α activation in human and preclinical models of hepatocellular carcinoma is significantly associated with an aggressive tumour phenotype characterized by reduced survival, glycolytic reprogramming and local immunosuppression.

Transmission of Plasmodium falciparum relies on the development of gametocytes, which undergo extensive cellular remodelling. Here, the authors demonstrate that the PfGID E3 ubiquitin ligase complex affects gametocyte development by regulating key proteins, producing defective cells that cannot infect mosquitoes.

JWST observations of both the dayside and nightside of a hot exoplanet show that horizontal winds transport chemical species faster than the time they need to react chemically, which drives the nightside atmosphere out of chemical equilibrium.

IL-17RA signaling on Paneth progenitors, via ADAM17, modulates Paneth cell dedifferentiation and their ability to replenish the intestinal crypt post-irradiation injury.

Extreme periods of low wind and solar energy ("Dunkelflaute”) drive substantial long-duration electricity storage needs in a renewable European power system. Rapid deployment is required to safeguard the renewable energy transition in Europe.

Evaluated across 18 multicancer cohorts, the agentic artificial intelligence workflow SPARK uses language as a universal interface to autonomously generate biological ideas.

The two species of African elephants are facing severe declines. Here, authors assess their continent-wide genomic diversity, identifying differences in their evolutionary histories and highlighting the formative role of gene flow.

Polymer thin films that emit and absorb circularly polarised light are promising in achieving important technological advances, but the origin of the large chiroptical effects in such films has remained elusive. Here the authors demonstrate that in non-aligned polymer thin films, large chiroptical effects are caused by magneto-electric coupling, not structural chirality as previously assumed.

This study develops a platform that enables simultaneous, multiplexed tracing of 30 nitrogen isotope-labelled metabolites, uncovering differences in pyrimidine synthesis pathway choice between primitive and differentiated cells.

Analyses of epidemiological, clinical and molecular data from a prospective cohort of 3,100 patients with esophageal carcinoma suggest intestinal metaplasia as a single precancer pathway preceding the disease.

Analysis of 258 ancient genomes from southern Germany reveals a major demographic shift during the late fifth century, yet family structures persisted from Late Roman times, demonstrating cultural continuity despite profound demographic reorganization.

Entanglement between particles offers insights into quantum behaviour, but methods for studying it in free-electron systems are lacking. Now a two-electron quantum walk is used to probe decoherence of free electrons inside an electron microscope.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

Myeloid cells show marked heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s disease. This study introduces CODEX-CNS, a single-cell spatial proteomics pipeline, and identifies a human microglial subpopulation enriched in Alzheimer’s disease brains that associates with dense amyloid-β plaques.

Transcription factor osr2 is identified as a specific marker and regulator of mural lymphatic endothelial cell (muLEC) differentiation and maintenance, and muLECs and border-associated macrophages share functional analogies but are not homologous, providing an example of convergent evolution.

In this phase 1/2 trial, patients with Ewing sarcoma received trabectedin and low-dose irinotecan at concentrations known to inhibit the activity of the transcription factor EWS::FLI1, leading to encouraging clinical response rates.

This study analyzes 15,572 pathway-specific, georeferenced Natural Climate Solution implementation constraint observations in 137 countries, finding that lack of policy coordination or implementation capacity are most-observed barriers to scaling up.