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Building an efficient proton-exchange membrane water electrolyzer with low Ir loading remains important but challenging. Here, the authors report an Ir/MnO_x catalyst with rich Ir-O-Mn bonds that serve as charge-transfer channels to generate and stabilize active Ir³⁺ species, enhancing both activity and stability.

There is growing interest in non-traditional materials for logic applications. Here, the authors demonstrate a domain device architecture based on ferroelectric LiNbO₃ crystals with gate voltage controlled transistor without subthreshold swing and source voltage controlled nonvolatile transistor.

Genome sequencing of the fall webworm, a destructive pest in Europe and Asia, suggests changes in carbohydrate metabolism, gustatory receptors and silk-yielding associated with its rapid spread.

Engineering the coordination environment of single atom catalysts offers to opportunity to optimize electrocatalytic activity. In this work, the authors prepare an unsymmetrical Cu-S₁N₃ single atom site on porous carbon with high performance in the oxygen reduction reaction.

Pd, Pt and Au nanoparticles are encapsulated in ZIF-8. The progressive atomic dispersion of these PGM atoms as single sites in the N-doped carbon derived from ZIF-8 pyrolysis is observed.

Ru is one of the most active metals for oxygen evolution reaction, but it quickly dissolves in acidic electrolyte particularly in nanosized form. Here the authors show that coral-like solid-solution Ru‒Ir consisting of 3 nm-thick sheets with only 6 at% Ir is a long-lived catalyst with high activity

Wild teas are considered as valuable resource for studying domestication and breeding. Here, Zhang et al. report genome of wild tea DASZ and transcriptome of 217 accessions, which clarify pedigree of Chinese tea cultivars and show tea may not have undergone long-term artificial directional selection on flavor-related metabolites.

Long-term spatiotemporal dynamics of foodborne pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus outbreaks suggests hidden reservoirs as source of infections.

Photoreduction of permanent gas faces challenges in reactant diffusion and activation at the three-phase interface. Here the authors showed porous metal-organic framework membranes decorated by metal single atoms can boost the photoreduction of CO₂ and O₂ at the high-throughput gas-solid interface.

Plant breeders can produce haploid maize lines using haploid inducer lines as pollen donors. Here, by sequencing the genomes of single pollen nuclei, Li et al. show that haploid inducer spermatids are frequently aneuploid and suggest chromosome fragmentation as a possible cause of haploid induction.

Therapeutic administration of IL-27—serum levels of which are decreased in individuals with obesity—improves thermogenesis, protects against diet-induced obesity and ameliorates insulin resistance in mouse models of obesity.

Liu, Zhen, Xie, Luo, Zeng, Zhao et al. show that the major nucleoid protein TFAM interacts with cytoplasmic LC3B during oxidative or inflammatory stress to attenuate mitochondrial DNA-induced inflammation via the cGAS–STING pathway.

Ferroelectric phase stability is a pivotal challenge for fluorite-structure ferroelectrics. Using electron microscopy, a ferroelastically protected reversible polar-to-non-polar phase transition in ZrO₂ is observed and the critical strain state to break the reversibility is measured.

Current optical skyrmion generators involve complex bulky systems, hindering further practical applications. We propose an integrated metafiber for high-quality photonic skyrmions, with subwavelength polarization features and topology tunability.

TMT is a chemical that evokes innate defensive behaviors yet the molecular mechanisms are not well understood. Here the authors perform a large-scale forward genetics screen in mice and identify Trpa1, a pungency/irritancy receptor, as a chemosensor for predator odor-evoked innate fear and defensive behaviors.

Generating a complex competent for RNA interference requires cutting and removal of the non-guide siRNA strand. Reconstitution of human RISC activity now shows that C3PO is an endonuclease critical for human Ago2-RISC activation and suggests that the C3PO consists of an octamer with active sites located on the convex interior.

Genome and transcriptome analyses of 376 Gossypium hirsutum accessions uncover the regulation of gene expression during fiber development in allotetraploid cotton and highlight the potential for fiber quality improvement.

The relationship between sleep health and brain functional connectivity is not well understood. Here, the authors reveal a composite sleep health dimension which covaries with connectivity of the attentional and thalamic networks.

Transgenerational inheritance (TEI) mechanisms are to some extent conserved across species, but how TEI mediates lipid accumulation is unknown. Here the authors reveal that a network of lipid metabolic genes and chromatin modifications mediated by transcription factors and H3K4 trimethylation work together to achieve multigenerational obesogenic effects in C. elegans fed with a high-fat diet.

Interfacial non-wettability between biocompatible iron oxide and liquid metal caused by the substantial mismatch in surface energy remains an issue. Here, the authors introduce a silver intermediate layer to reduce compositional mismatch and improve the wetting ability between iron oxide and liquid metal.

Forward genetics analyses and targeted genetic manipulation in mice show that regulation of sleep quantity and quality is mediated by the LKB1–SIK3–HDAC4–HDAC5 pathway.

Incorporating immiscible metals in high-entropy oxides creates unique catalytic sites but results in low specific surface areas due to the high formation temperature. Here the authors report low temperature synthesis of periodically aligned high-entropy LaMnO3 oxides and polyoxometalate heterostructures for photoelectrochemical coupling of methane into acetic acid under mild conditions.

Improving kinetics for electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction is relevant to important sustainable energy technologies. The authors propose an atomic-scale bimetal assembly consisting Pt and Fe dual sites to regulate the inherent scaling relationship between intermediates for fast kinetics.

Meiotic crossover (CO) landscape differs inter- and intra-species, as well as between sexes. Here, the authors show that male meiosis produces more COs than female in maize and detect CO maturation inefficiency in some genetic backgrounds, which may help to improve breeding efficiency.

A high-density genomic variation map from 744 genomes encompassing maize and all wild taxa of the genus Zea reveals evidence of adaptive variation and provides a genus-wide resource of genetic diversity in Zea.

Catalytic oxidation of biomass-derived aldehydes and alcohols into acids is challenging due to low activity and selectivity. Here the authors report a Pd/Ni(OH)₂ electrocatalyst with abundant Ni²⁺-O-Pd interfaces that enables efficient electrooxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid with high selectivity and product yield.

Efforts have been devoted to fabricating artificial membranes that can mimic biological functions but the design of a bionic thermometer remains in its infancy. Herein, the authors report a nanofluidic membrane based on an ionic covalent organic framework capable of monitoring temperature variations and expressing it in the form of continuous potential differences.

Xianlong Zhang, Keith Lindsey and colleagues report a population genomic analysis of Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) that identifies 93 potential domestication-sweep regions and 19 candidate loci for fiber-quality-related traits. Their analysis provides evidence for asymmetric subgenome selection for long white fibers in cultivated cotton.

Dielectrics with high capacitive energy storage density are essential for modern electrical devices and pulsed power systems. Here, the authors realised superior energy storage performance in lead-free bismuth ferrite-based relaxor ferroelectric films through domain engineering.

Sodium ion hybrid capacitors is fabricated by interlayer-expanded MoS₂/rGO composite and it shows greater performance than lithium ion capacitor.

Cui et al. present a comprehensive three-dimensional spatiotemporal transcriptome landscape of planarian regeneration. They identified a novel pluripotent neoblast subtype and new spatially specific genes essential to tissue regeneration.

Little is known about the regulation of RNA interference (RNAi). Shan et al. constructed a reporter system to monitor RNAi activity and identified a small molecule that increases RNAi by facilitating the interaction between small RNAs and a protein involved in small RNA loading and processing.

Defect engineering of 2 dimensional layered double hydroxide sheets improves their photocatalytic activity. Here, the authors etch sheets in acid and show that the etched sheets generate substantially more reactive oxygen species that untreated sheets and the treated sheets can be used to kill cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.

Epstein–Barr virus-associated gastric cancer shows a robust response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Here the authors introduce a deep convolutional neural network and its fusion with pathologists for predicting it from histopathology.

Disorder present in monolayer NbSe₂ is found to be able to enhance its superconductivity. A systematic study reveals the origin—disorder-induced multifractality of the electron wavefunctions strengthens the local interactions.

A thermophoretic aptasensor can be used to profile cancer-associated proteins of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in patients’ plasma. Here, the authors use this technique to develop an EV-signature able to discriminate metastatic breast cancer, monitor treatment response, and predict patients’ progression-free survival.

Layered Na_xMnO₂ cathode suffers from structural instability and sluggish kinetics. Here the authors show a method to yield monoclinic NaMn_2−y−δ(OH)_2y, a new polymorph of Na-birnessite with maximum Na occupancy and enlarged interlayer spacing, enabling outstanding cyclability and rate performance.

While noble metal usage in catalysis is ubiquitous, the metals’ scarcity necessitates new materials designs for efficient utilization. Here, authors report a general strategy to prepare amorphous noble metal nanosheets and find the nanomaterials to act as efficient water-splitting electrocatalysts.