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Applications of optical laser-based techniques are limited by the long wavelengths of the lasers. Now, observations of phonons and thermal transport at nanometre length scales are reported with an all-hard X-ray transient-grating spectroscopy technique.

This study examines long-term changes in species richness across tropical forests in the Andes and Amazon. Hotter, drier and more seasonal forests in the eastern and southern Amazon are losing species, while Northern Andean forests are accumulating species, acting as a refuge for climate-displaced species.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

The CMS Collaboration reports the measurement of the spin, parity, and charge conjugation properties of all-charm tetraquarks, exotic fleeting particles formed in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

Long-read sequencing enables high-quality genome assemblies, but challenges remain. Here, the authors introduce Cornetto, a method that improves assembly quality, enables genome sequencing from saliva, and accurately resolves medically-relevant repetitive genes.

A global research network monitoring the Amazon for 30 years reports in this study that tree size increased by 3% each decade.

C16orf74/ calcimembrin (CLMB), a lipidated microprotein with roles in cancer, targets the calcineurin phosphatase to membranes. Here, authors show how CLMB uses a composite motif to form multimeric complexes with calcineurin that are required for dephosphorylation.

Despite the significance of mosquitos for human health, little research has focused on their phylogeny. Here, the authors present a resolved phylogenetic history of mosquitoes based on phylogenomics showing that these major disease vectors radiated coincidentally with geologic events and the diversification of their hosts.

The quark structure of the f₀(980) hadron is still unknown after 50 years of its discovery. Here, the CMS Collaboration reports a measurement of the elliptic flow of the f₀(980) state in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV, providing strong evidence that the state is an ordinary meson.

Rodrigues and Queiroz et al. report the discovery of Naiavirus, the largest enveloped virus, isolated from a Brazil biome. With an oval capsid and flexible tail, its giant genome holds many novel genes, underscoring the value of viral isolation studies.

Analysis of genomic data from 981 colorectal cancers from participants in 11 countries reveals variations in mutational signatures of microsatellite-stable cancers that are dependent on geographical origin and age at which the cancer was diagnosed.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) frequency and risk factors vary considerably across regions and ancestries. Here, the authors conduct a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine mapping study of HNSCC subsites in cohorts from multiple continents, finding susceptibility and protective loci, gene-environment interactions, and gene variants related to immune response.

Mucosal melanomas are not thought to be UV radiation (UVR)-driven, yet some present UVR-related mutations. Here the authors show that some mucosal melanomas, especially conjunctival, present mutations characteristic of UVR exposure, yet share structural variants typical of other mucosal melanomas.

Analysis of the longest-lived mammal, the bowhead whale, reveals an improved ability to repair DNA breaks, mediated by high levels of cold-inducible RNA-binding protein.   

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of kidney cancer identifies 63 regions associated with disease susceptibility including one locus that was associated with increased risk in individuals with African ancestry.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Experimental demonstration of quantum speedup that scales with the system size is the goal of near-term quantum computing. Here, the authors demonstrate such scaling advantage for a D-Wave quantum annealer over analogous classical algorithms in simulations of frustrated quantum magnets.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.

STING is a promising drug target, but selective activation is necessary for safety and efficacy. Researchers have developed a two-component prodrug system for potent pharmacological activation of STING that offers excellent tumour targeting.

Analysis of soundscape data from 139 globally distributed sites reveals that sounds of biological origin exhibit predictable rhythms depending on location and season, whereas sounds of anthropogenic origin are less predictable. Comparisons between paired urban–rural sites show that urban green spaces are noisier and dominated by sounds of technological origin.

A study reporting the results of a clinical trial co-administering the GDF-15-blocking antibody visugromab with the anti-PD-1 antibody nivolumab demonstrates that neutralizing GDF-15 can overcome resistance to immune checkpoint inhibition in cancer.

The LHCb experiment at CERN has observed significant asymmetries between the decay rates of the beauty baryon and its CP-conjugated antibaryon, thus demonstrating CP violation in baryon decays.

Ticks transmit a large number of pathogens that cause human diseases. Here, the authors sequence the genome of the tick Ixodes scapularisand uncover expansion of genes associated with parasitic processes unique to ticks and tick-host interactions.

Psoriasis is a partially heritable skin disorder, the genetic basis of which is not fully understood. Here, the authors use genome-wide association meta-analysis to discover psoriasis susceptibility loci and genes, which encode existing and potential new drug targets.

Study and identification of the actinide electronic structure is complicated and crucial. Here the authors probe the hybridization between 5f to 6d orbitals in uranium compounds using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism near U-L3 edge through the dipolar and quadrupolar spectral contributions.

Biological nitrogen fixation may impose stronger constraints on the carbon sink in natural terrestrial biomes and represent a larger source of agricultural nitrogen than is generally considered in analyses of the global nitrogen cycle.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

Reporting earthquakes, including location and focal mechanism, in real time is a challenge. Here, the authors present an approach similar to a web search engine, estimating earthquake parameters by searching a large database within a second, which will potentially enable early warning systems.