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The excitatory neuron diversity and specialized connectivity of complex, multilayered mammalian neocortex are driven by mammalian-specific cis-regulatory elements bound by ZBTB18, deletion of which disrupts gene expression and results in projection patterns resembling those of non-mammalian brains.

Short-lived halogens have a substantial indirect cooling effect on climate and this cooling effect has increased since pre-industrial times owing to anthropogenic amplification of natural halogen emissions.

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.

Oxytocin promotes social behaviors, but its cortical targets remain unclear. Here, authors show that oxytocin activates local interneurons in the rat prefrontal cortex, enhancing sociability through top-down control of the basolateral amygdala.

A 3D soft electronic mesh allows high-resolution electrical recording and stimulation across the full surface of neural organoids, enabling long-term studies, drug testing and optogenetic control without compromising their viability owing to its porous design.

A strategy harnessing tissue-resident memory T cells to concentrate circulating immune cells enables non-invasive sampling of antigen-specific lymphocytes, providing a window into local and systemic immune responses in mice and humans.

Achieving high resolution with optical neural interfaces is challenging. Here, the authors developed and chronically implanted 100-pixel microLED arrays on the surface of the mouse auditory cortex for optogenetic behavioural experiements.

In this study, long-read RNA sequencing achieves accurate single-nucleotide polymorphism calling, haplotype phasing and allele-specific expression analysis.

Polyamides (PAs) or nylons are types of plastics with wide applications, but due to their accumulation in the environment, strategies for their deconstruction are of interest. Here, the authors screen 40 potential nylon-hydrolyzing enzymes (nylonases) using a mass spectrometry-based approach and identify a thermostabilized N-terminal nucleophile hydrolase as the most promising for further development, as well as crucial targets for progressing PA6 enzymatic depolymerization.

Most active particles studied to date lack the ability to undergo controlled shape transformations and control over their propulsion in response to environmental stimuli. Here, the authors present a class of active particles made from stimuli-responsive materials that exhibit fully reversible shape-dependent propulsion.

Phylogenomic analyses of newly sequenced and published decapodiform cephalopods separate open-ocean and coastal shallow-water clades, following rapid cladogenesis from the mid-Cretaceous.

Age-related microbiome changes increase medium-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria, driving GPR84-mediated myeloid inflammation, impaired vagal signalling and hippocampal dysfunction; targeting this gut–brain pathway restores memory in aged mice.

Optical neural network processors offering benefits in bandwidth and energy consumption but problems in scaling and parallelism. The author presenting a novel optical tensor processor capable of optically performing large-scale, high-speed matrix-matrix multiplication in a single step.

Thermal inertia is used to infer physical properties of asteroid surfaces. Here, authors propose that the low thermal inertia of asteroids Bennu and Ryugu is driven by cracks in rocks resulting from geological processes within the parent body – or more recently through micrometeorite impacts

A monolithically integrated photonic ski-jump enables scalable, diffraction-limited 2D beam scanning from photonic chips, achieving ultrahigh spot rates, compact footprints and applications spanning displays, sensing and quantum photonics.

Different agricultural management systems, for example, conventional versus organic, can have different benefits and challenges. Authors here examine the biodiversity, crop yield and ecosystem multifunctionality impacts of transitioning from conventional to organic agriculture across 179 global croplands.

Tropical cyclones (TCs) transport a substantial amount of energy and water, affecting the atmosphere and oceans. This Review outlines the immediate, short-term and long-term effects of TCs and the potential impacts of anthropogenic climate change.

An Earth system model estimates that natural halogens, of marine biotic and abiotic origin, remove about 13% of present-day global tropospheric O₃. Projections suggest this ratio is stable through 2100, with high spatial heterogeneity, despite increasing natural halogens.

Multi-layer film packaging revolutionized food preservation by combining diverse material layers to optimize barrier properties, mechanical strength, and shelf-life but they pose significant recycling challenges due to their structural complexity. This perspective examines key structure-property relationships governing barrier performance and highlights innovations in material design.

The identification of cellular targets for natural products that potently inhibit the growth of cancer cell lines implicates oxysterol-binding proteins in the growth of cancer cells. These natural products, termed ORPphilins, also affect sphingomyelin biosynthesis.

Comparing line-by-line transfer simulations using the radiation code GRTcode with regressions against satellite-observed ongoing longwave radiation shows that instantaneous longwave radiative forcing from well-mixed greenhouse gases has increased by 3.69 ± 0.07 W m⁻² since 1850.

Most patients with B-cell leukemia respond to chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapy, yet many relapse due to loss of CAR T function. Here, the authors show that the metabolism of CAR T from short- and long-term responders is different, which may explain why CAR T lose functionality.

Here, the authors report the characterization of stable few-layer PdSe₂ transistors encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride, showing field effect mobilities up to 700 cm²/Vs at room temperature and signatures of an 8-fold spin-valley degeneracy of the magnetotransport quantum oscillations at cryogenic temperatures.

Neuromodulation via epidural electrical stimulation both below and above the lesion in three participants with complete spinal cord injury could enable respectively motor activation and sensory perception.

Microfluidics experiments provide insights into transport and chemical processes in porous media, yet measuring evolving concentration profiles remains challenging. Here, the authors introduce a physics-based machine learning toolbox that integrates the non-intrusive reduced basis method, U-Net, and Convolutional Autoencoder to efficiently predict concentration profiles, enabling real-time analysis and tuning of experiments on the fly.

Dysregulation of H3K4 methylation is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. Here, the authors perturb H3K4 methylation in the MGE and hypothalamus, resulting in altered gene expression and cell fate as well as changes in behavior that mimic NDD symptoms.

This study shows that long-term climate change systematically alters small-scale wind variability and its vertical velocity, influencing cloud microphysics and the Earth’s radiative balance.

The contribution of ether lipid species in cancer cell fate has not been fully understood yet. Here the authors show that malignant cancer cells employ ether lipids to modulate membrane biophysical properties, enhancing iron endocytosis and ferroptosis susceptibility.

Reliability remains challenging for organic light-emitting diodes used in solid-state lighting. Here, the authors reduce the current density needed for a given brightness by fabricating devices on a high aspect ratio substrate with sub-mm texture, resulting in a 2.7x increase in operating lifetime.

DNA recognition and cleavage control in type II topoisomerases are poorly understood processes. Here, the authors determine cleaved and uncleaved structures of supercoiled DNA-bound topoisomerase VI that reveal how the enzyme activates its cleavage state and prefers to act at deformable substrates.

Nanomagnets are very promising structures for magnetic data storage. However, it is found that during exposure to ambient oxygen for processing, a nanomagnet develops a sidewall oxide layer that is detrimental for its magnetic properties. The problem can be solved by deposition of a metal layer (aluminium) that reduces and almost eliminates the problem.

This study introduces P3T-Net, a pseudo-3D deep learning model that enables accurate and efficient cross-domain transfer of large 3D material images, improving image quality and ensuring image consistency across diverse imaging conditions.

A spatial and single-cell transcriptomics study across multiple mammalian species identifies epidermal BMP signalling as a functional requirement for rete ridge formation, providing insight into mechanisms underlying hair density loss and wound healing.

Surface controls nanocrystal growth, but atomic-scale hard-soft interfaces are hard to measure. Here, the authors develop electron microscopy methods to reveal the position of metal adatoms and surfactant counterions on gold nanocuboid surfaces.

From 2014–2017, marine heatwaves caused global mass coral bleaching, where the corals lose their symbiotic algae. The authors find, this event exceeded the severity of all prior global bleaching events in recorded history, with approximately half the world’s reefs bleaching and 15% experiencing substantial mortality.

The electrons that contribute to the Mott insulator state in single-layer 1T-TaSe2 are shown to also have a rich variation in their orbital occupation. As more layers are added, both the insulating state and orbital texture weaken.

KRAS is an oncogene that switches between a GDP-bound inactive state and a GTP-bound active state. Recently developed KRAS G12C inhibitors are specific to the GDP-bound inactive state. Here, the authors develop a class of covalent KRAS G12C inhibitors capable of targeting both states for the treatment of KRAS-driven cancer.

High-pressure measurements of the electrical conductivity of (Mg,Fe)O, used as an analogue for basal magma ocean material, indicate that the conductivity is high enough to produce a dynamo much stronger than a core-driven dynamo for super-Earths larger than 3–6 Earth masses.

Spectroscopic measurements confirm that when water is adsorbed on drops of an alkali alloy at low pressure a gold-coloured metallic layer forms as electrons rapidly move from the drop into the water.

The development of materials exhibiting efficient and controllable circularly polarized room-temperature phosphorescence remains challenging, primarily due to inefficient chirality transfer and the limited ability to regulate chiral environments. Here, the authors address this challenge by constructing homopolypeptide vesicles bearing achiral phosphorescent terminals and embedding them within a poly(vinyl alcohol) matrix.

Guided by density functional theory, a commercially viable refractory alloy is developed, which exhibits excellent room-temperature ductility and strength, and high strength at elevated temperatures.

A synthetic route to GB18, an alkaloid from the bark of hallucinogenic Galbulimima sp., is developed, enabling its identification as an antagonist of κ- and μ-opioid receptors.

The dwarf planet Ceres is thought to have an ice-rich layer in its shallow subsurface. The morphologies of craters, however, suggest little relaxation by viscous flow has occurred and instead indicate a subsurface that is less than 40% ice.

Nano et al. introduce a pipeline to generate meta-atlases of the human brain from existing single-cell datasets and extract gene modules linked to cell fate specification. Perturbing these programs in human cortical chimeroids validated their roles in cell type specification.

Juno radio occultations precisely redefine Jupiter’s shape, measuring a polar diameter of 66,842 km and an equatorial diameter of 71,488 km, both smaller than long-used values, bringing models of the planet’s interior into better agreement with observations.

Some quantum spin liquids are expected to have an effective Fermi surface of fractionalized spinon excitations. The two-dimensional spin liquid candidate 1T-TaSe₂ has charge density modulations that may be caused by an unstable spinon Fermi surface.

Atmospheric reanalyses combined with ocean observations and model simulations show that the extreme 2023 North Atlantic heatwave was primarily driven by anomalously weak winds leading to strongly shoaling mixed layers, with a smaller contribution from clearer skies.