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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.

Here the authors applied cryogenic time-resolved electron microscopy with rapid UV photolysis of a caged substrate to elucidate the catalytic mechanism of lipid-sugar transfer within the bacterial membrane by the glycosyltransferase GtrB.

Plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials can augment the performance of photovoltaic and thermophotovoltaic cells by enhancing their absorption properties. Aydinet al. demonstrate a broadband, ultrathin plasmonic super absorber using crossed trapezoids as part of a metal–insulator–metal stack.

Myocardial contractile force and intracardiac hemodynamic shear stress coordinate the initiation of trabeculation in heart development. Here, the authors report that radially aligned myocardial strain activates snai1b⁺/Notch⁻ cardiomyocytes, initiating delamination for trabeculation.

Unconventional quasiparticles carrying spin but not electric charge emerge in quantum spin liquid phases. The Kondo interaction of these spinon quasiparticles with magnetic impurities may now have been observed.

Reduced sulfate aerosols due to ship fuel regulation may increase shortwave radiation on the Great Barrier Reef, exacerbating the impact of marine heatwaves on coral bleaching, according to model analysis of ship emission impacts on aerosols, clouds and solar radiation.

Streptococcus thermophilus phages circumvent host CRISPR defences via AcrIIIA2, which complexes with enolase, a highly abundant glycolysis enzyme, to block phage RNA binding.

Dune fields often show abrupt changes in morphology over short distances, but the mechanism driving the changes has been unclear. Physical modelling and airborne altimetry from White Sands, New Mexico, show that the development of an internal boundary layer is linked to the vegetation and hydrologic patterns observed there.

The cool sub-Neptune LP 791-18 c, with an equilibrium temperature of 355 K, was found to host a hazy atmosphere, distinct from any other temperate sub-Neptune studied so far. The discovery demonstrates the intrinsic diversity of these worlds.

Two monolayers of bismuth-containing cuprate will form a high-temperature topological superconductor when stacked with an approximately 45° rotation between the layers.

Mucociliary clearance is crucial for airway defense but its structure-function relationships in humans are not fully understood. Here, the authors show how airway epithelial structure impacts clearance by mapping cilia distribution, comparing human and rat airways, and developing quantitative models to assess function.

Microbes that colonise ice sheet surfaces are important to the carbon cycle, but their biomass and transport remains unquantified. Here, the authors reveal substantial microbial carbon fluxes across Greenland’s ice surface, in quantities that may sustain subglacial heterotrophs and fuel methanogenesis.

Controlling nanoscale interfaces is key for ensuring stable plasmonic and catalytic function yet remains difficult to achieve under operando conditions. Now it has been shown that transient Au–Cl adlayers function as redox-active Au(I) intermediates, modulating interfacial electrostatics. This modulation stabilizes gold nanogaps and directs ligand rebinding, thereby enabling reproducible regeneration of subnanometre architectures.

Authors utilise scanning electron microscopy to show that Borrelia burgdorferi initiates systemic vascular spread by targeting pericytes, while crossing of the lymphatic endothelium occurs via sequential encasement of the Lyme disease pathogen by endothelial cells.

Convection shapes BVOC dynamics over the Amazon rainforest, driving dawn photochemistry in the upper troposphere. Changes in BVOC emissions can strongly impact regional and global atmospheric chemistry.

Here, the authors examine the mechanisms behind cheatgrass’s successful invasion of North American ecosystems. Their genetic analyses and common garden experiments demonstrate that multiple introductions and migrations facilitated cheatgrass local adaptation.

Soft electronic probes for measuring neural activity can be made scalably in an initially planar form and turned into various three-dimensional geometries through a controlled rolling method.

New field measurements and modeling show meltwater refreezing in Greenland’s bare ice may reduce runoff to surrounding oceans, highlighting a process climate models can incorporate for improved predictions of future sea-level rise.

Broadband Fabry–Pérot etalons are used as calibration sources in radial velocity exoplanet detection. This Article explores their performance limits and models the physical mechanism behind their complex measured chromatic drift.

Observations from a borehole in the Kamb Ice Stream suggest that discrete subglacial discharge events dominate channel melt and sediment transport.

JWST data show that the exoplanet WASP-18b has thermally distinct regions of its dayside. The authors mapped the sizes of these regions, measured their temperatures and potentially identify water destruction in the hottest region.

Although 30% of streams in the contiguous United States have some protection status, only 5% of stream diversity is represented and as little as 9% of streams are effectively protected from human disturbances, according to a nationwide assessment.

A consensus cell type atlas for the fly brain provides both an intellectual framework and open-source toolchains for brain-scale comparative connectomics.

Dense calcium imaging combined with co-registered high-resolution electron microscopy reconstruction of the brain of the same mouse provide a functional connectomics map of tens of thousands of neurons of a region of the primary cortex and higher visual areas.

Gradient-based hybrid quantum-classical algorithms are often initialised with random, unstructured guesses. Here, the authors show that this approach will fail in the long run, due to the exponentially-small probability of finding a large enough gradient along any direction.

Nonreciprocal transport is sensitive to the broken inversion symmetry of the electronic state. Here, the authors demonstrate a spontaneous voltage signal which they suggest is time-reversal-even and arises from a ratchet-type electronic potential.

Experiments under upper-tropospheric conditions map the chemical formation of isoprene oxygenated organic molecules (important molecules for new particle formation) and reveal that relative radical ratios control their composition

Typical quantum error correcting codes assign fixed roles to the underlying physical qubits. Now the performance benefits of alternative, dynamic error correction schemes have been demonstrated on a superconducting quantum processor.

Immune aging fosters multimorbidity and compromises control of infection and cancer. In a phase 1 randomized controlled trial in middle-aged adults, Denk and colleagues administer the mitophagy inducer urolithin A and profile cellular and metabolic aspects of immune aging.

The authors demonstrate deeply subwavelength light confinement in the terahertz spectral range by exploiting the strong light–matter coupling and hyperbolicity of phonon polaritons in hafnium-based dichalcogenides.

Polyamines produced by gut bacteria have been proposed to contribute to inflammatory bowel diseases. Here, Nauta et al. show that bacteria can produce a noncanonical polyamine intermediate that functions similarly to deoxyhypusine synthase inhibitors, activates mitochondrial stress responses, and inhibits nematode development and mouse macrophage differentiation.

The surface types that comprise the dark zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet, an area of bare ice with low albedo, are unknown. Here, the authors use UAV imagery to show that, during the melt-season, biologically active surface impurities are responsible for spatial albedo patterns and the dark zone itself.

A method termed ac⁴C-seq is introduced for the transcriptome-wide mapping of the RNA modification N⁴-acetylcytidine, revealing widespread temperature-dependent acetylation that facilitates thermoadaptation in hyperthermophilic archaea.

Using several complementary models, including human iPSC-derived trophoblasts, trophoblast organoids, and placenta explants, the authors find cytotrophoblasts and syncytiotrophoblasts to be susceptible to Oropouche virus (BeAn19991) infection.

The supercooling parameter, P, was found to be the best indicator of grain morphology of metallic alloys produced with high solidification velocities. This provides guidance for the design of new alloys for use with additive manufacturing.

Integration of snATAC-seq and snRNA-seq data from brains of individuals with major depressive disorder identifies chromatin accessibility alterations and functional enrichment of risk variants in deep-layer excitatory neurons. Gray matter microglia in these individuals show decreased accessibility at sites bound by regulators of immune homeostasis.

A new analysis of Dawn’s observations reveals Vesta’s moment of inertia, indicating limited central density variation. This finding suggests that Vesta did not undergo full differentiation, challenging conventional models of Vesta’s formation and evolution.

The dayside thermal emission spectrum and brightness temperature map of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-18b obtained from the NIRISS instrument on the JWST showed water emission features, an atmosphere consistent with solar metallicity, as well as a steep and symmetrical decrease in temperature towards the nightside.

Accurate liquid water modelling is challenging. Here the authors use X-ray micro-computed tomography, deep learned super-resolution, multi-label segmentation, and direct multiphase simulation to simulate fuel cell and guide fuel cell design.

Achieving tight Cas9 regulation without sacrificing activity remains difficult. Here, the authors design multi-level circuits combining anti-CRISPRs, splice sites, chemical induction, and degron control to enable ultra-high dynamic range and precise, on-demand genome editing across contexts.

A Review of the impacts of short-lived halogens on air quality and climate identifies gaps in our knowledge of short-lived halogen emissions, chemistry, and the environmental and climate impacts.

Genome-wide association analyses of blood plasma samples using a mass spectrometry-based platform illustrate the complementarity of different proteomics approaches for identifying protein quantitative trait loci.

Disruption of mucin-domain glycoprotein expression and function in the endothelial glycocalyx are associated with ageing and Alzheimer’s disease, leading to dysregulated blood–brain barrier function.

Low-pressure wind tunnel experiments suggest that the aerodynamic roughness length on Mars, over rippled beds and under active saltation, may be dominated by form drag, reaching values up to two orders of magnitude larger than typically assumed.

Observations of SN 2021yfj reveal that its progenitor is a massive star stripped down to its O/Si/S core, which remarkably continued to expel vast quantities of silicon-, sulfur-, and argon-rich material before the explosion, informing us that current theories for how stars evolve are too narrow.

Programming stimulus responsiveness into living systems enables advanced biocomputation. Here, the authors autonomously compile proteins with defined topology that can be site-specifically tethered to and conditionally released from biomaterials and cells following user-specified Boolean logic.

The properties of materials can be drastically modified under extreme pressure. Here the authors investigate ramp-compressed sodium to 5 million atmospheres with in situ X-ray diffraction and optical reflectivity, revealing a complex temperature-driven polymorphism and suggesting the formation of a previously predicted electride phase.

Tan et al. identify PRDM16 as a key repressor of fibrotic switching in smooth muscle cells and show that its downregulation in atherosclerosis drives smooth muscle cells toward a synthetic fate, promoting fibrous plaques.