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Optomechanical crystals are promising building blocks for quantum networks but suffer from thermal mechanical noise. Here the authors demonstrate on-demand conversion of single phonons into high-purity telecom photons with low thermal noise and MHz-scale narrow bandwidth using a quasi-2D optomechanical system.

Luppi et al. identify transcriptomic and connectomic controllers of information integration and its breakdown induced by anaesthesia in humans, macaques, marmosets and mice.

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.

Here, the authors present archaeology of the Namorotukunan site in Kenya’s Turkana Basin that demonstrates adaptive shifts in hominin tool-making behaviour spanning 300,000 years and increasing environmental variability. They contextualize these findings with paleoenvironmental proxies, dating, and geological descriptions.

How landscapes are arranged affects soil pathogenic fungi worldwide. The authors reveal the global pattern and pronounced scale-dependency of landscape complexity and land-cover quantity on soil pathogenic fungal diversity.

High-dimensional immune profiling of a living recipient of a pig-to-human xenotransplant provides insight into the immune landscape of xenotransplantation and directions for improved immunosuppression strategies.

The highest-quality JWST spectra reveal that little red dots are young supermassive black holes shrouded in dense cocoons of ionized gas, where electron scattering, not Doppler motions, broadens their spectral lines.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

A previously unsampled deep lineage in central Argentina was discovered that had distinctive genetic drift by 8,500 bp and persisted as the main Native American ancestry component in the region up to the present day.

The cell states and lineage connections underlying the progression from Barrett’s esophagus to esophageal adenocarcinoma remain unresolved. Here, the authors use single-cell lineage tracing and transcriptomics to analyse patient samples from the gastroesophageal junction and identify cellular relationships in the progression of Barrett’s esophagus to cancer.

Confocal Airy beam integrated with single-photon oblique light-sheet tomography (CAB-OLST) is a high-throughput imaging approach for brain-wide mapping of neurons, as demonstrated in cleared mouse brains.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) variability and its phenotypic consequences aren’t well studied in relation to viral replication fitness and disease severity. Here, the authors identify a replication-enhancing domain in non-structural protein 5A, linking high replication fitness to severe disease outcomes, with implications for understanding HCV pathogenesis in immunocompromised patients.

Plasmid-mediated transmission plays a significant role in the spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales. Here, analyzing 1,115 carbapenemase-producing plasmids from Singapore, the authors suggest that maintenance of conserved genomes adapted for stable propagation across multiple species, enables evolutionarily successful carbapenemase plasmid genotypes to achieve hyperendemicity in the population.

Genomic studies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have advanced the understanding of its neurobiology but are still constrained by one of the most pronounced Eurocentric biases in psychiatric genetics. Expanding ADHD genomics to under-represented populations, particularly in Latin America, offers a unique opportunity to yield transformative discoveries by capturing the genetic diversity of admixed individuals. We call for a global, coordinated effort to prioritize diversity in ADHD research, not only to foster innovation in precision psychiatry but also to ensure that these advancements benefit all populations equitably.

Polygenic risk scores can help identify individuals at higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Here, the authors characterise a multi-ancestry score across nearly 900,000 people, showing that its predictive value depends on demographic and clinical context and extends to related traits and complications.

A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

Chikungunya virus is endemic in Brazil and cases have been rapidly increasing in recent years. Here, the authors describe the expansion of a genomic surveillance program across the country allowing them to characterise the emergence and dispersal of two distinct subclades mainly seeded from the north eastern region.

Management of erectile dysfunction has previously focused on symptom management, but attention is now being directed towards interventions that facilitate and retain natural erectile ability, treating the underlying cause of the disorder. In this Perspective article, the authors discuss the potential of electrical neurostimulation of the penis, which is in early stages of development as a restorative therapy, targeting the penile-nerve supply that is impaired by disease states, injury or ageing.

In this Review, Grapsa and colleagues provide an overview of the imaging modalities used in the diagnosis and management of tricuspid regurgitation, describe the valve repair and replacement strategies undergoing clinical testing, and highlight the technological innovations that aim to optimize diagnosis, patient selection and the device development process.

Imidazole propionate produced by gut microbiota is associated with atherosclerosis in mouse models and in humans, and causes the development of atherosclerosis through activation of the imidazoline-1 receptor in myeloid cells.

Heat engines are designed to convert thermal energy into mechanical work through a thermodynamic cycle. Here, Wells et al. show a cycle based on a sublimation process, where a disk of dry ice that rotates on a hot surface due to the Leidenfrost effect is coupled to a simple electromagnetic generator.

Using well-calibrated statistical methods the authors jointly analyze Undiagnosed Diseases Network genomes, identifying known and novel disease genes. Software is publicly available to support future cross-cohort rare disease discovery efforts.

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.

Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate group but receive a disproportionately small fraction of conservation funding. In this Review, the authors discuss the status of amphibian conservation, highlighting examples of successful initiatives that have occurred despite global funding challenges.

Little is known about the selection of regulatory mechanisms for plant microRNAs. Now a Dicer partnering protein, DRB2, is reported to determine translational inhibition and repress transcript cleavage, allowing the selection of the two mechanisms.

Passive immunisation for respiratory syncytial virus for infants is recommended by the World Health Organization but products currently available have limited duration of protection. Here, the authors investigate the age distribution of infant hospitalisation for respiratory syncytial virus to inform optimal timing of immunisation.

The authors demonstrate mitigation of both chromatic and modal dispersion in multimode optical fibers via spatiotemporal tailoring of ultrashort light pulses. This holds potential for applications such as in multimode imaging, long-distance communications, ultrafast light-matter interactions, optical fiber amplifiers, and multidimensional information encoding.

Phonon polaritons are promising for mid-infrared photonics but only longitudinal optical phonons are directly accessed by electrical currents. Here, the authors predict and experimentally confirm hybrid longitudinal-transverse excitations. This could lead to phonon polariton-based electrically pumped mid-infrared emitters.

A generalizable framework to prospectively engineer cis-regulatory elements from massively parallel reporter assay models can be used to write fit-for-purpose regulatory code.

Horses have lived in Iberia since the Ice Age. Using ancient genomes to study their history, Lira Garrido et al. reveal a local wild lineage lasting until Late Iron Age, and highlight the far-reaching influence of Iberian bloodlines across Europe and north Africa during the Iron Age and beyond.

A metalloenzyme capable of oxidatively cleaving cellulose, found in a microbial community specialized in lignocellulose degradation, could enable sustainable biofuel production.

Wood density is a key control on tree biomass, and understanding its spatial variation improves estimates of forest carbon stock. Sullivan et al. measure >900 forest plots to quantify wood density and produce high resolution maps of its variation across South American tropical forests.

Duarte et al. report that common genetic variants linked to psychiatric disorders influence the regulation of ancient retroviruses integrated into the genome. This suggests ancient viruses acquired millions of years ago may have shaped modern human brain function.

We present genome-wide data from 64 subadults interred in Chichén Itzá around ad 500–900 that gives insight into burial rituals, and shows that their genomic legacy is still present and has adapted to immune challenges post-1492.

The diversity of ponerine ants varies widely across the globe. This study finds that the origin and early colonization in Gondwana’s tropical regions mainly shaped this distribution, while differences in diversification and dispersal have balanced regional diversity over time.

Trees come in all shapes and size, but what drives this incredible variation in tree form remains poorly understood. Using a global dataset, the authors show that a combination of climate, competition, disturbance and evolutionary history shape the crown architecture of the world’s trees and thereby constrain the 3D structure of woody ecosystems.

Whole-genome sequences and field experiments focusing on the global invasive forage crop, Trifolium repens, show high levels of genetic variation across continents and parallel signatures of selection in five haploblocks.

We demonstrate that in a major merging system, radiation from the quasar in one galaxy directly alters the gas properties in the companion galaxy.

Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza lineage 2.3.4.4b has spread through the Americas in birds since 2021 with frequent spillover into mammals. Here, the authors characterise the dissemination of the virus in Chile and find evidence of sustained transmission between mammals.

Rapid diagnosis of bloodstream infections is vital for timely effective treatment. Here, Mao and Wan et al developed a method using a dual stem-loop DNA signal amplifier, to achieve ultrasensitive, rapid, amplification-free detection of pathogens from human serum.

Fire emissions can be an important source of nutrients such as iron, particularly for the oceans. Here the authors estimate that climate-change-driven changes in fire emissions could increase iron deposition in ocean ecosystems, enhancing productivity particularly in the North Atlantic.

Data from a variety of sources—including satellite, climate and soil data, as well as field-collected information on plant traits—are pooled and analysed to map the functional diversity of tropical forest canopies globally.

This study establishes how aperiodic activity, a ubiquitous signal linked to neural noise, develops in localized brain regions and illuminates the development of prefrontal control during adolescence in the development of attention and memory.

Ocampo et al. present several structures and the biochemical characterization of a compact Cas9 nuclease, shedding light on how these enzymes function and evolve.