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Global analysis of obesity trends from 1980 to 2024 in 200 countries and territories using data from 4,050 population-based studies reveals that framing obesity as a single global epidemic masks the highly varied dynamics across countries and age groups.

There is growing evidence that extreme events linked to anthropogenic climate change can have important effects on biodiversity. Here the authors assess the exposure of terrestrial vertebrates to multiple types of extreme climate events globally.

The CMS experiment at CERN reports one of the highest-precision measurements of the W boson mass, finding it in line with standard model predictions and at odds with recent anomalous measurements.

Regulatory DNA screens often lack nucleotide-level resolution. Here, authors present an end-to-end CRISPR base-editing and sequencing framework that maps regulatory variants at single-nucleotide resolution, revealing enhancer mutations that alter CD19 expression and enable CAR-T therapy resistance.

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.

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.

Different functional variants in ADH1B (and elsewhere) in Europeans and Africans strongly affect risk for alcohol dependence. Dependence only partly genetically correlates with consumption, with strong correlations to other psychiatric disorders.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Turley and colleagues find that Gremlin1-expressing lymph node fibroblastic reticular cells support dendritic cell homeostasis via provision of FLT3L.

Platelets are known to have functions beyond those in thrombosis and haemostasis. Here the authors use multi-colour flow cytometry and proteomics to analyse platelet phenotypes in psoriatic disease and proteins that are potentially involved in the interaction of platelets with immune cells.

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.

The bat sarbecovirus RaTG13 is a close relative of SARS-CoV-2, but its spike protein doesn’t efficiently bind human ACE2. Here, the authors show that exchange of spike residue 403 between RaTG13 and SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins affects binding to human ACE2 and entry of pseudotyped viruses.

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.

Karposi’s Sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) infection is associated with malignancy in older infected humans. Here the authors characterise antigen presentation using a KSHV-specific CD4⁺ T cell-derived TCR in a mouse model and show that although KSHV-specific CD4⁺ T cells are difficult to detect in humans, antigen presentation is effective in vivo suggesting persistence and accumulation of these cells through antigen recognition.

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.

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.

Managing landscapes sustainably is challenging given the competing interests of different stakeholder groups. By combining broad ecological data with information on the ecosystem service priorities of multiple stakeholder groups, this study provides a tool to quantify the social impact of land-use changes.

Using two wavelengths to activate different photoreactions in a resin system has attracted attention in the scientific community. Here, the authors use wavelength orthogonal photochemistry to spatially control the curing kinetics of a thiol-ene photopolymerization reaction.

Epstein–Barr virus infection generates a neuroinvasive B cell subset, which recruits activated T cells to the central nervous system, promoting multiple sclerosis.

Authors present both preclinical data in mice and clinical data from humans in support of the hypothesis that stress negatively affects bone growth and repair. These effects are mediated by neutrophil-derived catecholamines inhibiting cartilage-to-bone transition via β2-adrenoceptor signaling in chondrocytes.

Orofacial movements for feeding can be triggered, coordinated and rhythmically organised at the level of the brainstem. Here, the authors show two nuclei can organise the stereotyped movements for ingesting fluids in mammals, these neuronal groups are marked by expression of Phox2b and are located in the intermediate reticular formation of the medulla and around the motor nucleus of the trigeminal nerve.

In hepatocellular carcinoma driven by non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, aberrant T cell activation and impaired immune surveillance seem to make hepatocellular carcinoma less responsive to anti-PD1 or anti-PDL1 immunotherapy.

Urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UCAR) is associated with various clinical outcomes such as kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. Here, the authors report genome-wide meta-analysis in over 500,000 individuals and find 68 UACR loci, followed by statistical fine-mapping, gene prioritization and experimental validation in flies.

Douglas Easton, Per Hall and colleagues report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for breast cancer, including 10,052 cases and 12,575 controls, followed by genotyping using the iCOGS array in an additional 52,675 cases and 49,436 controls from studies within the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC). They identify 41 loci newly associated with susceptibility to breast cancer.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

The benefits and risks of nature to human health have been studied, however, robust empirical research on forest biodiversity and health outcomes is still lacking. Here the authors use a unique dataset from 164 European forest stands to explore the associations between forest types and well-being.

Selective targeting of specific neuronal populations, for genetic or other manipulations, is crucial to much of neuroscience. The authors screened 536 BAC transgenic mouse lines from the GENSAT collection for specific reporter expression in the retina. Here, they describe several mouse lines selectively targeting different retinal cell types. The full dataset is accessible at http://www.gensat.org/retina.jsp.

SARS-CoV-2 is shown to infect and replicate in human pancreatic tissue, including in β-cells, which is associated with morphological, transcriptomic and functional changes.

This work compares the preclinical lung biodistribution and efficacy profile of inhaled anti-CCN2 (cellular communication network factor 2) Anticalin® protein PRS-220 for the treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) compared to systemic delivery of a CCN2 inhibitor.

Species-rich plant communities often have higher productivity than monocultures. Here, the authors analyse biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments in grasslands and forests and find that the biodiversity effects on community productivity strengthen over time thanks to shifts in contributions of species with different resource acquisition traits.

Neotropical tree community composition shows opposing successional pathways for wet and dry forests, but as vegetation cover increases over time, trends converge. Selecting species that have similar wood density to early successional communities could improve reforestation prospects.

Collateral sensitivity-inducing mutations in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains lead to re-sensitization of bacteria to penicillin–clavulanic acid combinatorial treatment.

Stratified medicine promises to tailor treatment for individual patients, however it remains a major challenge to leverage genetic risk data to aid patient stratification. Here the authors introduce an approach to stratify individuals based on the aggregated impact of their genetic risk factor profiles on tissue-specific gene expression levels, and highlight its ability to identify biologically meaningful and clinically actionable patient subgroups, supporting the notion of different patient ‘biotypes’ characterized by partially distinct disease mechanisms.

Non-fullerene-based organic solar cells generally suffer from poor thermal stability and especially in case of devices with thick active layers. Here, the authors report hexanary blends based on multi-component acceptor mixtures with a device efficiency of 17.6% and thermally stability for 23 days at 130 °C.

The spatial architecture of multiple myeloma remains to be explored. Here, the authors perform bulk and single cell sequencing for samples from newly diagnosed patients and reveal gene signatures associated with focal lesions and spatial heterogeneity in the tumour microenvironment.

Burying beetles feed their offspring on the carrion of vertebrate animals. Here, the authors study gene expression in the insect’s gut, as well as the composition of the microbiota in the gut and in carcasses, providing evidence for metabolic cooperation between host and specific microbes.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis of individuals with clinically assessed or self-reported depression identifies 44 independent risk loci. Comparisons with other psychiatric disorders and candidate gene analyses provide new insights into major depressive disorder.

Combining the kinase inhibitor sorafenib with allogeneic stem cell transplantation boosts immune responses against a subtype of acute myelogenous leukemia, suggesting potential clinical benefit.

Stig Bojesen, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Alison Dunning and colleagues report common variants at the TERT-CLPTM1L locus associated with mean telomere length measured in whole blood. They also identify associations at this locus to breast or ovarian cancer susceptibility and report functional studies in breast and ovarian cancer tissue and cell lines.

In this large-scale metagenomics study encompassing 3,483 human host-derived samples from seven body sites, researchers identify 583 unreported single-genome bins and report 314 metagenome-disease as well as 814 biosynthetic gene-disease associations.

Dahl et al. use neuromelanin-sensitive neuroimaging in a cohort of participants spanning ages 25 to 83 and report that ‘youth-like’ rostral locus coeruleus integrity is associated with better memory performance in the elderly.

The performance of ternary organic solar cells is limited by voltage losses. Using the detailed balance principle, Wang et al. show how the third component of the blend affects the open-circuit voltage and delineate molecular design rules.

Land use is a key control of insect communities. Here the authors investigate relationships of insect biomass and richness with land use along a climate gradient, finding evidence of urbanisation and agriculture as drivers of decline, and of biomass and species richness not being suitable as mutual surrogates.

Using a sample of more than 1 million individuals, Hatoum et al. identify genomic loci associated with general and substance-specific addiction risk.

IFITM proteins can inhibit several viruses, but effects on SARS-CoV-2 infection are not well understood. Here, the authors show that endogenous IFITMs support SARS-CoV-2 infection in different in vitro models by binding spike and enhancing virus entry.