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Advances have been made in thin-film piezoelectrics; however, the linearity of electric-field-induced strain with frequency and temperature still requires improvement. Here, by growing interlocked monoclinic and tetragonal polar nanoregions in (K,Na)NbO₃ thin films, highly linear strains of up to 1.1% are reported at frequencies up to 10⁵ Hz.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

Iron has been shown to be necessary for the activation and differentiation of CD8⁺ T cells. Here the authors investigate changes in CD8⁺ T cell metabolism in iron limiting conditions and find that aspartate is increased yet downstream nucleotide synthesis is suppressed and addition of exogenous aspartate partially rescues T cell function.

The ability to resolve single atoms in a liquid environment is demonstrated by combining a transmission electron microscope and a robust double graphene liquid cell, enabling studies of adatom motion at solid–liquid interfaces.

Layered clays are of interest for membranes and many other applications but their ion-exchange dynamics remain unexplored in atomically thin materials. Here, using electron microscopy, it is found that the ion diffusion for few-layer two-dimensional clays approaches that of free water and that superlattice cation islands can form in twisted and restacked materials.

Lattice reconstruction in twisted transition metal dichalcogenides manifest in intrinsic asymmetry of electronic wavefunctions for 3R homo-bilayers and strong piezoelectric textures in 2H homo-bilayers.

An influence of solar irradiance variations on Earth’s surface climate has been repeatedly suggested. Simulations with a climate model driven by satellite measurements of solar ultraviolet irradiance show an atmospheric response to the solar minimum that resembles the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation.

Vaccination is effective in protecting from COVID-19. Here the authors report immune responses and breakthrough infections in twice-vaccinated patients receiving anti-TNF treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, and find dampened vaccine responses that implicate the need of adapted vaccination schedules for these patients.

β-PdBi2 superconducting properties have been known about since the 1950s, with various works since then indicating the possibility of multiple superconducting gaps and unconventional superconductivity. However, so far only a single gap s-wave superconductivity was detected. Here, using tunnelling spectroscopy under an applied magnetic field, Powell et al observe a transition from s-wave to nodal pairing.

Ion permeation and selectivity of graphene oxide membranes with sub-nm channels dramatically alters with the change in interlayer distance due to dehydration effects whereas permeation of water molecules remains largely unaffected.

A form of superconductivity where strong spin–orbit coupling combines with topological band inversions to produce strong robustness against magnetic fields is shown in a few-layer transition metal dichalcogenide.

High-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells offer efficient solutions to complex fuel cell challenges, including fuel flexibility and heat management. Here the authors demonstrate that laser-scribed membranes improve fuel cell durability and boost peak power density by over 50%, providing a more stable and scalable approach for high performance fuel cells.

Enzymes for poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) deconstruction are of interest for plastics recycling, but reports on their directed evolution are missing. Now, an automated, high-throughput directed evolution platform is described, affording HotPETase that effectively achieves depolymerization above the glass transition temperature of PET.

A genome-wide association study of critically ill patients with COVID-19 identifies genetic signals that relate to important host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage that may be targeted by repurposing drug treatments.

A tunnelling transistor based on stacks of chemically grown graphene and other two-dimensional layers shows record performance.

Membranes made of metal-coated silicon nitride can be used to assemble van der Waals heterostructures without a polymer support layer, thus improving cleanliness and allowing assembly at more extreme temperature and vacuum conditions.

A plethora of solid-state nanodevices rely on engineering the quantization of electrons in quantum wells. Here, the authors leverage the thickness of exfoliated 2D crystals to control the quantum well dimensions in few-layer semiconductor InSe and investigate the resonance features in the tunnelling current, photoabsorption and light emission spectra.

All materials subjected to mechanical deformation form low energy interfaces known as twin boundaries. Here, the authors investigate a variety of structural features that form upon bending atomically thin 2D-crystals, and predict distinct classes of post deformation microstructure based on their atomic arrangement, bend angle and flake thickness.

Layered materials are held together by weak van der Waals forces facilitating layer-by-layer cleavage. Here, the authors demonstrate mechanical exfoliation of a naturally occurring franckeite mineral heterostructure, possessing p-type conductivity and remarkable electrochemical properties.

Low-cost, mass-scalable production routes which preserve the quality of the single crystals are required to up-scale van der Waals materials. Here, the authors demonstrate an approach to realise a variety of functional heterostructures based on van der Waals nanocrystal films produced through the mechanical abrasion of bulk powders.

An anion and metal ion template is used to form woven polymer patches that are joined together by polymerization into a fully woven, two-dimensional, molecular patchwork.

Here, the authors observe reversible nonreciprocal charge transport in two-dimensional NbSe₂, and demonstrate antenna devices exhibiting strong sensitivity to driving AC electromagnetic waves in the superconducting regime.

Marginal twisting of 2D semiconductor crystals enables the emergence of room temperature interfacial ferroelectricity.

Peter Donnelly and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for Barrett's esophagus, a common premalignant condition associated with stomach acid reflux and predisposing to esophageal adenocarcinoma. They identify two loci associated with susceptibility to Barrett's esophagus.

CD1 molecules present diverse lipid ligands to TCRs expressed by NKT cells. Rossjohn, Moody and colleagues show a unique form of autoreactivity with human CD1c molecules, whereby TCRs recognize a closed conformation of CD1c molecules, which are loaded with a diverse array of ‘headless’ glycolipids.

Four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy is demonstrated to be a powerful technique for interrogating local strain of twisted graphene bilayers, revealing a two-regime lattice reconstruction process below the ‘magic’ angle.

Heterostructures of very thin films have been used for decades in research and industry. Now a transmission electron microscopy study demonstrates the possibility of realizing perfect structures built by piling up one-atom-thick layers of graphene and boron nitride.

Producing ammonia is challenging and requires efficient and selective catalysts to drive the reaction. Here, a series of single-atom catalysts derived from UiO-66 containing structural defects show efficient electrochemical reduction of nitrate to ammonia.

Silicon spin qubits are promising for the realisation of scalable quantum computing platforms but their coherence times in natural silicon are limited by the non-zero nuclear spin of the ²⁹Si isotope. Here, enriched ²⁸ Si down to 2.3 ppm residual ²⁹Si is obtained by focused ion beam implantation.

The contamination of water with lead from damaged perovskite solar cells is a key concern. Here, a spherical hydroxyapatite nanoparticle scaffold absorbs lead from a damaged device, keeping lead concentration in water below safe drinking limits.

mRNA display strategies such as random non-standard peptide integrated discovery (RaPID) system allow screening of large peptide libraries to identify reversible binding to a target of interest. Here, the authors develop a covalent version of this methodology, photocrosslinking-RaPID, allowing identification of peptides that efficiently covalently modify their target of choice via photoaffinity labelling.