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Earth-abundant cobalt-based catalysts have shown promise to replace iridium as anode catalysts in proton-exchange-membrane water electrolysers, but unfortunately they exhibit high degradation rates. Now, a lanthanum and calcium co-modification of Co₃O₄ is presented, in which lanthanum tunes the water–surface interactions to suppress cobalt dissolution and improve stability, while calcium leaching creates coordinatively unsaturated cobalt sites, leading to enhanced activity.

Using EMTracer, EndoMTracer, and MMTracer, this study shows that myofibroblasts in kidney fibrosis mainly originate from resident fibroblasts, not full or partial EMT, EndoMT, or MMT, guiding research toward fibroblast-targeted therapies.

Chalcogen-containing compounds find broad application in chemical industry. Here, the authors report a nickel-catalyzed reductive chalcogenation of unactivated alkyl bromides with thiosulfonates and selenosulfonates to access a range of unsymmetrical sulfides and selenides under mild conditions.

The regulation of perovskite crystallization is essential for achieving efficient solar cells. Here, authors introduce K₂SnO₃ to induce formation of KI and PbSnO₃ with an ABX₃ structure to enhance film uniformity, achieving efficiency of 28.81% for four-terminal all-perovskite tandem solar cells.

Exotic chiral fermions beyond Weyl fermions have recently been discovered in a series of chiral crystals such as CoSi. Here, the authors report the evidences of chiral fermions in RhSn with opposite handedness compared to those observed in CoSi, where the structural chirality is also opposite.

Piracetam improves wide-bandgap perovskite crystallinity and uniformity, enabling monolithic all-perovskite tandem solar cells with efficiencies of 28.71% (0.07 cm²) and 28.20% (1.02 cm²), ensuring minimal efficiency loss during scale-up.

An approach that integrates electrochemical CO₂ reduction and biological denitrification provides a new solution for nitrogen removal, where the formate obtained from CO₂ is used directly as the carbon source in the denitrification process in wastewater treatment.

The conductance of single-molecule junctions is affected by the structure of the molecule and how it is bound to the electrodes, which may be examined using Raman spectroscopy. Liuet al. have developed 'fishing-mode' tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, which allows the simultaneous determination of conductance and Raman spectra.

Materials with topologically non-trivial band structures promise applications exploiting exotic electronic transport behaviour. Here, the authors observe a large negative magnetoresistance in Cd₃As₂nanoribbons, evidence for a chiral transport anomaly required for its status as a Dirac semi metal.

Material implementation of machine learning algorithms for advanced computing at cryogenic temperature remains rare. Here, the authors report a cryogenic in-memory computing platform using chiral edge states of magnetic topological insulators.

Authors reveal microstructural origin of enhanced dielectric energy storage and develop a framework directly relating local inhomogeneity to dielectric properties. The results offer insights into understanding complex relaxor ferroelectrics.

AspCl doping in Sn–Pb perovskite solar cells improves their performance and stability.

The authors find unconventional fatigue characteristics, involving dramatic morphological changes and anomalous polarization enhancement in van der Waals layered ferroelectric CuInP₂S₆, due to a synergic effect of ionic conduction and surface oxidation.

Light-induced degradation in ambient air hinders the long-term operational stability of tin-lead perovskite solar cells. Here, authors monitor the irreversible phase reconstruction process during perovskite degradation, guiding stability improvements for tin-lead perovskite and tandem solar cells.

The discovery of chemosynthesis-based benthic communities at depths of 5,800 m to 9,533 m in the Kuril–Kamchatka and western Aleutian trenches challenges traditional perspectives on the energy sources sustaining hadal fauna.

Biomass pyrolysis for renewable energy and chemicals offers sustainability advantages but is expensive. This study shows a route to improve both the sustainability and economic viability of biomass pyrolysis by using pyrolytic gases and waste heat to fabricate high-quality carbon nanomaterials.

In large prospectively enrolled validation cohorts of patients with cancer and controls and a prospective study of asymptomatic individuals with average risk for cancer, a multicancer early detection test based on plasma cell-free DNA genomics and fragmentomics showed encouraging accuracy in identifying ongoing disease as well as the tissue of origin.

Accessing strong correlation effects in Kagome materials remains challenging. Here, the authors realize a Kagome Kondo lattice in CsCr₆Sb₆ exhibiting flat, isolated Kagome bands at the Fermi level.

Geopolymers formed in the mineral-catalyzed reaction of organic molecules act as electron shuttles to accelerate microbial dissimilatory iron reduction, which severely threatens the stability of the iron-carbon association in anoxic environments.

Antiplatelet therapy is vital for coronary artery disease (CAD) management but hard to monitor effectively. Here, the authors show that comprehensive image-based profiling of circulating platelets can directly assess therapy efficacy and guide personalized treatment for CAD.

Mechanically interlocked structures in polymer backbones can give interesting functionality, but can be challenging to prepare and control. Here, the authors report the development of polymers with a daisy chain unit in the backbone that are capable of shape memory behaviour.

The authors investigate the response of Archaea to experimental warming in a tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Warming was linked to reduced diversity and convergent succession, with further links to changed ecosystem function. Stochastic processes dominated community changes but decreased over time.

Soil microbes control the cycling of carbon, but how these communities will respond to climate changes is unknown. Here, 7 years of artificial warming decreased microbial richness and diversity, driven mostly by soil moisture loss.

The disparity in crystallization processes between tin- and lead-based perovskites has been a dominant factor contributing to high defect densities. Here, authors employ a functional molecule to inhibit tin oxidation, realizing monolithic all-perovskite tandems with certified efficiency over 27%.

A heteroepitaxial-strain-based strategy for enhancing the stability of perovskite quantum dots for spectrally narrow (pure) red LEDs is reported.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have improved our understanding of the genetic basis of lung adenocarcinoma but known susceptibility variants explain only a small fraction of the familial risk. Here, the authors perform a two-stage GWAS and report 12 novel genetic loci associated with lung adenocarcinoma in East Asians.

Treatment of patients with HER2-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer with the pan-HER inhibitor pyrotinib in a phase 2 trial or compassionate use showed a favorable objective response rate, whereas patients treated in parallel by physician’s choice in a real-world study did not.

A common approach to design single-molecule switch is to use molecular backbones in response to external stimulus, but often requires complex organic synthesis. Here, Tong et al. show how to in situ control of the molecule-electrode contact using electrochemical gating to realize a reversible switch.

Divacancy color centers in SiC are promising candidates for a spin-photon interface, but typically show charge-state instability under optical excitation. Here the authors show that modified divacancies created by a focused helium ion beam are robust against photoionization and have promising properties.

Quantum repeaters are critical components for distributing entanglement over long distances, and they can be improved by the elimination of multi-photon-pair events. Here, the authors demonstrate the storage of single photons emitted by a quantum dot in a polarization maintaining solid-state memory.

Soil priming could release large amounts of soil C into the atmosphere. Here the authors show that experimental warming boosts soil priming and CO₂ emissions in grasslands potentially due to microbial changes. Model accuracy could be improved by incorporating these mechanisms.

The genome-wide prevalence, mechanism and function of noncapped RNAs (napRNAs) are currently poorly understood. Here, the authors develop a method called NAP-seq, to globally profile the full-length sequences of napRNAs, revealing several classes of structured noncoding RNAs.

Actomyosin networks constrict cell area and junctions to alter cell and tissue shape. Here, Li et al. reveal a morphological cell expansion wave behaviour that coordinates epithelial flattening and tissue elongation during Drosophila oogenesis.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

In somatic cells the mechanisms maintaining the chromosome ends are normally inactivated; however, cancer cells can re-activate these pathways to support continuous growth. Here, the authors characterize the telomeric landscapes across tumour types and identify genomic alterations associated with different telomere maintenance mechanisms.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.