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Flies have evolved two distinct strategies for managing mechanical stresses during embryogenesis: out-of-plane cell division in midges and transient out-of-plane tissue folding in fruit flies.

Krisai et al. compare brain structure and cognitive function in elderly patients with and without atrial fibrillation using brain MRI and cognitive testing. They find that atrial fibrillation is associated with more brain lesions and lower cognitive function, but the cognitive impairment occurs primarily through direct effects of the arrhythmia rather than through brain damage.

A cross-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci, reveals putative causal genes, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as potential drug targets, and provides cross-ancestry integrative risk prediction.

Inflammasome assembly promotes the cleavage and oligomerisation of gasdermin D (GSDMD) and subsequent pore formation. Here the authors raise nanobodies to human gasdermin and characterize the pore formation process mediated by GSDMD and how antagonistic nanobodies prevent pyroptosis.

Multiancestry genome-wide association analyses identify new risk loci for stroke and stroke subtypes. Fine mapping and bioinformatics analyses of these risk loci point to mechanisms not previously implicated in stroke pathophysiology.

Psoriasis is a partially heritable skin disorder, the genetic basis of which is not fully understood. Here, the authors use genome-wide association meta-analysis to discover psoriasis susceptibility loci and genes, which encode existing and potential new drug targets.

Silicon-ion-implanted yttrium iron garnet technology enables low-loss and dispersion-tunable magnonic waveguides with spin-wave decay lengths of >100 µm, which pave the way for large-scale, energy-efficient magnonic integrated circuits.

A design pipeline is presented whereby binding proteins can be designed de novo without the need for prior information on binding hotspots or fragments from structures of complexes with binding partners.

Corporate procurement initiatives, such as RE100, can increase their impact on the energy transition by formulating ambitious interim targets and sourcing requirements, and by orchestrating corporate interests in countries with less ambitious renewable energy targets.

Mice with AD-like pathology and memory impairments surprisingly have memory engrams in their hippocampus. However, interference with novelty-like cells prevents proper recall, erroneously letting mice perceive a previously learned context as novel.

Fair finance in the energy sector is modelled in five climate–energy–economy models. The results show that convergence costs of capital could improve energy availability, affordability and sustainability in developing countries, thereby increasing the international equity of the energy transition.

Minimal photon fluxes (MINFLUX) has enabled molecule-scale resolution in fluorescence microscopy but this had not been shown in standard, broadly applicable microscopy platforms. Here the authors report a solution to allow normal fluorescence microscopy while also providing 1-3 nm 3D resolution.

Charging costs are important for the diffusion of electric vehicles as required to decarbonize transport. Here, the authors show large variance of electrical vehicle charging costs across 30 European countries and charging options, suggesting different policy options to reduce charging costs.

Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and plaque are associated with subclinical atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease (CHD). Here, the authors identify and prioritize genetic loci for cIMT and plaque by GWAS and colocalization approaches and further demonstrate genetic correlation with CHD and stroke.

The first operation of the European X-ray free-electron laser facility accelerator based on superconducting technology is reported. The maximum electron energy is 17.5 GeV. A laser average power of 6 W is achieved at a photon energy of 9.3 keV.

Strain engineering can manipulate the propagation of excitons in atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides. Here, the authors observe an anti-funnelling behavior, i.e., the exciton photoluminescence moves away from high-strain regions, and attribute it to the dominating role of propagating dark excitons.

Seronegative healthcare workers with an innate signature of infection preferentially expand pre-existing T cells targeting the conserved replication transcription complex of SARS-CoV-2 in abortive infection.

Solar-powered standalone systems drastically lower the cost of electrifying sub-Saharan Africa. Household electrification can be provided at 7c USD per person per day on average. To reflect inter- and intra-country variance, policymakers should consider electrification cost curves.

Reconstruction of the Eemian interglacial from the new NEEM ice core shows that in spite of a climate warmer by eight degrees Celsius in Northern Greenland than that of the past millennium, the ice here was only a few hundred metres lower than its present level.

Combining human proteome and transcriptome analyses and Mendelian randomization on a large genetic dataset of HFpEF and HFrEF cases, Rasooly et al. identified 58 potential therapeutic targets specific for either HEpEF or HFrEF and created their therapeutic target profiles.

Protein design aims to build novel proteins customized for specific purposes, thereby holding the potential to tackle many environmental and biomedical problems. Here the authors apply some of the latest advances in natural language processing, generative Transformers, to train ProtGPT2, a language model that explores unseen regions of the protein space while designing proteins with nature-like properties.

Here, the authors perform Faraday rotation spectroscopy around the excitonic transitions in hBN-encapsulated WSe₂ and MoSe₂ monolayers, and interlayer excitons in MoS₂ bilayers. They measure a large Verdet constant - 1.9 × 10⁷ deg T⁻¹cm⁻¹ for monolayers, and attribute it to the giant oscillator strength and high g-factor of the excitons.

A decrease in the cost of renewable energy is often attributed to technological learning. This study uses 18 years of data from 133 renewable energy projects in Germany, alongside practitioner interviews, to find that changing financing costs, not just technology, are responsible for a significant cost decrease.

Dib, Koneva et al. generate an scRNA-seq atlas of immune cells from human carotid endarterectomies and report the presence of a subset of pathogenic pro-inflammatory PLIN2^hi/TREM1^hi, derived from TREM2^hi lipid-associated macrophages via TLR signaling, which correlates with an increased risk of cerebrovascular events.

Renewable energy technologies are intended to contribute to electricity access both on grid and off grid in sub-Saharan Africa, yet their high cost of capital continues to hamper their growth. Using data from sub-Saharan Africa, Agutu et al. estimate the cost of capital at the country and technology level for electrification modes and find that the cost of capital is much higher than previously estimated in many cases.

To promote the recovery of the currently declining global trends in terrestrial biodiversity, increases in both the extent of land under conservation management and the sustainability of the global food system from farm to fork are required.

The mechanisms that shape the regulatory T cell repertoire in patients with cancer are not completely understood. Here, the authors observe that, in breast cancer patients, tumor-resident regulatory T cells do not show clonal relationship with their circulating counterpart, but share a common origin with intratumoral antigen-experienced conventional T cells.

The European X-ray free-electron laser (EuXFEL) in Hamburg is the first XFEL with a megahertz repetition rate. Here the authors present the 2.9 Å structure of the large membrane protein complex Photosystem I from T. elongatus that was determined at the EuXFEL.

Excitons, quasi-particles of bound electron-hole pairs, are at the core of the optoelectronic properties of layered transition metal dichalcogenides. Here, the authors unveil the presence of interlayer excitons in bulk van der Waals semiconductors, arising from strong localization and spin-valley coupling of charge carriers.

Due to the pulsed nature of X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) instruments the majority of protein crystals, which are injected using continuous jet injection techniques are wasted. Here, the authors present a microfluidic device to deliver aqueous protein crystal laden droplets segmented with an immiscible oil and demonstrate that with this device an approx. 60% reduction in sample waste was achieved for data collection of 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonate 8-phosphate synthase crystals at the EuXFEL.

Infection with SARS-COV-2 can result in self-limited upper airway infection or progress to a more systemic inflammatory condition including pneumonic COVID-19. Here the authors utilise a multi-omics approach to interrogate the immune response of patients with self-limiting upper respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection and reveal a temporal immune trajectory they associate with viral containment and restriction from pneumonic progressive disease.

In atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides, spin- and valley-polarised states can be addressed thanks to large spin–orbit coupling and circular dichroism. Here, the authors investigate theoretically and experimentally the decay dynamics of spin and valley polarisation in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers.

Learning rates are a measure of reduction in costs of energy from technologies such as solar photovoltaics. These are often estimated internationally with all monetary figures converted to a single currency, often US dollars. Lilliestam et al. show that such conversions can significantly affect the learning rate estimates.

The structural characterization of microgels at interfaces is fundamental for the understanding of their 2D phase behavior but characterization is usually limited by available experimental techniques and does not allow a direct investigation at interfaces. Here, the authors employ neutron reflectometry, which allows probing the structure and responsiveness of the microgels in-situ at the air-water interface.

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.

The process by which mammalian L1 retrotransposons move around the genome is not entirely clear. Now structural work on L1ORF1 protein, an RNA-binding protein essential for retrotransposition, reveals a trimeric organization and considerable interdomain flexibility. The latter is shown by mutagenesis to be critical for retrotransposition.

Global spatial data for terrestrial vertebrate and vascular plant diversity, above- and below-ground biomass carbon, and potential clean freshwater volume are combined in a joint optimization study to identify potential synergies for conservation management.

Finding evolutionary links between protein superfamilies has proven challenging. Advanced bioinformatics tools now identify relationships across two superfolds as well as a hybrid family whose structure displays characteristics of both.

Inhibitors of FKBP51 with antidepressive activity are selective over the related FKBP52 and bind FKBP51 by an induced-fit mechanism that causes a conformational change. The analogous conformational change in FKBP52 generates a strained conformation.

Associations between of omega-3 fatty acids and mortality are not clear. Here the authors report that, based on a pooled analysis of 17 prospective cohort studies, higher blood omega-3 fatty acid levels correlate with lower risk of all-cause mortality.