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Proximity between mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum regulates mitochondria fitness and is adversely affected by tissue ischemia. This work reveals that Diaphanous1-Mitofusin2 interaction regulates this proximity and impairs recovery in ischemia.

Layered van der Waals magnets like CrSBr, when sandwiched between electrodes form a natural magnetic tunnel junction, albeit lacking the characteristic nonmultiple volatile states at zero field of a magnetic memory. Here, Chen et al overcome this limitation to establish four nonvolatile states at zero field by constructing magnetic tunnel junctions out of twisted monolayers and bilayers of CrSBr with two twisted interfaces.

Magnetoresistance is a fundamental transport phenomenon that provides deep insight into electronic structure, magnetic order and emergent quantum effects in solids. This Primer reviews major magnetoresistance phenomena and presents practical measurement methodologies, emphasizing experimental configurations, instrumental limitations, common artefacts and best practices for reliable data interpretation.

Nanometer-wide lateral heterostructures between 2D semiconductors are still rare. Here the authors report the valley-selective hole state transmission between ferroelectric SnTe monolayers separated by a PbTe barrier with the width of merely 2 nm.

Self-sustained resistance oscillation states in VO₂ thin films are of significant interest for information encoding applications but the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Using scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy, Tiwari et al. uncover the distinct current-induced phase transition pathways and realize the visualization of the nanoscale phase percolation dynamics in a VO₂ oscillator.

A crucial prerequisite for semiconductor-based spintronic devices is that the spins of the charge carriers can be efficiently injected and detected. Here, the authors achieve such functionality in niobium-doped strontium titanate by the Hanle technique, and at the same time demonstrate the limitations of this approach.

Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems can be engineered to deliver multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons in vitro and in vivo.

Understanding the details of domain wall motion in nanowires is important for magnetic racetrack memories. Jiang and co-workers show that this motion can become more random by varying the magnetic field, pinning the domains at several local imperfections of the nanowire.

The 2D van der Waals ferromagnet Fe3GaTe2 supports highly efficient current induced domain wall motion with very high domain wall speed and mobility with an ultra-low threshold current density, likely due to its structural perfection.

Fermionic currents of opposing chirality can be spatially filtered without the need for a magnetic field using the quantum geometry of topological bands in single-crystal PdGa.

Materials which simultaneously exhibit superconductivity and topologically non-trivial electronic band structure possess potential applications in quantum computing but have yet to be found. Here, the authors find superconductivity in MoTe₂, a material predicted to be topologically non-trivial.

In this work, the researchers realize the current-induced motion of Néel type chiral domain walls via spin-transfer-torque in the pristine van der Waals ferromagnet Fe₃GeTe₂ and via spin-orbit-torques in heterostructures with platinum or tungsten.

The manipulation of domain walls in magnetic nanodevices is a topic of increasing technological relevance. This study examines the interactions that occur between vortex domain walls in permalloy nanowires, and finds that bound states occur between domain walls with opposite magnetic charge.

Synthetic anti-ferromagnets, where two ferromagnetic layers are coupled anti-ferromagnetically via a spacer, are known for their very large current-induced domain wall velocities. Here, Guan et al show that the velocity of the domain walls in synthetic anti-ferromagnetic nanowires can be tuned over a wide range due to reversible oxidization via ionic liquid gating.

Domain walls can be driven at high speeds in perpendicularly magnetized nanowires grown on heavy metal underlayers due to a chiral spin torque. Here, the authors show that this torque is related to the proximity-induced magnetization in the underlayer and can be tuned through interface engineering.

When interfaced with a current-carrying heavy metal, spin orbit effects can generate a torque on the magnetization of a ferromagnet, understood as a bulk effect. Here, the authors show evidence of an interfacial contribution to such spin orbit torque in O-doped W/CoFeB thin film systems.

Bulk vanadium dioxide undergoes a metal–insulator transition near room temperature. It is now shown that by putting a thin layer of vanadium dioxide on a buffer, and varying the buffer’s thickness, the orbital occupancy in the metallic state and the transition temperature can be tuned.

The magnetoresistance suggests an exotic topological phase in LaBi, but the evidence is still missing. Here, Nayaket al. report the existence of surface states of LaBi through the observation of three Dirac cones, confirming it a topological semimetal.

The family of topological materials has been growing rapidly but most members bare limitations hindering the study of exotic behaviour of topological particles. Here, Schoop et al. report a Fermi surface with a diamond-shaped line of Dirac nodes in ZrSiS, providing a promising candidate for studying two-dimensional Dirac fermions.

External driving of Rabi oscillations is a first step in the coherent manipulation of spin systems. Here the authors use ultrafast optical pulses to produce classical Rabi oscillations in ferromagnetic CoFeB, enabling the exploration of coherent phenomena in dense ferromagnetic ensembles.

Spin manipulation in memory devices typically requires large electrical currents, limiting performance. Here the authors demonstrate magnetization switching in ferromagnetic films by depositing chiral molecules, making use of a proximity effect without needing magnetic or electric fields.

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.

Magnetic anti-skyrmions—chiral spin textures that could find applications in spintronics—have been recently observed in inverse tetragonal Heusler Mn_1.4Pt_0.9Pd_0.1Sn. Here, the authors observe anti-skyrmions in thin films of Mn_1.4Pt_0.9Pd_0.1Sn over a wide range of temperature and magnetic fields.

When a domain wall of a given chirality is injected into a magnetic nanowire, its trajectory through a branched network of Y-shaped nanowire junctions—such as a honeycomb lattice, for instance—can be pre-determined. This property has implications for data storage and processing.

When doubly-degenerate band crossings known as Kramers nodal lines intersect the Fermi level, they form exotic three-dimensional Fermi surfaces composed of massless Dirac fermions. Here, the authors present evidence that the 3R polytypes of TaS₂ and NbS₂ are Kramers nodal line metals with open octdong and spindle-torus Fermi surfaces, respectively.

Direct visualization of chiral effects in topological chiral semimetals remains elusive. Here, Sessi et al. demonstrate that quasiparticle scattering at impurities in the two enantiomers of PdGa gives rise to handedness dependent quantum interference patterns.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

An important role is played by thermal effects in the electrically driven insulator-to-metal transition in V₂O₃.

The spin Hall effect induces spin currents in nonmagnetic layers, which can control the magnetization of neighbouring ferromagnets. The transparency of the interface is shown to strongly influence the efficiency of such manipulation.

Antiskyrmions, in which the magnetization rotates both as a transverse helix and as a cycloid, are found in acentric tetragonal Heusler compounds over a wide range of temperatures.

The influence of magnetic fields on the current-driven motion of domain walls in nanowires with perpendicular anisotropy shows that two spin–orbit-derived mechanisms are responsible for their motion.

Owing to its very low magnetization, small currents suffice to write a ferrimagnetic Heusler memory layer in complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor-compatible magnetic tunnel via spin-transfer torque, which can help in shrinking the memory cell and extending the application space for magnetic random-access memory.

Crystal structures with two sublattice pairs per primitive cell can host so-called dark states which interact minimally with light due to destructive interference. Here, the authors reveal that in the semiconductor (NbSe₄)₃I these states lead to an indirect-gap optical behavior, despite the band structure displaying an almost direct band gap, having significant impact on its optoelectronic properties.

By twisting two bilayers of CrSBr, which is a 2D antiferromagnet, a >700% nonvolatile tunnelling magnetoresistance at zero field is shown, demonstrating a new strategy for constructing all-antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions down to the atomic limit.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

Controlling the magnetization of a material is a major goal of spin-based information processing. One extensively studied method is to use spin-currents, generated from charge currents via the spin hall effect, however, the resulting spin polarization is typically limited to in-plane orientations. Here, Hazra et al demonstrate the presence of out-of-plane polarized spin-currents, which arise due to spin swapping at the Mn3Sn/permalloy interface.

The interplay between geometrical and spin chiralities in three-dimensional twisted magnetic ribbons can lead to new functionalities that could allow for innovative chiral spintronics.

Introducing local, nanoscopic ferromagnetic regions in a synthetic antiferromagnet racetrack can help to mitigate the trade-off between energy efficiency and thermal stability in magnetic domain-wall-based devices.

The two-dimensional layered crystal structure of niobium oxide polymorph T-Nb₂O₅ exhibits fast Li-ion diffusion that is promising for energy storage applications. Epitaxial growth of single-crystalline T-Nb₂O₅ thin films with ionic transport channels oriented perpendicular to the surface are now demonstrated.

The synthesis of crystalline 2D polymers typically relies on reversible dynamic covalent reactions, but achieving 2D polymers through irreversible carbon-carbon coupling reactions remains a formidable challenge. Here, the authors present an on-liquid surface synthesis method for constructing diyne-linked 2D polymers.

The tunable control of the interaction among oscillators usually requires additional electronic components. Here, Li et al. show that the thermal coupling synchronizes neighboring VO₂ oscillators without any extra electronic components, reducing the energy consumption.

Heusler alloy thin films with a distorted tetragonal structure have potential spintronics applications given their bulk perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Here, the authors demonstrate large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Mn₃Ge thin films accompanied by negative tunnelling magnetoresistance.

J.-K. Kim et al. study vertical Josephson junctions where the weak link is T_d-WTe₂ and the superconductor is NbSe₂. The use of an inversion-symmetry-breaking T_d-WTe₂ weak link allows the authors to demonstrate the intrinsic origin of the observed Josephson non-reciprocity in these devices.

A diode effect—asymmetric transport depending on its direction—is shown in the proximity-induced superconducting state of a Dirac semimetal.