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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.

Samarium hexaboride is a candidate topological insulator but recent experiments have found behaviour indicative of a metallic Fermi liquid phase. Here the authors show that the conflicting observations can be accommodated by a model where strong interactions drive the formation of exotic neutral quasiparticles.

Trans-ancestry meta-analysis of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) from 1,046,070 individuals identifies 264 associated loci, providing a resource of molecular targets for translational research of chronic kidney disease.

The Nernst coefficient is a measure of the transverse thermoelectric effect in a conductor. Superconducting fluctuations magnify this effect but in URu₂Si₂, the million-fold enhancement suggests that the fluctuations have an exotic origin.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies across different populations highlights new risk loci and provides a genetic risk score that can stratify prostate cancer risk across ancestries.

Here, the authors perform cross-trait analyses of respiratory and cardiometabolic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and smoking and identify negative genetic correlations between respiratory and cardiometabolic diseases in individuals of East Asian ancestry, in opposition from the positive association in European ancestry individuals.

Inbreeding depression has been observed in many different species, but in humans a systematic analysis has been difficult so far. Here, analysing more than 1.3 million individuals, the authors show that a genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) is associated with disadvantageous outcomes in 32 out of 100 traits tested.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association analyses identify 124 risk loci for rheumatoid arthritis, of which 34 are novel. A polygenic risk score based on multi-ancestry data showed comparable performance between populations of European and East Asian ancestries.

A large genome-wide association study of more than 5 million individuals reveals that 12,111 single-nucleotide polymorphisms account for nearly all the heritability of height attributable to common genetic variants.

Coherent quantum transition spectroscopy of the spin of a single antiproton is reported, demonstrating Rabi oscillations of the spin and enabling improved measurement of matter/antimatter symmetry using proton and antiproton magnetic moments.

Electronic nematicity, a unidirectional self-organized state that breaks the rotational symmetry of the underlying lattice, has been observed in an iron-based superconductor, BaFe₂(As_1−xP _x )₂, over a wide range of phosphorus concentration, resulting in a phase diagram similar to the pseudogap phase diagram of the copper oxides.

A mouse model of Down syndrome (DS) highlights the importance of triplication of the IFNR gene cluster for a variety of DS-associated traits. Copy number correction resulted in amelioration of multiple phenotypes associated with the condition.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

Genome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in approximately 260,000 Japanese individuals combined with a newly constructed Japanese-specific genotype reference panel identify hundreds of new loci and putative causal variants for 63 quantitative traits.

Metallic kagome compounds are known to host several different electronic phases. Now, evidence for a form of nematic order that breaks time-reversal symmetry and is odd under a parity transformation is found in CsV₃Sb₅.

Vaccination efficiency in HIV infection is hampered by the low immunogenicity of HIV-1 Env glycoprotein (Env). Here authors optimise the neutralising antibody response to Env by stabilizing the Env trimers in the context of expressing them in a Newcastle Disease Virus-like particle and providing conditions that mimics replicating virus infection.

Several diseases are associated with reduced numbers of natural killer T (NKT) cells. The authors of this Review ask what drives NKT-cell development in the thymus and what factors ensure NKT-cell survival, maturation and function in the periphery?

The crossover between the weak-coupling limit and strong-coupling limit provides important information for quantum bound states of interacting fermions. Here, Kasahara et al. report thermodynamic evidence for prevailing phase fluctuations of superconductivity, highlighting unusual normal state in the BCS-BEC crossover regime.

Mt Fuji’s freshwater springs were believed to be fed exclusively by shallow groundwater aquifers. Using a newly developed combination of tracer techniques, this study finds widespread vertical exchange between shallow and deeper aquifers and shows evidence of a substantial deep groundwater contribution to the springs.

FeGe is an antiferromagnetic kagome metal with a rich magnetic and electronic phase diagram. Recently it was found that post-growth annealing of FeGe can suppress or induce charge density wave order depending on the annealing temperature. Here, Klemm, Siddique et al show the critical role that annealing induced Ge-vacancies and stacking faults play in the formation of charge density wave order in FeGe.

Charge-neutral excitations have been proposed to explain metal-like thermal transport in Kondo insulators. Here, the authors demonstrate the coupling between charge-neutral excitations and spin degrees of freedom in a Kondo insulator YbIr₃Si₇, which puts restrictions on current theories.

Organizing photochromic molecules into 3D networks is a key strategy to access photoresponsive materials, but framework rigidity typically limits conversion efficiency. Here, the authors exploit a flexible metal-organic framework to achieve quantitative and reversible photoisomerization in a porous crystalline solid.

Memory B cells are important for protecting the host from pathogen rechallenge, but their properties and locations remain ill-defined. Here the authors show, using single-cell transcriptomics and repertoire analyses, that mouse spleen and bone marrow host distinct populations of isotype-switched memory B cells to potentially optimize for rapid recall responses.

In an inpatient, randomized controlled crossover trial, participants consumed 550–700 kcal day⁻¹ fewer calories when following a plant-based, low-fat diet with a high glycemic load compared with an animal-based, low-carbohydrate diet with a low glycemic load; weight loss was comparable between the two diets and there were no significant differences in hunger or enjoyment of the meals.

Proximal nephron in pluripotent stem cell derived kidney organoids are immature with limited support for functional solute channels. Vanslambrouck et al report improved metanephric specification, generating enhanced kidney organoids with superior proximal tubules, spatially arranged nephrons, and applications for disease research, and drug screening.

Most genetic studies have been done on European cohorts, which affects the efficacy of polygenic risk scores in non-European populations. Here, the authors demonstrate that a colorectal cancer PRS including Asian and European ancestries has improved performance over the European-centric PRS across racial and ethnic groups.

The organization and force-generating property of actomyosin dictate the plasticity and behaviour of cells but the spatio-temporal regulation of this network is unclear. Here, the authors show that coupling between EpCAM/RhoA co-trafficking and actomyosin rearrangement is pivotal during cell spreading and polarization.

A trans-ancestry meta-analysis of GWAS of glycemic traits in up to 281,416 individuals identifies 99 novel loci, of which one quarter was found due to the multi-ancestry approach, which also improves fine-mapping of credible variant sets.

Genome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in ancestrally diverse populations implicate candidate causal genes and mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. Trans-ancestry genetic risk scores enhance transferability across populations.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association study meta-analysis, combined with transcriptome- and methylome-wide association analyses, identifies risk loci associated with colorectal cancer. Credible effector genes and their target tissues are also highlighted, showing that over a third probably act outside the colonic mucosa.

Current-induced motion of magnetic nanostructures, such as skyrmions or domain walls, is envisioned as a promising scalable technology for information storage. Yuet al.demonstrate near-room-temperature motion of skyrmions with current densities orders of magnitude lower than previously reported in domain walls.

The authors study a YbCoIn5/CeCoIn5/YbRhIn5 heterostructure. Using non-reciprocity in the second harmonic transport response, they demonstrate the existence of a specific form of finite-momentum pairing called a helical superconducting state, where the phase of the order parameter is spontaneously spatially modulated.

Spin liquids are states of matter in which the constituent spins of a magnet are highly correlated yet fluctuate strongly down to millikelvin temperatures. Here the authors report torque magnetometry measurements of the Mott insulator EtMe₃Sb[Pd(dmit)₂]₂and find it displays an ungapped quantum spin liquid state.