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This study introduces glassy adhesion dynamics within a motor–clutch framework, revealing the mechanism by which cellular and extracellular timescales interplay and govern anomalous cancer cell migration.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

Estimates from the Global Burden of Disease study reveal declines in chronic respiratory disease mortality between 1990 and 2023—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic—but the burdens on people affected remain substantial.

Efficient evolution of hydrogen via electrocatalysis at low overpotentials is promising for clean energy production. Monolayered nanosheets of chemically exfoliated WS₂ are shown to be efficient catalysts for hydrogen evolution at very low overpotentials. The enhanced catalytic performance is associated with the high concentration of the strained metallic octahedral phase in the exfoliated nanosheets.

Amiad Pavlov, Heffler, et al. demonstrate that stress transmitted to the cardiomyocyte nucleus by the microtubule cage drives LMNA-associated cardiomyopathy and may represent a promising therapeutic target.

This study presents a framework combining theory and super-resolution imaging to uncover how chromatin-lamina interactions reorganize the genome across diverse microenvironments and regulate cell identity through molecular mechanisms.

Extracellular anisotropic stresses trigger fibroblast transition into myofibroblasts by the mechanical self-reinforcement of cell–extracellular matrix interactions.

Thermal reduction of graphene oxide is an attractive route towards the preparation of graphene, but complete removal of residual oxygen is problematic. Now, molecular dynamics simulations elucidate the chemical changes involved in this process.

A polymer model combining imaging and sequencing suggests how epigenetic remodeling of nanoscale heterochromatin domains regulates gene expression, identifying domain boundaries as critical in controlling cellular behavior in health and disease.

Systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease study reported that, despite global improvements from 1990 to 2021, dietary iron deficiency-associated disease burden remains high in women, children and residents in low socio-demographic index countries.

By sliding one layer with respect to the other in a van der Waals heterostructure, Edelberg et al. create a honeycomb network of solitons. Vertices of the network trap electrons, allowing strain-tunable control of confined states.

Forces resulting from global cell volume expansion and local cell contractions distort the basement membrane of an in vitro three-dimensional model of breast cancer, to promote collective cell invasion that precedes metastasis.

Chromatin within interphase nuclei forms compacted nanoscale DNA domains of uniform size. By integrating theory and imaging, here the authors show how the interplay between transcription and epigenetic mechanisms determine this size, independent of cell type.

Extracellular microinterfaces provide cells with migration tracks in vivo. Here, the authors introduce these microtracks into bicontinuous hydrogels to elicit rapid cell migration in 3-dimensional contexts.

Cell proliferation is regulated by cell volume, but it is unclear how individual cancer cells coordinate to regulate cell volumes in 3D clusters. Here the authors propose a mechano-osmotic model to analyse the exchange of fluid and ions between connected cells and their environment in response to proliferation-induced solid stress.

Dendritic cells can utilize the dynamics of podosomes to probe their microenvironment. Here, the authors propose a chemo-mechanical model for the height oscillations of individual podosomes and the collective wave dynamics in a podosome cluster.

Gap formation in the vasculature underpins immune and tumour cell infiltration. Here the authors propose a chemo-mechanical model to analyse how feedback between mechanosensitive signalling, active cellular forces and adhesion governs the breakdown, recovery, and integrity of endothelial junctions.

Tendon degeneration alters nanoscale chromatin organization in tenocytes and impacts their mechano-epigenetic memory.

It is now shown that cells migrate robustly on soft, viscoelastic substrates with fast stress relaxation using a migration mode marked by a rounded cell morphology and filopodia protrusions extending at the leading edge.

A biomimetic culture system is developed by reverse engineering to replicate key features of the human ocular surface at cellular, tissue and organ levels, and is used as an in vitro model of dry-eye disease compatible with drug-screening approaches.

Macrophages play an important role in wound healing but the guidance cues driving macrophages to sites of repair are still not clear. Here the authors discover that macrophages are attracted to contracting fibroblasts by responding to locally sensed displacements of collagen fibres.

Increasing the edge concentration of metallic MoS₂ nanosheets will improve their electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution. The activity of MoS₂ can now be enhanced by facilitating electron injection from the electrode to the catalyst.

A synthetic fibrous material with tunable mechanics and architecture allows researchers to reveal that cells use fibre recruitment to probe and respond to the mechanics of fibrillar matrices.

The use of metallic lithium electrodes in batteries would lead to dendritic growth problems. Here, Mukherjee et al.use porous graphene electrodes to entrap lithium metal at defect sites, achieving much improved specific capacities over extended cycling.

Predicting the performance of a tactile sensor from its composition and morphology is nearly impossible with traditional computational approaches. Machine learning can not only predict device-level performance, but also recommend new material compositions for soft machine applications.

Tissue rheology emerges from the interplay between fibrous networks and cell inclusions, and the mechanical properties of tissues are modulated by restricting the relaxation modes of fibres close to volume-conserving cells.

Vimentin tunes cell stress by assisting in both actomyosin force transmission and reinforcement of microtubule networks under compression. The competition between these two opposing effects of vimentin is regulated by the microenvironment stiffness.

This Review explores the role of viscoelasticity of tissues and extracellular matrices in cell–matrix interactions and mechanotransduction and the potential utility of viscoelastic biomaterials in regenerative medicine.