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Electro-optical interfaces are promising for quantum networks of superconducting circuits. Here the authors demonstrate a coherent optical control of a superconducting microwave resonator in the unity cooperativity regime of cavity electro-optics.

Optomechanical coupling to macroscopic phonon modes of a bulk acoustic-wave resonator is demonstrated, providing access to high acoustics quality factors for phononic modes at high frequencies that are robust to decoherence.

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.

A quantum memory for single-photon polarization qubits with an efficiency of >85% and a fidelity of >99% is demonstrated. It is achieved by suppressing the noise and by controlling the spectral–temporal states of single photons in laser-cooled Rb atoms.

Protein motion in crowded environments governs cellular transport and reaction rates. Here, the authors use megahertz X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy to reveal anomalous diffusion of ferritin, linking hydrodynamic and direct interactions to cage-trapping at microsecond time scales.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet responded to different natural forcing mechanisms than the East Antarctic Ice Sheet through the mid-Pliocene due to a greater sensitivity to oceanic feedbacks, according to iceberg-rafted debris records and ice-sheet modelling experiments.

Extreme confinement of light in plasmonic nanocavities strongly enhances the optomechanical coupling of light with molecular vibrations. Here, the authors use a giant optical spring effect to reversibly weaken molecular bonds.

Laryngeal lesions can be endoscopically detected with high sensitivity and in real time by measuring differences in the polarization signatures between cancerous and healthy tissues.

Scattering of molecules at low temperature that are prepared in single quantum states illuminates the mechanism of rotationally inelastic collisions and reveals the reorientation of partner molecules. By correlating each outgoing partial wave with the incoming waves, partial-wave analysis of the scattering angular distribution determines the dominant short- and long-range anisotropies of the interaction potential.

Direct acousto-optic modulation within complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor compatible silicon photonic waveguides using electrically driven surface acoustic waves is demonstrated. Non-reciprocal operation bandwidths of >100 GHz and insertion losses of <0.6 dB are obtained.

Faithful conversion of quantum states between electrical circuits and light requires adding less than one input noise photon during conversion. Here, the authors demonstrate this based on coherent electro-optic upconversion with a transduction efficiency of 15%.

A particle rotating in a fluid generates vorticity around itself. Now the dynamics of a collective of such spinners suspended in a liquid is shown to display flocking and three-dimensional active chirality.

A study reports the measurement of the polarization degree and angle of X-rays from Sagittarius A^* reflected off a nearby cloud, indicating an X-ray flare about 200 years ago.

Accessing longer-wavelength emitting organic fluorophores is critical for diagnostic imaging. Here a series of silicon-RosIndolizine fluorophores with emission maxima at 1,300 nm, 1,550 nm and 1,700 nm were synthesized. The fluorophores generate high-resolution in vivo fluorescence images in mice and establish design principles for future shortwave-infrared fluorophore designs.

Oblique line scan microscopy achieves nanoscale spatial and sub-millisecond temporal resolution across a large field of view, enabling improved and robust single-molecule biophysical measurements and single-molecule tracking in both cells and solution.

Patchiness in the distribution of phytoplankton promotes many of the ecological interactions that underpin the marine food web. This study shows that turbulence, ubiquitous in the ocean, counter-intuitively ‘unmixes’ a population of motile phytoplankton, generating intense, small-scale patchiness in its distribution.

Melting at the base of the Greenland Ice Sheet is often disregarded as a source of quantifiable mass loss. In this study, the authors find the basal mass loss is equivalent to 8% of the ice sheet’s present imbalance, and that the loss of mass from basal melt is likely to increase in the future.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

The authors demonstrate an exciting technique to cancel the common-mode vibration of a photonic resonator upon optical frequency division to microwave frequencies. The resulting 10 GHz microwave achieves 22.6 dB suppression of vibration noise, without incurring any penalty in phase-noise performance.

The collision dynamics between a pair of aligned molecules in the presence of a scattering resonance provide the most sensitive probe of the long-range anisotropic forces important to chemistry. By simultaneously controlling the collision temperature and geometry between a pair of aligned D₂ molecules, we unravel the anisotropic dynamics of a cold scattering process.

The flow features of cell monolayers depend on cellular interactions. Now four different types of cell monolayer are shown to exhibit robust conformal invariance that belongs to the percolation universality class.

The microbiomes of dispersing organisms are understudied. Here, the authors examine rafting seaweed microbiomes, using oceanographic modelling to demonstrate significant community changes associated with water temperature.

A single-source multimodal nonlinear optical imaging system has been developed to probe different endogenous biomolecules. Rapid, stain-free imaging of fresh tissue specimens is possible with short turnaround times for disease diagnosis.

Chattering dust, or chemically reactive grains of sucrose containing pockets of pressurized carbon dioxide, are used in this experimental approach to study rock fractures. The chattering dust emits acoustic shocks that can be monitored and illuminates fracture geometry.

Physical characterisation of proteins is challenging. Here the authors report single-molecule microfluidic diffusional sizing (smMDS) to enable calibration-free single-molecule diffusional-sizing based monitoring of protein hydrodynamic radii even within heterogenous multicomponent mixtures.

Self-propelled colloids can be used as cargo carriers, but it is challenging to control their motion without external fields. Here, Simmchen et al. use submicron patterns on a solid substrate to effectively confine the motion of the chemically active Janus microswimmers along the edges of the patterns.

Non-human primate models are important for the development of high quality vision restoration therapies for blindness. Here, the authors demonstrate restoration of light responses in foveal retinal ganglion cells of the living macaque following optogenetic gene therapy.

The formation of simple prebiotic organic compounds on early Earth is thought to be an important step in the origin of life. Molecular dynamics simulations of the conditions within cometary ice during planetary impact suggest a possible mechanism for the formation of glycine, an amino acid.

Carbon–carbon triple bonds exhibit a distinct Raman response in the region of 1,800–2,800 cm⁻¹, known as the cellularly silent region. This unique chemical signature, coupled with the small size of alkyne moieties, presents these tags as useful imaging alternatives to bulky fluorescent probes. This Primer discusses the various Raman scattering processes used to image alkyne tags in cells, including the optical set-up required, how to choose an alkyne tag and imaging results from different cellular environments.

Dynamic restructuring of metal nanoparticle surfaces greatly influences their catalytic, electronic transport, and chemical binding functionalities. Here, the authors show that non-equilibrium atomic-scale lattice defects can be detected in nanoparticles by using nano-optics at the sub-5nm scale.

Long-term experimental evolution and modelling show the evolution of small and large cluster-forming lineages of snowflake yeast that coexist over generations due to a trade-off between organismal size and competitiveness for dissolved oxygen.

Mepolizumab (anti-IL-5 therapy) has been shown to reduce type 2 inflammation in asthma. Here the authors use bulk transcriptomics from nasal samples before and after mepolizumab treatment to assess the changes and associations with treatment outcomes.

Papsdorf et al. show that mono-unsaturated fatty acids extend lifespan of C. elegans through induction of peroxisomes and lipid droplets in fat tissues and of a lipid signature predictive of decreased lipid oxidation.

Cenozoic landscape evolution of southwestern North America remains debated. Here, the authors reconstruct landscape using 4-D numerical models, which can explain extensional collapse and superficial geological record for the Basin and Range Province

Water-soluble, cell-permeable, inert fluorescent tags called OregonFluors have been developed to withstand environmental changes while resistant towards non-specific binding with subcellular structures. These tags enable quantitative imaging of drug target availability in cells and tissues, providing a route for the future assessment of personalized therapies.

Surface acoustic wave devices enable modern electronics and are desirable for quantum systems. Here the authors access and control these devices optically, enabling high acoustic quality factors, materials spectroscopy, and hybrid quantum systems.

A squeezed collective state of 10¹¹ rubidium atoms is generated by quantum non-demolition measurements, and the accuracy of the estimation of their collective spin is improved using past quantum state retrodiction.

Wong et al. demonstrate the efficacy of super-amphiphobic surfaces for in situ defoaming and inhibition of foam growth while handling aqueous solutions. Without the use of chemical additives, their passive approach suggests a facile alternative route to froth management in industrial processes.

A self-propelling agent at small Reynolds numbers usually requires a fore-aft asymmetry in order to circumvent the scallop theorem. Here Rogowski et al. show that this need not be true for motion in non-linear viscoelastic fluids, where an initial symmetry may be broken spontaneously.

Serum MMP8 is increased in stress-susceptible mice following chronic stress and leads to brain structure and behavioural changes in mice.