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The synthesis of high molecular weight poly(disulfide)s typically requires harsh conditions or the complex cyclic disulfide monomers. Here, the authors report a mild, room-temperature multicomponent polymerisation using elemental sulfur to yield high molecular weight poly(ester disulfide)s

Van der Waals materials of the MB₂T₄ family (M = transition metal or rare-earth metal, B = Bi or Sb, T = Te, Se, or S) have attracted interest for their magnetic and topological properties, but their direct synthesis into 2D form remains challenging. Here the authors report a flux-assisted, phase-controlled growth strategy to directly grow six magnetic 2D MB₂T₄ crystals.

Identifying jets originating from heavy quarks plays a fundamental role in hadronic collider experiments. In this work, the ATLAS Collaboration describes and tests a transformer-based neural network architecture for jet flavour tagging based on low-level input and physics-inspired constraints.

The authors study a topological insulator (TI) sandwiched between two magnetic TIs. By keeping one of the magnetic TIs insulating, while tuning the other one into a metallic regime, they find half quantized anomalous Hall conductance, a boundary signature consistent with a quantized axion field.

Fracto-mechanoluminescence is the emission of light from fracturing solids. Here, the authors show that this emission in Mn halides arises from elastic stiffness, electromechanical coupling, and trap states that activate Mn²⁺ d−d transitions.

Liquid crystal elastomers have potential as 4D-printing actuators, but it is difficult to achieve complex shape changes in structures. Here, the authors report a 4D-printing strategy that combines vat polymerization-based 3D printing with a two-stage UV-curable resin.

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.

Native crystallographic defects are often introduced during synthesis of battery materials, but has been overlooked. Here, using in situ synchrotron X-ray probes and electron microscopy, the authors have revealed their adverse effect during battery operation.

Precise editing of DNA methylation has emerged as a promising tool in disease biology but most applications are limited to in vitro systems. Here, we develop two transgenic mouse lines harboring an inducible dCas9-DNMT3A or dCas9-TET1 editor to enable tissue-specific DNA methylation editing in vivo.

The CMS Collaboration reports the measurement of the spin, parity, and charge conjugation properties of all-charm tetraquarks, exotic fleeting particles formed in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

Current lithium-ion batteries still rely heavily on nickel (Ni), whose growing demand raises serious economic and environmental concerns. This work now presents a cathode that delivers longer cycle life than high-Ni chemistry while substantially reducing Ni use.

This study elucidates nanoscopic strain evolution in single-crystal Ni-rich positive electrodes, demonstrating that mechanical failure results from lattice distortions, and redefines the roles of cobalt and manganese in battery cycling stability.

The authors report the synthesis of (La_0.9Y_0.1)H₁₀ superhydrides and their characterization using synchrotron-based, spatially resolved x-ray diffraction and electrical transport imaging. They reveal μm-scale structural inhomogeneity with coexisting cubic and hexagonal clathrate phases exhibiting distinct superconducting transition temperatures.

Short-circuiting during fast charging through lithium dendrite intrusion into electrolytes is a major challenge in solid-state batteries. Here, using thermally annealed 3-nm-thick Ag coatings, lithium penetration into brittle electrolyte Li_6.6La₃Zr_1.6Ta_0.4O₁₂ is inhibited at local current densities of 250 mA cm⁻² due to an increase in surface fracture toughness.

A protein biomarker, the NOTCH3 extracellular domain, identifies individuals with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension, correlates with disease progression, improves mortality risk prediction and provides a readily implementable, noninvasive blood test for this disease.

The extent to which in-vitro cellular experiments are effective models for complex biology underlying human phenotypes is often unclear. Here the authors propose and implement a framework using gene perturbation data to evaluate in-vitro models.

A key feature of Majorana zero modes (MZMs) is their non-Abelian fusion rule, characterized by multiple outcomes. Here, the authors introduce a minimal setup where coupling a tunable fermionic mode to a single MZM allows the control of fusion loops, yielding distinct charge pumping that serves as a direct experimental signature.

The Einstein Probe has discovered a fast X-ray transient, EP240414a, associated with a broad-lined type Ic supernova. Its unusually soft spectrum and weak jet add to the diversity of stellar deaths and suggest a previously unknown Wolf–Rayet star explosion mechanism.

Atomically dispersed catalysts show promising activity for electrochemical reactions but often suffer from limited stability. Here, the authors report an atom-ordering strategy that forms triangular Co sites to activate the substrate for durable alkaline hydrogen production.

This study shows that animals can adapt behaviorally to warm environments by speeding up their internal clocks. Suprathreshold temperatures activate the Lim1 pathway in the fly brain, resulting in accelerated circadian clock activity and increased early morning activity.

Here the authors propose an evaporation-driven approach to print various nanomaterials on porous substrates, allowing for high-throughput roll-to-roll and spatially programmable fabrication of functional nanomaterial films.

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.

The study provides observational evidence of energy transfer in space plasmas, showing hydrogen and helium ions interact differently with ion-scale waves. Despite helium’s low abundance, they show their interaction can excite electrostatic waves, facilitating energy transfer across scales and challenging traditional models.

Semi-metallic single crystals of antimony can be deposited using molecular beam epitaxy on molybdenum disulfide to create ohmic contacts with resistance of under 100 Ω µm at a contact length of 18 nm.

Gas-phase actinium monofluoride (AcF) has been produced and spectroscopically studied at the CERN-ISOLDE radioactive ion beam facility; the results highlight the potential of ²²⁷AcF for exceptionally sensitive searches of CP violation.

The ALICE Collaboration provides details on the microscopic mechanism that ends up creating antideuteron in high-energy proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

The death of massive stars has traditionally been discovered by explosive events in the gamma-ray band. Liu et al. show that the sensitive wide-field monitor on board Einstein Probe can reveal a weak soft-X-ray signal much earlier than gamma rays.

Industrial hydrogen production in acidic media is constrained by high overpotential and poor durability. Here, the authors report plasma-enhanced deposition of nanoedge enriched molybdenum oxycarbide electrocatalysts that enable efficient, durable, and high throughput hydrogen evolution.

Indonesian cattle are unique due to their history of admixture involving both zebu and banteng. Here, Wang et al. identify ~3.5 million novel introgressed SNP variants and provide a genomic map of banteng introgression within and across many cattle breeds, each with unique introgression histories.

The synthesis of atom-thin amorphous films remains challenging as their thermodynamically favourable grains are neither two dimensional nor layered. Here a droplet-driven nanoribbon-to-film growth strategy is reported to achieve amorphous metal chalcogenides at the single-layer limit.

Biotic-abiotic hybrid systems are promising for solar-to-chemical conversion, but it remains challenging to achieve atomically precise interface contact. Here, the authors report a general strategy of facilitating direct electron uptake via building single-atom bridges across biotic-abiotic interfaces to enhance solar-driven hydrogen production.

The coexistence of ferroelectricity and nonreciprocal transport in metallic material has been a challenge. The authors demonstrate that the polarity-induced nonreciprocal transport can be nonvolatile and electrically reversed in ferroelectric polar metal WTe₂.

While Bell inequalities have been violated several times—mostly in photonic systems—their violations within particle physics experiments are less explored. Here, the BESIII Collaboration showcases Bell-violating nonlocal correlations between entangled hyperon pairs.

In this study, the heterodimeric GABA_B receptor, a class C G protein-coupled receptor for the neurotransmitter GABA, is found to be allosterically activated by mechanical forces in a GABA independent manner through a direct interaction with integrin.

Data obtained from the MicroBooNE liquid-argon time projection chamber are used to exclude the single light sterile neutrino interpretation of the LSND and MiniBooNE anomalies at the 95% confidence level.

A mechano-intelligent transmission mechanism based on the slipknot delivers precise force signals for clinical practice and robotic operations such as minimally invasive surgery and tendon-driven robotics.

This study presents a global meta-analysis using high-throughput sequencing data to assess the effects of crop rotation on bacterial and fungal diversity and community structure. The results show that crop rotation significantly increases bacterial Shannon diversity and species richness, while having no effect on bacterial beta diversity.

Despite recent advances with trappedion-based platforms, achieving quantum networks with link efficiency greater than unity on metropolitan scales is still a challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate a multiplexed quantum network generating heralded entanglement at a rate faster than local decoherence.

The exact mechanism for superconductivity in iron-based superconductors remains elusive, but is thought to involve complex interactions between many orbitals. Using angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, Liuet al. report the electronic structure of the single-layer parent compound FeSe.

This study demonstrates how CO₂ directs defect control during the synthesis of Mn-rich sodium layered oxides, improving the stability and performance of earth-abundant positive electrode materials in non-aqueous sodium-based rechargeable batteries.

Absorption in one-port passive systems is known to be bound by causality constraints. Here, authors study reflection and transmission of a two-port system to introduce a generalized causality constraint based on duality symmetry. Experimentally, the broadened bandwidth of their meta-absorbers shows the untapped absorption potential of broadband acoustic metamaterials.

Water has remarkable dynamic properties; a transition from a fragile to a strong liquid has been proposed to explain how they change on cooling. Experiments now show evidence for such a transition in bulk supercooled water at around 233 K.

Therapeutic gene editing in vivo is an ongoing challenge. Here, authors demonstrate Cas9 nickase guided DNA ligation as a nonviral method for installing permanent genomic corrections with favorable on target edit profiles in model animal cell types and adult mice.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analyses of polycystic ovary syndrome in women of East Asian and European ancestries identify 94 independent susceptibility regions, including 73 novel loci.

Yan et al. use cryo-EM to obtain structures that reveal how DNMT3A2 and DNMT3L cooperate to read histone signals and bind chromatin, illustrating a mechanism that controls DNA methylation and shapes epigenetic regulation.