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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.

The performance of π-conjugated polymers films is limited by the short exciton diffusion lengths due to local imperfections or variations in interchain packing. Here, the authors report on large-area submillimeter-scale spherulites achieved by treating a spin-coated polydiarylfluorene film under solvent vapor annealing.

Direct enantioselective α-C(sp³)–H functionalization of Lewis-basic N-alkyl anilines has remained a significant challenge in synthetic chemistry. Now it has been shown that a metallaphotoredox-catalysed radical approach, with a sterically hindered aryl ketone photocatalyst, enables site-selective, enantioselective (hetero)arylation with exceptional functional group tolerance.

The mechanisms underlying increased cardiometabolic risk from cancer treatment in childhood cancer survivors remain to be explored. Here, epigenome-wide analysis in childhood cancer survivors identified DNA methylation sites that mediate treatment-related cardiometabolic risks and are associated with inflammatory and metabolic pathways.

Allylic amines are versatile building blocks in organic synthesis and exist in bioactive compounds, but efficient catalytic systems for hydroaminoalkylation of alkynes are needed. Here, the authors report a late transition metal‐catalyzed hydroaminoalkylation of alkynes with N‐sulfonyl amines, providing a series of allylic amines in up to 94% yield.

Turning CO2 into useful fuels is promising for cleaner energy but remains hard due to low efficiency. This study shows that a spinel-engineered catalyst boosts ethanol formation by promoting C–C coupling while suppressing further carbon-chain growth.

Catalysts synthesized by current methods for CO₂ electroreduction to CO exhibit limited activity and selectivity over broad potentials. Here, the authors report an in situ etching method to create NiN₂ sites with uniform-large vacancies that achieve high activity across a wide potential window.

Metal selenides have been reported as promising oxygen-evolution catalysts but their active forms are yet to be elucidated. Here, the authors show that metal selenides are unstable under oxygen-evolution conditions and that in situgenerated metal oxides/hydroxides are responsible for their high activity.

Grain chalkiness is an undesirable trait that severely compromises rice quality. Here, the authors report the cloning of an E3 ubiquitin ligase encoding gene Chalk9 and reveal its crucial role in regulating grain chalkiness through mediating the ubiquitination-dependent degradation of OsEBP89.

Topological lasers usually emit light from a fixed spot. Here, authors report on an all-solid-state platform where topological lasing is demonstrated at trivial lattice terminations as well as at reconfigurable arbitrary sites. The device consists of a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger waveguide array, printed in a disordered Nd:BaLaGa₃O₇ crystal.

Taveneau et al. leverage artificial-intelligence-driven protein design to create inhibitors that control RNA-targeting enzymes in cells, revealing a strategy to rapidly design off-switches for RNA-editing systems.

Benzene and SO₂ coexist as hazardous air pollutants. Here the authors synthesized a robust pyrazolate MOF sorbent with accessible Ni(II) sites that can simultaneously capture trace amounts of benzene and SO₂ under humid conditions.

Here, authors use a membrane electrode assembly is conducted to produce adipic acid with high faradaic efficiency and productivity at an industrially relevant current density, while achieving >50 hours stability.

Iron-catalyzed C–C reductive coupling avoids sensitive reagents but struggles to build quaternary centers. Using phosphine-ligated Fe and carbonyl directing groups, this work enables tertiary–primary/secondary C(sp³) coupling under mild conditions.

Single-atom nanozymes are a type of non-protein artificial enzymes and promising for mimicking enzyme active centers, but lack recognition sites to confer substrate specificity. Here, the authors report on a metal-ligand dual-site single-atom nanozyme (Ni-DAB) that mimics the dual-site catalytic mechanism of urate oxidase and has high selectivity in uric acid (UA) oxidation.

Samarium Cobalt-based magnets are a vitally important industrial magnet, and significant effort has been devoted to trying to improve the performance and reduce the cost through the addition of Fe. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of phase stability. Here, Wang et al show through careful choice of composition, a Samarium Cobalt permanent magnet with an ultrahigh coercivity of 6.71 MA/m.

Layered Ni-rich oxide cathodes are susceptible to challenges with surface reconstruction and strain propagation, limiting their cyclability. The authors propose a solution involving oriented attachment-driven reactions, utilizing Wadsley–Roth nanocrystals and layered oxide to induce an epitaxial entropy-assisted coating, effectively addressing these issues.

Electrocatalysts with improved activity and stability for the conversion of CO₂ to CO are being sought. Using operando spectroscopies, the authors identify atomically dispersed Ni(i) as the active site in a nitrogenated-graphene-supported catalyst with high intrinsic activity and stability over 100 hours.

Here, the authors report a radical cross-coupling approach in which the native hydroxyl group on saccharides is activated in situ by a phosphorus reagent, enabling C − C bond formation with aryl iodides to afford a broad range of aryl C-glycosides.

Identifying and tuning the coordination environment to improve the oxygen evolution reaction kinetics of coordination complexes is important, yet challenging. Here, the authors report a series of coordination complexes as catalytic models and reveal the unique reaction behavior of coordinated water.

Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) was identified as a synthetic-lethal target in p53-deficient cancers through alterations in double-stranded RNA accumulation. A covalent small-molecule inhibitor of TDG exhibited potent efficacy against p53-deficient tumors.

Superconductivity was recently discovered in La₄Ni₃O₁₀ under pressure in proximity to a density-wave phase. Here, by stabilizing a tetragonal form of La₄Ni₃O₁₀ at ambient pressure, the authors show that the density-wave state is crucial for the superconductivity, but the tetragonal structure is not.

Liu, Liu, Wu and Yao et al. developed a peptide inhibitor that selectively blocks the Ada-two-A-containing histone complex by targeting the YEATS2 YEATS domain and suppresses tumor growth in non-small cell lung cancer.

Insulator-to-metal transitions induced by spontaneous magnetization above room temperature have rarely been observed. Here, the authors show that this transition, along with concurrent high-temperature ferrimagnetic order, is realized in the novel 3d/5d hybridized quadruple perovskite oxide CaCu₃Ni₂Os₂O₁₂.

The links between plate tectonics and deep mantle structure remain unclear. Here, the authors demonstrate that transition elements (Ni, Cr, and Fe/Mn) in basaltic rocks can be used as a tool to trace plume-related magmatism through Earth history, and their results indicate the presence of a direct relationship between the intensity of plume magmatism and the supercontinent cycle.

Fibre integrated circuits created by first preparing circuitry on extremely thin and flexible substrates and then mechanically rolling them up demonstrate microdevice density reaching 100,000 transistors per centimetre and excellent stability under harsh service conditions.

A template-assisted route inspired by coordinating etching was utilized for the synthesis of noble metal-free, ternary through octonary, hollow HEO nanocubes through optimization of the coordinating etchant and reaction conditions.

Cyclotelomerization of isoprene can lead to many isomers and controlling the selectivity in this reaction has been challenging for chemical methods. Now, Ni-catalysed nucleophilic cyclotelomerization of isoprene with heterocycles provides cyclic monoterpene derivatives with high selectivity.

High-pressure-temperature experiments that explore the impact of carbon and silicon on the plastic deformation of hexagonal close-packed iron suggest depth-dependent elastic anisotropy in Earth’s inner core may originate from chemical stratification

Single-crystal metal foils with high-index facets are promising for 2D epitaxy, catalysis and electronics, however fast and deterministic preparation is challenging. Here authors selectively activate the abnormal growth of high-index facets, thus realising the deterministic preparation of single-crystal Cu, Ni and Au foils with high-index facets.

Micromitophagy is found to occur in plant male germline cells, mediated by ATG5–HSP90.2 signalling, and is evolutionarily conserved in angiosperms. This mechanism underpins paternal mitochondrial elimination and supports the zygote-to-embryo transition.

The upscaling of kesterite photovoltaics is challenging and results in low performance. Xiang et al. tune the thiourea/metal precursor ratio to improve the morphology of the kesterite film, achieving 10.1% certified power conversion efficiency in 10.48-cm² modules.

Severe Ni/Li antisite disorder in nickel-rich layered oxides leads to structural degradation and performance decay in Li-ion batteries. Here, authors report a noninvasive strategy of magnetoelectrochemical synergistic activation to realize ordered cation rearrangement and recovery battery capacity.

Natural deep-mantle peridotites from eastern China reveal Fe-Ni alloys and Fe³⁺-rich olivine, providing direct evidence of iron disproportionation and slab recycling from the mantle transition zone beneath the eastern Asia big mantle wedge.

Coupling an optogenetic lipid-modifying enzyme with proximity labeling reveals protein networks and mechanisms regulating lipid homeostasis in the membranes of target organelles.

The use of metal clusters to construct artificial protein-mimic structures with adaptable cavities has potential for simulating the dynamics and functionality of natural proteins. Here, the authors develop a family of chiral metal-peptide assemblies using {Ni3} clusters and flexible peptides, resulting in structures such as octahedral cages, trigonal prisms, and capsules.

In comparison to the well-developed electrochemical transformations of thiophenols, the electrochemical modification of peptides and proteins through cysteine remains rather underdeveloped. Here the authors report an electro-induced umpolung approach that enables the efficient functionalization/macrocyclization of cysteine-containing peptides.

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.

Structural, genetic, functional and biochemical analyses of the complex flagellar motor of Campylobacter jejuni reveal structural adaptations with an ancient origin also found more widely across bacterial species, including elements exapted from the type IV pilus machinery.

In mice, a SPOCD1–TPR-dependent ‘nowhere-to-hide’ mechanism is required for complete non-stochastic piRNA-directed LINE1 DNA methylation by preventing transposons from escaping surveillance within heterochromatin.

Spliceosomal snRNP core assembly typically requires chaperones such as the SMN complex. Here, the authors reveal two pathways in budding yeast: a chaperone-mediated pathway involving Brr1 and Lot5, and a direct pathway using stable intermediates, shedding light on chaperone evolution.

This study discovers primitive mantle olivines in the Chang’e-6 lunar soils from the Moon’s far side, shedding new light on the Moon’s origin and evolutionary processes.

Layered double hydroxides of transition metals are known to be highly active for water oxidation, but the nature of their active sites and reaction mechanism are still elusive. Now, a monolayer NiCo hydroxide catalyst, in situ prepared on the working electrode, is reported to exhibit valence oscillation and dynamic generation of active sites during water oxidation.

Pure-water anion-exchange electrolysis is hindered by fragile ionomers and delaminating catalyst layers. Here, the authors report covalently anchoring catalysts within a cross-linked ionomer network, yielding a pure-water cell that delivers 2.55 A cm⁻² at 1.9 V and runs over 1,800 h.

Linear scaling relationships often hinder the optimization of heterogeneous catalysts. Now, an intermediate spillover strategy is put forward by designing bi-component catalysts, thereby decoupling elementary electron-transfer steps and circumventing linear scaling relationships.

The use of Mn-rich layered cathodes in Na-based batteries is hindered by inadequate cycling reversibility and sluggish anionic redox kinetics. Here, the authors report a strategy to stabilize the structure and promote anionic redox via configurational entropy and ion-diffusion structural tuning.

The short Argonaute-based bacterial defence system SPARDA exhibits collateral nuclease activity during phage infection. Here, the authors show that target DNA-induced filament assembly of SPARDA leads to tetramerization and activation of the DREN nuclease domain.

This work demonstrates superadiabatic topological pumping on photonic chips, achieving a 20-fold device miniaturization and high-efficiency operation across a 650–920 nm bandwidth, paving the way for ultracompact integrated photonic transports.