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In patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPSCC), resistance to the standard-of-care induction chemotherapy often occurs. Here, using longitudinal single-cell transcriptomic profiling of HPSCC samples from patients receiving induction chemotherapy, the authors identify a ZNF683-high natural killer (NK) cell population as a predictor of chemotherapy response.

Newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants underscore the need for broad-spectrum antiviral solutions. This study shows a macrocyclic peptide inhibitor that locks the SARS-CoV-2 spike trimer into a “closed” conformation by engaging a conserved region, and demonstrates that intranasal administration of the peptide inhibitor protects against Omicron variants.

LINE-1 retrotransposons are implicated in aging, but their role in cardiac aging specifically is not well understood. Here the authors show that LINE-1 expression rises in mouse hearts with age. Genetic LINE-1 derepression is accompanied by cGAS–STING activation and cardiac dysfunction, while pharmacological inhibition of LINE-1 or STING improves cardiac function in aged mice.

Ferromagnetic semiconductors that have the critical properties of semiconductors and ferromagnetism at room temperature have so far proven elusive. Here, by doping black phosphorus with Cobalt, Fu, Qu, Hou, Chang and coauthors induce ferromagnetism that persists up to room temperature, all while maintaining black phosphorus’ semiconducting properties.

Researchers developed a simple, industry-compatible method using an indium buffer layer between cobalt and 2D materials to form vdWs tunnel contacts. This achieved high spin injection efficiency in both graphene and MoS2, enabling future large-scale spintronic devices.

Sweet potato weevils (SPWs) pose one of the most significant challenges to sweet potato production. This study identifies two major SPW-resistant genes, SPWR1/2, and provides new insights into the mechanism of sweet potato defence against SPWs.

Previous clinical studies suggested that Insulin-like growth factor binding-protein 7 (IGFBP7) is elevated in early stages of diabetes. Here authors showed tubule and glomerular-specific IGFBP7 promotes diabetic kidney disease.

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.

The catalytic asymmetric dearomatization (CADA) reaction is a powerful protocol for the assembly of three-dimensional cyclic compounds but phenols have been considered challenging substrates. Here, the authors report the chiral phosphoric acidcatalyzed divergent intermolecular CADA reactions of phenols with azoalkenes to obtain tetrahydroindolone and cyclohexadienone products in good yields with excellent ee values.

A field trial succeeded in eliminating populations of the mosquito Aedes albopictus through inundative mass release of incompatible Wolbachia-infected males, which were also irradiated to sterilize any accidentally-released females, and so prevent population replacement.

Selective catalytic reduction of NOx to N₂ using methanol as the reductant (Methanol-SCR) offers a promising route for eliminating NOx emissions from methanol engines and coal-fired power plants, but its performance at low temperatures remains limited. Here, the authors identify a strategy to enhance low-temperature Methanol-SCR activity through the cooperation between zeolitic acid sites and single iron redox sites.

Single atoms trapped in optical tweezers offer a promising route to quantum computing, but large-scale individual qubit control remains challenging. Here the authors propose and realize a fiber array architecture that enables independent and highly parallel control of single qubits in a neutral atom array.

Stability issues hinder the commercialization of perovskite solar cells. An evaporated, highly oriented wide-bandgap perovskite film is reported, enabled through an intermediate phase evolution, resulting in enhanced stability and efficiency.

Hou, Chen et al. show that aged bone marrow macrophages propagate senescence to multiple tissues in vivo, through extracellular vesicles containing PPARα-targeted microRNAs. They demonstrate the therapeutic potential of intervening in this process using the PPARα agonist fenofibrate.

Gut microbiota influence bone health, but the genetic and metabolic mechanisms are unclear. Here, the authors show that specific bifidobacterial taxa causally reduce bone mineral density, partly via n-3 fatty acid metabolism, highlighting host-microbe interactions with potential therapeutic implications.

Overcoming the suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) is crucial to improving the efficacy of cancer therapy. Here the authors show that, in mouse cancer models, administration of exogenous IL-16 establishes a Th1-dominant TME via regulation of glutamine catabolism and triggers a Th1 cell-macrophage crosstalk, enhancing anti-tumor immune responses and the efficacy of immunotherapy.

Foamy macrophages are key to atherosclerosis but poorly understood. Here, the authors show that GPNMB regulates lipoprotein processing in macrophages, exacerbating pathological lipid accumulation, and revealing it as a therapeutic target whose inhibition reduces atherosclerosis in mice.

Molecular docking is a key tool in computational drug design by searching for numerous poses of ligands bonding to target molecules, which challenges conventional computing. Here, He et al. report a probabilistic computing hardware to accomplish this complex task via a device-architecture co-design.

This study demonstrates a crucial role of N-glycosylation in activating a receptor-like kinase by promoting its interaction with co-receptors.

An anisotropic b-As_0.2P_0.8 phototransistor enables polarization-tunable synaptic behaviors with 4.7 polarization ratio, achieving >90% classification accuracy and high-fidelity polarization imaging through Stokes parameter reconstruction and DoLP mapping.

In this Perspective, members of the Aging Biomarker Consortium outline the X-Age Project, an Aging Biomarker Consortium plan for building standardized aging clocks in China. The authors discuss the project roadmap and its aims of decoding aging heterogeneity, detecting accelerated aging early and evaluating geroprotective interventions.

The molecular mechanisms underlying thrombosis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which contribute to poor clinical outcomes, remain to be explored. Here, the authors show that hexokinase 2 (HK2)-mediated glycolysis leads to lactate-driven histone lactylation, inducing thrombosis in AML.

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.

The first sample of farside lunar soil, collected by Chang’e-6, is strongly cohesive. The high cohesion stems from its fine particle size with intricate shape, probably a result of the high plagioclase abundance and intense meteorite impacts at the sampling site.

Satellite observations reveal global increases in the extent and frequency of phytoplankton blooms between 2003 and 2020 and provide insights into the relationship between blooms, ocean circulation and sea surface temperature.

Maintaining facial warmth and humidity while ensuring adequate oxygen intake in cold environments is challenging for facial masks. Here, the authors design a MetaMask that recovers heat and moisture from exhaled air to warm inhaled air to 26.2 °C in a − 20 °C environment, while maintaining sufficient oxygen levels.

CBASS systems trigger bacterial suicide via membrane disruption. Here, authors show that effector CapV relocates to the cell pole upon sensing 3’3’-cGAMP, where it cleaves phospholipids and ruptures membranes, revealing a filament-dependent activation mechanism for antiviral defense

This study introduces a meta-lens-based hyperspectral radiation thermometry that accurately measures temperatures up to 2973 K with error lower than 0.32%. The method is six times more precise than current methods and holds protentional for developing miniaturized, two-dimensional temperature sensors.

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.

Here, in a study of over 6,000 women across China, the authors show that Mycoplasma hominis infection strongly influences vaginal microbiota and is linked to higher risk of cervical lesions, highlighting its importance in women’s reproductive health.

Carbonyl catalysis is mainly limited to strongly activated primary amines. Now, a chiral bifunctional pyridoxal organocatalyst is developed that enables the activation of the inert α C(sp³)–H bond of NH₂-unprotected benzylamines affording chiral β-aminoalcohols with high diastereo- and enantioselectivities.

Veratramine and cyclopamine are valuable molecules in agricultural and medicinal chemistry, but the efficient chemical synthesis approaches are in high demand. Here, the authors report the concise, divergent, and scalable syntheses of veratramine and cyclopamine with 11% and 6.2% overall yield, respectively.

Common aromatic rings, such as anilines, arylboronic acids and aryl halides, can be opened up and converted to alkenyl nitriles through carbon–carbon bond cleavage using a copper catalyst.

The improvement of thermoelectric performance of materials by reducing lattice thermal conductivity is challenging. Here, the authors find the side chains covalent modification of transition metal disulfides reducing the lattice thermal conductivity.

The semileptonic decay channels of the Λc baryon can give important insights into weak interaction, but decay into a neutron, positron and electron neutrino has not been reported so far, due to difficulties in the final products’ identification. Here, the BESIII Collaboration reports its observation in e+e- collision data, exploiting machine-learning-based identification techniques.

Antiferromagnets have negligible stray magnetic fields and are robust against magnetic perturbations, making them ideal for high-density magnetic memory. However, these features make electrically switching the Néel vector challenging. Here, Guo, Lin and coauthors demonstrate layer-dependent electrical switching of a van der Waals antiferromagnet.

It is uncertain how much life expectancy of the Chinese population would improve under current and greater policy targets on lifestyle-based risk factors for chronic diseases and mortality behaviours. Here we report a simulation of how improvements in four risk factors, namely smoking, alcohol use, physical activity and diet, could affect mortality. We show that in the ideal scenario, that is, all people who currently smokers quit smoking, excessive alcohol userswas reduced to moderate intake, people under 65 increased moderate physical activity by one hour and those aged 65 and older increased by half an hour per day, and all participants ate 200 g more fresh fruits and 50 g more fish/seafood per day, life expectancy at age 30 would increase by 4.83 and 5.39 years for men and women, respectively. In a more moderate risk reduction scenario referred to as the practical scenario, where improvements in each lifestyle factor were approximately halved, the gains in life expectancy at age 30 could be half those of the ideal scenario. However, the validity of these estimates in practise may be influenced by population-wide adherence to lifestyle recommendations. Our findings suggest that the current policy targets set by the Healthy China Initiative could be adjusted dynamically, and a greater increase in life expectancy would be achieved.

Lithium metal batteries face interface stability issues at high temperatures and high voltage. Here, the authors develop a fluorinated lithium salt that resists corrosion, stabilizes interfaces, and enables long-term battery performance under harsh conditions.

Dissipative self-assembly, which requires a continuous supply of fuel to maintain the assembled states far from equilibrium, is the foundation of biological systems but it remains a challenge to introduce light as fuel into artificial dissipative self-assemblies. Here, the authors report an artificial dissipative self-assembly system that is constructed from light-induced amphiphiles.

The mechanical stability of interfaces in perovskite solar cells is not well understood. Chen, Wang, Wang et al. investigate the strength of the bonds between layers and the corresponding effects on the chemical and mechanical stability of perovskite solar cells.

A ductile inorganic-rich solid–electrolyte interphase that retains its structural integrity and allows easy ion diffusion enables a long cycle life under practical conditions for lithium metal batteries.

A new asymmetric non-fullerene acceptor, P2EH-1V, is designed and synthesized for constructing devices demonstrating record-high efficiencies of 26.7% (certified at 26.4%) over an aperture area greater than 1 cm² in perovskite–organic tandem solar cells.

Macroscopic mechanical systems typically respond linearly to external force, and generating nonlinearity is challenging. Here, the authors generate nonlinearity in a macroscopic mechanical resonator by linking it to a gold contact and exploiting the anharmonicity in the chemical bonding interactions.

This study identifies a regulatory module in which UBC32 and SC35 regulate bZIP49 splicing to maintain potassium balance, revealing how poplar adapts to salt stress and providing new insights into plant responses to soil salinity.