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A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

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.

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.

Investigating the inner structure of baryons is important to further our understanding of the strong interaction. Here, the BESIII Collaboration extracts the absolute value of the ratio of the electric to magnetic form factors and its relative phase for e + e − → J/ψ → ΛΣ decays, enhancing the signal thanks to the vacuum polarisation effect at the J/ψ peak.

Here the authors use a genome-wide approach to identify genetic variants associated with RNA isoform variation, uncovering new links between transcriptional regulation and complex traits. The findings can advance understanding of disease mechanisms.

Isotope engineering can enhance spin coherence of solid-state defects, such as NV centers in diamond but progress for defects in hBN has been limited. Gong et al. report the optimization of isotopes in hBN and demonstrate improved coherence and relaxation times for the negatively charged boron vacancy centers.

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.

Large language models (LLMs) are emerging as powerful tools in healthcare, with a growing role in global health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This Perspective examines the current progress, challenges and prospects of LLMs in addressing health system disparities and supporting achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Federated learning (FL) algorithms have emerged as a promising solution to train models for healthcare imaging across institutions while preserving privacy. Here, the authors describe the Federated Tumor Segmentation (FeTS) challenge for the decentralised benchmarking of FL algorithms and evaluation of Healthcare AI algorithm generalizability in real-world cancer imaging datasets.

The microbial metabolite trimethylamine (TMA), the precursor of TMAO, which is associated with adverse cardiometabolic outcomes, is shown to have beneficial metabolic and anti-inflammatory effects in the host in the context of obesity.

Somatic mutations accumulate with age and have been linked to functional decline and disease. Single-cell analysis of human cartilage samples from donors with and without osteoarthritis shows that somatic mutations accumulate with age, but, in osteoarthritis, they show distinct mutational patterns and slower accumulation, possibly due to DNA-damage-induced chondrocyte death.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

Francis et al. used cryo-electron microscopy to show how a SPIN90 dimer activates the metazoan Arp2/3 complex to nucleate linear actin filaments for unidirectional and bidirectional growth, forming potential scaffolds for rapid assembly of dynamic actin networks.

The combination of computational design, laboratory-based screening and biophysical validation enables the de novo generation of variable heavy-chain antibody fragments and antibodies that precisely target chosen disease-related molecules.

Microflora Danica—an atlas of Danish environmental microbiomes—reveals that although human-disturbed habitats have high alpha diversity, species reoccur, revealing hidden homogeneity.

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.

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.

Multielectron molecular CO₂ reduction in acid is challenged by weak CO binding and competing hydrogen evolution. Here a methanol Faradaic efficiency of 62% is achieved in acid by tuning the microenvironment with cationic, hydrophobic and aerophilic layers.

This protocol covers a package for running statistical testing on the temporal dynamics of neural activity data obtained from various functional neural recording modalities.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

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 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.

Magnetospheric substorms are powerful space weather events with debated onset mechanisms. Here, the authors show that new radio precursors of auroral kilometric radiation coincide with wave-like aurora and reveal Alfvénic processes before substorm onset.

Thermal lepton pairs are ideal probes for the temperature of quark-gluon plasma. Here, the STAR Collaboration uses thermal electron-positron pair production to measure quark-gluon plasma average temperature at different stages of the evolution.

Here, using samples from ~1,100 individuals, the authors define the nasal microbiome linked to Staphylococcus aureus colonization, identifying seven communities- either S. aureus-dominated or dominated by other bacteria.

Tree longevity is thought to increase in harsh environments, but global evidence of drivers is lacking. Here, the authors find two different pathways for tree longevity: slow growth in resource limited environments and increasing tree stature and/or slow growth in competitive environments.

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.

Vertebra lengths differ from the neck to the tail tip and differ between species, evidenced by extreme differences in mouse and jerboa tails. Here, Weber and colleagues identify cellular mechanisms and candidate genes that shape vertebral proportion.

Here the authors perform a trans expression quantitative trait locus meta-analysis study of over 3,700 people and link a USP18 variant to expression of 50 inflammation genes and lupus risk, highlighting how genetic regulation of immune responses drives autoimmune disease and informs new therapies.

A study reports whole-genome sequences for 490,640 participants from the UK Biobank and combines these data with phenotypic data to provide new insights into the relationship between human variation and sequence variation.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

Quinone-based electrochemical systems can capture carbon dioxide but are limited by oxygen reactivity. Here, authors present a naphthoquinone and electrolyte design that improves oxygen tolerance while maintaining efficient carbon dioxide capture and concentration in aqueous flow cells.

The authors find that TDP-43 loss of function—the pathology defining the neurodegenerative conditions ALS and FTD—induces novel mRNA polyadenylation events, which have different effects, including an increase in RNA stability, leading to higher protein levels.

Resolution of G4s has been suggested to be required for efficient DNA replication. Here, the authors show that the nuclease DNA2 and the DNA repair complex MutSα (MSH2-MSH6) are required to remove G4 stabilized by environmental compounds to allow efficient telomere replication.

Previous ophthalmic foundation models have struggled to generalize effectively to diverse and rare fundus diseases, restricting their clinical applicability. Here, the authors introduce a vision-language foundation model that demonstrates superior performance in diagnosing both common and rare fundus conditions.

A pooling–deconvolution algorithm identifies cooperative catalyst behaviours with low experimental cost while accommodating potential inhibitory effects between catalyst candidates.

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.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have improved our understanding of the genetic basis of lung adenocarcinoma but known susceptibility variants explain only a small fraction of the familial risk. Here, the authors perform a two-stage GWAS and report 12 novel genetic loci associated with lung adenocarcinoma in East Asians.

GM4951 is a GTPase in hepatic lipid metabolism. Here, the authors determine the atomic structure of GM4951, which forms a tail-to-tail dimer essential for lipid droplet localization. MASLD-linked mutations destabilize the protein and alter the dynamics of switch loops of the GTPase domain.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of type 2 diabetes (T2D) identifies more than 600 T2D-associated loci; integrating physiological trait and single-cell chromatin accessibility data at these loci sheds light on heterogeneity within the T2D phenotype.

Primary angle-closure glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness. Here, the authors identify rare deleterious variants in UBOX5 as risk factors and implicate BIP ubiquitination as a potential disease mechanism.

A combination of genome-wide functional screening, imaging and chromatin profiling identifies a new class of highly prevalent genomic elements that help retain extrachromosomal DNA copies in dividing cells and persist across generations.

In forests, trait expression is influenced by tree-tree interactions. Castro Sánchez-Bermejo et al. show how phenotypic variability of tree species decreases with tree diversity and contributes importantly to functional diversity in forests.