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A series of early-time, multiwavelength observations of an optical transient, AT2022cmc, indicate that it is a relativistic jet from a tidal disruption event originating from a supermassive black hole.

Catenanes can exhibit chirality even when their component rings are achiral. Here an isostructural desymmetrization strategy is developed, demonstrating that two achiral rings, each featuring two mirror planes and a two-fold axis of symmetry, can form a catenane with tuneable mechanical chirality.

Plastic deformation is shown to tune the quantum degrees of freedom in SrTiO₃.

Typical quantum error correcting codes assign fixed roles to the underlying physical qubits. Now the performance benefits of alternative, dynamic error correction schemes have been demonstrated on a superconducting quantum processor.

Gene rv3722c is essential for in vitro growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but its function is unclear. Here, Jansen et al. show that Rv3722c is the primary aspartate aminotransferase of this pathogen, mediates nitrogen distribution, and is important for virulence during infection of macrophages and mice.

Wood density is an important plant trait. Data from 1.1 million forest inventory plots and 10,703 tree species show a latitudinal gradient in wood density, with temperature and soil moisture explaining variation at the global scale and disturbance also having a role at the local level.

Exosomal PD-L1 (exoPD-L1) is a biomarker predicting immunotherapeutic responses. Here the authors report NanoEPIC, a nanoscale cytometry platform that enables phenotypic sorting and exoPD-L1 profiling from blood plasma by using magnetic-activated ranking to differentiate exosomal subpopulations.

Time-reversal symmetry breaking has been recently observed in the normal state of kagome superconductors AV₃Sb₅. Here the authors show that this effect is significantly enhanced near the surface of RbV₃Sb₅ and occurs at temperatures higher than the onset of charge order, indicating its tunability under zero-field conditions.

Recently, time-reversal symmetry-breaking charge order was demonstrated in the AV₃Sb₅ (A = K, Rb, Cs) family of kagome superconductors. Here the authors extend this observation to the recently discovered kagome material ScV₆Sn₆ and discuss differences and similarities to other charge-ordered kagome lattices.

Protection afforded by inorganic minerals is assumed to make mineral-associated organic carbon less susceptible to loss under climate change than particulate organic carbon. However, a global study of soil organic carbon from drylands suggests that this is not the case.

The authors uncover a mechano-metabolic adaptation where confinement induces rapid mitochondrial relocalization to the nuclear periphery, generating localized nuclear ATP surges that support chromatin remodeling, DNA repair, and cell cycle progression.

An investigation of muon spin relaxation shows time-reversal symmetry-breaking charge order, intertwined with correlated superconductivity, due to orbital currents in the kagome superconductor KV₃Sb₅.

Wood density is a key control on tree biomass, and understanding its spatial variation improves estimates of forest carbon stock. Sullivan et al. measure >900 forest plots to quantify wood density and produce high resolution maps of its variation across South American tropical forests.

Blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and more than 200 genetic loci associated with BP are known. Here, the authors perform discovery GWAS for BP in East Asians and meta-analysis in East Asians and Europeans and report ancestry-specific BP SNPs and selection signals.

Landau-Zener transitions near an avoided level crossing are a broadly relevant concept in quantum systems. Here the authors use a superconducting flux qubit to shed new light on the role of the environment in Landau-Zener tunneling by observing a crossover between weak and strong coupling.

This work reveals the diversity and extent of human antibody specificities in Chagas disease and provides a wealth of well-defined antigenic markers for diagnosis and development of serological applications for this neglected infectious disease.

Charge-neutral graphene in the quantum Hall regime is known to be an insulator. Now thermal transport measurements show that it also does not conduct heat. This sheds light on the nature of the ground state in this regime.

Using a globally distributed standardized aerial sampling of fungal spores, we show that the hyperdiverse kingdom of fungi follows globally highly predictable spatial and temporal dynamics, with seasonality in both species richness and community composition increasing with latitude.

Genetic and pharmacological inhibition of the overproduction of oxalate in the liver alleviates metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis in male mice.

The authors find that structural economic inequality is linked to reduced brain volume and connectivity in middle-aged and older adults across the Americas, more so in Alzheimer’s disease than in frontotemporal dementia. The findings emphasize the biological embedding of inequality in aging and dementia.

Observations of optical flares from AT2022tsd (the ‘Tasmanian Devil’) show that they have durations on the timescale of minutes, occur over a period of months, are highly energetic, are probably nonthermal and have supernova luminosities.

Arabidopsis root hair growth is enhanced at low temperatures. Here the authors show that the class III peroxidases PRX62 and PRX69 modulate ROS homeostasis and cell wall characteristics, and promote root hair elongation at low temperature.

Anthropogenic eutrophication is a driver of plant community shifts in many grassland ecosystems. Here, the authors use data from a globally distributed experiment to assess how nutrient addition affects multiple facets of grassland ecological stability and their correlations.

Large-scale single-cell sequencing of RNA and T cell receptors in samples from patients with cancer shows clonotypic expansion of effector-like T cells not only in tumour tissue but also in normal adjacent tissues and peripheral blood, which associates with clinical response to cancer immunotherapy.

The relationships that control seed production in trees are key to understand evolutionary pressures that have shaped forests. A global synthesis of fecundity data reveals that while seed production is not constrained by a strict size-number trade-off, it is influenced by taxonomy and nutrient allocation.

Anti-EGFR therapy plus doublet chemotherapy is standard of care for patients with RAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) but the role of triplet chemotherapy is unclear. Here, the authors report a randomised phase 2 trial testing the superiority of adding cetuximab (anti-EGFR) over bevacizumab (anti-VEGF) to modified FOLFOXIRI (5-FU, leucovorin, oxaliplatin and irinotecan) in patients with RAS wild-type mCRC.

Combined analysis of new genomic data from 116 ancient hunter-gatherer individuals together with previously published data provides insights into the genetic structure and demographic shifts of west Eurasian forager populations over a period of 30,000 years.

Bhattacharjee and Schaeffer et al. map exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in 94 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), finding increased EBF practice and reduced subnational variation across the majority of LMICs from 2000 to 2018. However, only six LMICs will meet WHO’s target of ≥70% EBF by 2030 nationally, and only three will achieve this in all districts.

Obtaining a high-resolution contact map using current 3D genomics technologies can be challenging with small input cell numbers. Here, the authors develop ChromaFold, a deep learning model that predicts cell-type-specific 3D contact maps from single-cell chromatin accessibility data alone.

A self-amplifying mRNA vaccine shows promise in this new modality by eliciting neutralizing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (BA.1) variant in a phase 2/3 trial.

Data from a variety of sources—including satellite, climate and soil data, as well as field-collected information on plant traits—are pooled and analysed to map the functional diversity of tropical forest canopies globally.

Analyses of the proportions of individuals who have completed key levels of schooling across all low- and middle-income countries from 2000 to 2017 reveal inequalities across countries as well as within populations.

Genome-wide analysis of self-reported dyslexia identifies 42 associated loci, including 27 not previously associated with cognitive traits. Dyslexia shows genetic correlation with ambidexterity but not neuroanatomical measures of language-related circuitry.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) are the most common skin cancers and have genetic overlap. Here, the authors use a multi-trait genetic and phenotypic analysis to reveal susceptibility loci for BCC and SCC, and report an optimised polygenic risk score for risk stratification.

Analysis of genotyping-by-sequencing data for more than 20,000 barley accessions from a German genebank provides a framework for genomics-assisted genebank management and analysis of large germplasm collections for important crops.

The synthetic enzyme-armed killer (SEAKER) approach equips chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells with the capacity to express enzymes that process anticancer prodrugs at tumor sites of action.

Andrew Morris, Mark McCarthy, Michael Boehnke and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for type 2 diabetes, including 26,488 cases and 83,964 controls from populations of European, east Asian, south Asian and Mexican and Mexican American ancestry. They identify seven loci newly associated with type 2 diabetes and examine the genetic architecture of disease across populations.

A 3D quantum Hall effect has been reported in Dirac semimetal ZrTe₅ due to a magnetic-field-driven Fermi surface instability. Here, the authors show evidence of quasi-quantized Hall response without Fermi surface instability, but they argue that it is due to the interplay of the intrinsic properties of ZrTe₅ electronic structure and Dirac semi-metallic character.

Using a battery of statistical tools, Alagöz et al. examine the genetic overlap between dyslexia and rhythm impairment and shed light on how the genome influences the neural bases of human language and musicality.

Characterising the response to SARS-CoV-2 post vaccination is critical in the appraisement of the induced immune response, performance and protective potential. Here the authors present data from a phase 4 clinical trial in autoimmune rheumatic disease patients 6 months post second dose of Sinovac-CoronaVac inactivated vaccine that show a marked reduction in antibody particularly in males or those under treatment with immune targeting therapies but saw no rise in COVID-19 disease.

High-resolution subnational mapping of child growth failure indicators for 105 low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017 shows that, despite considerable progress, substantial geographical inequalities still exist in some countries.

Analysis of 97,691 high-coverage human blood DNA-derived whole-genome sequences enabled simultaneous identification of germline and somatic mutations that predispose individuals to clonal expansion of haematopoietic stem cells, indicating that both inherited and acquired mutations are linked to age-related cancers and coronary heart disease.