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The authors demonstrate dual-probe multi-messenger imaging of high-energy-density plasmas based on laser-wakefield-accelerated electrons. This enables spatiotemporally resolved simultaneous probing of plasma hydrodynamics and electromagnetic field evolution with both x-ray and electron beams.

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.

Soil surface temperatures constrain the low-elevation extent of forests in the western United States through their direct effects on seedling mortality, according to analyses of the relationship between post-fire tree recruitment and soil surface temperature across this region.

The face reveals more than just emotion. Cazettes, Reato and colleagues show that subtle facial movements reveal hidden cognitive states, reflecting the brain’s ongoing computations and offering a noninvasive window into unexpressed thoughts and decisions.

Unlike carbon, boron is unable to form graphene-type structures, although variants with hexagonal holes have been suggested. Here the authors provide experimental evidence for the viability of such atom-thin boron sheets on the basis of a hexagonal vacancy discovered in a 36-atom planar boron cluster.

Reframing of arousal as a latent dynamical system can reconstruct multidimensional measurements of large-scale spatiotemporal brain dynamics on the timescale of seconds in mice.

In mice, a strong aversive experience drives offline ensemble reactivation of not only the recent aversive memory but also a neutral memory formed 2 days before, linking fear of the recent aversive memory to the previous neutral memory.

The synthesis of aziridines—three-membered nitrogen-containing heterocycles—is achieved by a new method involving the electrochemical coupling of alkenes and amines, via a dicationic intermediate.

Epoxides, which readily undergo C–O bond cleavage, also undergo skeletal rearrangements via C–C bond activation. This Review discusses modes of epoxide C–C bond cleavage and their applications, highlighting the mechanistic features which lead to selective bond scission.

Climate change is warming freshwater fish thermal habitats. Here, the authors examine daily temperature profiles from 12,688 lakes and thermal habitats of 60 fish species, finding that cold-water fishes are losing preferred thermal habitats at a faster rate than warm-water fishes are gaining them.

There is an urgent need for rapid point-of-care tools for tuberculosis diagnosis and antibiotic sensitivity analysis. Here, the authors describe a breath test that, within minutes, detects isoniazid-susceptible Mycobacterium tuberculosisin infected animals.

Lithium-ion intercalation of bilayer graphene is shown to proceed via four distinct stages corresponding to different ordered in-plane arrangements of Li ions, commensurate with the underlying graphene lattices in both AA and AB stacking configurations.

Detecting dilute airborne biomarkers is important in healthcare but is limited by the low sensitivity of current gas sensors. A portable, low-cost device is introduced that uses water condensation to enrich airborne biomarkers into a concentrated liquid, enabling existing liquid sensors to detect biomarkers with high sensitivity and broad accessibility.

A high-sensitivity, broadband, transient, full-Stokes spectroscopy setup is demonstrated, which can detect quickly varying small signals from chiral emitters.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking can induce instabilities in natural and engineered systems. Nicolaou et al. show that such instabilities can be prevented by introducing suitable system asymmetry in the form of spatial heterogeneity, relevant for the development of novel control and design techniques.

Factors controlling cancer and neoplasia prevalence across species are unclear. Here, the authors investigate the impact of diet and plasma glucose levels across 273 vertebrate species, finding no association between glucose levels and cancer within birds, mammals, or reptiles.

Calculations suggest that ion transport through nanochannels is significantly modified as the diameter approaches molecular dimensions. Choi et al.introduce a single-nanotube platform to demonstrate this effect and find a maximum ion transport rate at a diameter of approximately 1.6 nm.

Narrow, long graphene nanoribbons with atomically smooth and defect-free edges can be produced by squashing carbon nanotubes, and can be used to fabricate a sub-3-nm-wide channel field-effect transistor with a mobility of 2,443 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹.

Genome-scale DNA methylation maps over early human embryogenesis and embryonic stem cell derivation provide insights into shared and unique modes of regulation when compared to the mouse model, including relationships to gene expression, transposable element activity, and maternal-specific methylation.

A picture of how heavy fermions acquire their mass enhancement has now been obtained using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy.

Studying RNA dynamics in vivo often relies on fluorogenic approaches, but these can be hampered by factors such as limited sensitivity and sample autofluorescence. Here, the authors describe an ultrasensitive platform for RNA imaging, which features RNA tags that recruit light-emitting luciferase fragments.

Barriers underlying the inefficiency of reprogramming cells to pluripotency are poorly defined. Here the authors identify a transient interval soon after pluripotency exit that permits high-efficiency reprogramming and is facilitated by OCT4 bound elements displaying unique silencing behaviour during differentiation.

How does the brain define a useful decision variable (DV) when many possibilities are available? The authors show that rather than committing to the DV used to solve the task, the mouse’s premotor cortex entertains several strategies in parallel.

The authors reveal that the chromatin architectural proteins CTCF and RAD21 organize DNA around nuclear speckles to enhance gene induction. This structural organization, when disrupted as in Cornelia de Lange syndrome, impairs key gene functions, providing insight into potential disease mechanisms.

Exploring the miniaturization of imaging systems, researchers use inverse-design for broadband meta-optics in the LWIR spectrum. Here, authors achieve a six-fold Strehl ratio improvement in image quality over conventional metalenses using a novel design and computational techniques.

Iron sulfide nanoclusters enable on-demand and local generation of nitric oxide, an important lipophilic messenger in the brain, allowing the modulation and investigation of nitric oxide-triggered neural signalling events.

Treatment with neoadjuvant BRAF/MEK-targeted therapy results in higher rates of major pathological response in female compared with male patients with melanoma, and pharmacological inhibition of androgen receptor signalling improved the responses of male and female mice to BRAF/MEK-targeted therapy.

Arachnoid cuff exit points create openings in the arachnoid barrier enabling the drainage of cerebrospinal fluid and exchange of molecules and cells between the dura and the subarachnoid space, therefore physically connecting the brain and the dura.

The accumulation of alpha-synuclein fibrils within neurons is the defining feature of Lewy body dementia (LBD). Here the authors report a method to produce large quantities of alpha-synuclein fibrils that reproduce the complex structure of the fibrils that accumulate in LBD brain tissue.

The authors developed an optical imaging approach for mapping cortical functions through the intact skull in marmoset monkeys. Detailed functions and topographies were revealed in visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortices at mesoscopic scales.

Films of exfoliated crystals of two-dimensional hybrid metal halide perovskites with phenyl groups as organic cations show increased molecular rigidity, reduced electron–phonon interactions and blue emission with photoluminescence quantum yield approaching 80%.

A subcortical circuit that regulates food consumption in mice is described, involving neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus that are directly linked to motor centres that regulate feeding and jaw movements.

Meningeal lymphatic drainage can affect the microglial inflammatory response and anti-amyloid-β immunotherapy in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.

In this study, the authors develop a semi-supervised approach to train a deep learning model, PhaseNet-DAS, for identifying seismic phases in Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) data, which enables detecting and locating earthquakes using fiber-optic networks.

Waves of neural activity travel across single regions in the visual cortex, but their computational role is unclear. Here, the authors present a neural network model demonstrating that waves traveling over retinotopic maps can enable short-term predictions of future inputs.

Isotope tracing, kinetics and transcriptomics show how members of the four AOM lineages employ different nitrogen use strategies that minimize competition for nitrogen substrates.

Approaches have been devised to increase the discovery rate of intrabodies but often these yield results that aren’t functional in cells. Here the authors engineer and optimise an autonomous and disulphide-free human VH domain for intracellular expression, and they identify several VH domain binders against eIF4E.

The intercalated disc (ICD) is a membrane structure of the cardiac muscle involved in normal heart function. Here the authors report that knockdown of the ICD-bound transmembrane protein 65 results in impaired ICD structure, abnormal cardiac electrophysiology and cardiomyopathy in mice.

Electrochemical oxygen reduction to H₂O₂ in acidic media suffers from low selectivity, especially at high current densities. Here, the authors report a cation-regulated “shielding effect” to promote the H₂O₂ selectivity under industrial-relevant current in strong acid.

Materials for extreme environments can help to protect people, structures and the planet. Extreme temperatures in aeroplane engines, hypervelocity micrometeoroid impacts on satellites, high-speed machining of ceramics and strong radiation doses in nuclear reactors are just some examples of extreme conditions that materials need to withstand. In this Viewpoint, experts working on materials for different types of extreme environments discuss the most exciting advances, opportunities and bottlenecks in their fields.

Understanding how cells organize into organs is a key effort in developmental biology. Here the authors introduce the sea star hydrovascular organ as a genetically tractable system to understand the contribution of cell migration and signaling pathways in tubulogenesis.

OPCML is a tumour suppressor gene that is epigenetically silenced in ovarian cancer and is somatically mutated in various cancers. Here, the authors solve the X-ray crystal structure of OPCML and model clinically relevant mutations that could contribute to tumorigenesis.

Fabricating and mechanically testing nanoarchitected materials remains a challenge. Here, the authors use colloidal synthesis to fabricate Au-Ag hollow nanoboxes and investigate the effect of either a rough or a smooth nanobox surface on the mechanical properties.

Conducting epigenomic studies on FFPE samples is traditionally challenging due to chromatin damage caused due to exposure to formaldehyde. Here, the authors show that an optimisation of their previous CUTAC method allows the production of high-resolution maps of regulatory elements from FFPE samples.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.