Volume 629 Issue 8010, 2 May 2024

Climate campaigners and politicians rightly concentrate on the benefits of clean energy — but without more support for those who are adversely affected, the backlash will only grow.

With an election under way, the future of Indian science is on the ballot. Encouraging research and critical thinking should be a priority for the new government.

Simple measures to strengthen the interface between science, policy and society in African nations could help the continent leapfrog others in sustainable innovation and development.

Scientists initially thought that the outsized teeth were fangs, giving rise to the ‘sabre-toothed salmon’ nickname.

Carbon emissions from flights that departed from low- and middle-income countries in 2019 totalled 417 million tonnes.

Findings underscore that genetic factors contribute to development of the condition after a traumatic incident.

The common fungus Aspergillus niger removes both heavy metals and organic pollutants from its surroundings.

A cluster of mpox cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo sparks worries of a wider outbreak.

A declaration signed by dozens of scientists says there is ‘a realistic possibility’ for elements of consciousness in reptiles, insects and molluscs.

Researchers from several disciplines hope to predict — and prevent — scenarios that pose risks to humanity.

Sheets of gold might find use as catalysts, or in light-sensing devices.

As the military alliance created to counter the Soviet Union expands, it is prioritizing studies on how climate change affects security, cyberattacks and election interference.

Government budget includes more money for basic research and notable increases to postgraduate stipends.

The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans is quick to forget a notable odour — unless it is chilled or given lithium.

Regulators have identified around 30 cases of cancer linked to this blockbuster treatment. But is CAR T to blame? The hunt is on for answers.

Decades of evidence shows that exercise leads to healthier, longer lives. Researchers are just starting to work out what it does to cells to reap this reward.

Clinical trials of the first oral contraceptive recalled in a bold theatre production.

By suppressing questions they considered too ‘philosophical’, post-war physicists created an unquestioning orthodoxy that influences science to this day.

Some scientists are reluctant to investigate questions about sex and gender, particularly given today’s sociopolitical tensions around gender identity. But they should lean in and embrace the complexity.

Binary sex studies have been denounced as too simplistic, but dropping them altogether would impede progress in a long-neglected area of biomedicine.

Academics are calling for greater transparency in harassment cases. But do the benefits outweigh the risks?

Chan Zuckerberg CELL by GENE Discover aims to be a one-stop shop for single-cell RNA sequencing data storage, access and analysis.

Matthew Nitschke grows coral symbionts in a slowly warming tank to prepare reef life for climate change.

A parachute-like skin membrane, the patagium, evolved independently in several marsupial species. Genomic analysis suggests that this trait came about through different changes to the regulation of the same gene.

Observations have revealed a galaxy that stopped forming stars earlier than expected. This discovery offers clues about when the first galaxies emerged and sheds light on how stars formed when the Universe was in its infancy.

The sympathetic nervous system, which enables the fight-or-flight response, was thought to be present only in jawed vertebrates. Analysis of a jawless vertebrate suggests that this system might be a feature of all animals with a spine.

An innovative proposal to stop exam over-preparation, plus William Bateson’s 1924 take on the previous century of biology, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.

Bacteria make protein toxins to compete with other bacteria in microbial communities. A study of a common soil bacterium has revealed a previously unknown type of antibacterial toxin that forms a striking umbrella-like structure.

By adapting methods for fabricating and testing conventional computer chips, researchers have brought silicon-based quantum computers closer to reality — and to accessing the immense benefits of a mature chipmaking industry.

Analysis of the JWST/NIRSpec spectrum of the recently observed Lyman-break galaxy JADES-GS+53.15508-27.80178 revealed a redshift of z = 7.3, a Balmer break and a complete absence of nebular emission lines, indicating that quenching occurred only 700 million years after the Big Bang.

We report observations of GRB 231115A, positionally coincident with the starburst galaxy M82, that unambiguously qualify this burst as a giant flare from a magnetar, which is a rare explosive event releasing gamma rays.

The trapping of triply charged ^229mTh³⁺ is described and its nuclear decay half-life determined, showing useful properties for the development of a nuclear clock and applications in the search for new physics.

Near-field radiative heat transfer between two coplanar silicon carbide membranes in close proximity is enhanced by the electromagnetic corner and edge modes.

 Centimetre-sized single-crystal rhombohedral boron nitride layers are achieved through bevel-edge epitaxy, and the resulting material exhibits robust, homogeneous and switchable ferroelectricity with a high Curie temperature.

Using a cryogenic 300-mm wafer prober, a new approach for the testing of hundreds of industry-manufactured spin qubit devices at 1.6 K provides high-volume data on performance, allowing optimization of the complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible fabrication process.

A fibre lithium-ion battery that can potentially be woven into textiles shows enhanced battery performance and safety compared with liquid electrolytes.

Use of a chain-ether-based solvent instead of tetrahydrofuran for lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction enables long-term continuous ammonia electrosynthesis with high efficiency and improved gas-phase ammonia distribution.

We report on the oxidative cross-coupling of organoboron reagents and amino acids via pyridoxal biocatalysis to produce non-canonical amino acids, uncovering stereoselective, intermolecular free-radical transformations.

Datasets from in situ warming experiments across 28 arctic and alpine tundra sites covering  a span of less than 1 year up to 25 years show the importance of local soil conditions and warming-induced changes therein for future climatic impacts on ecosystem respiration.  

An analysis of the rate at which isotherms are shifting in mountain regions worldwide identifies 17 key regions with particularly high vertical isotherm shift velocities, and provides insight into how these shifts affect species ranges.

Challenging the belief that sympathetic ganglia are an innovation of jawed vertebrates, a study reports the presence of sympathetic neurons in an extant jawless vertebrate, the sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus.

Patagia—the mammalian gliding membrane—repeatedly originated through a process of convergent genomic evolution, whereby the regulation of Emx2 was altered by distinct cis-regulatory elements in independently evolved species.

A comparison of two complete sets of human centromeres reveals that the centromeres show at least a 4.1-fold increase in single-nucleotide variation compared with their unique flanks, and up to 3-fold variation in size, resulting from an accelerated mutation rate.

A study investigates subcellular, single-cell and network-level comunication within the astrocyte network in response to the two major neurotransmitter inputs.

The Human Muscle Ageing Cell Atlas provides a series of integrated cellular and molecular explanations for sarcopenia and frailty development in advanced ages.

Streptomyces are discovered to produce antibacterial protein complexes that selectively inhibit the hyphal growth of related species, a function distinct from that of the small-molecule antibiotics they are known for.

Temporal multi-omic analysis of tissues from rats undergoing up to eight weeks of endurance exercise training reveals widespread shared, tissue-specific and sex-specific changes, including immune, metabolic, stress response and mitochondrial pathways.

Glucocorticoids reprogram the mitochondrial metabolism of macrophages, resulting in increased and sustained production of the anti-inflammatory metabolite itaconate and, as a consequence, inhibition of the inflammatory response.

The effects of sex and androgens on the molecular programs and cellular populations are explored using a single-cell transcriptomic atlas comprising over 2.3 million cells from different tissues in Mus musculus.

Increased effectiveness of anti-cancer chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy is associated with a stem-like phenotype through increased expression of FOXO1.

The transcription factor FOXO1 has a key role in human T cell memory, and manipulating FOXO1 expression could provide a way to enhance CAR T cell therapies by increasing CAR T cell persistence and antitumour activity.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of the human Integrator complex in three different functional states shed light on how Integrator terminates RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription by disengaging Pol II from the DNA template.

A study reports structures of an insect taste receptor in the absence and presence of different sugars, providing details on the molecular basis of sugar detection and selectivity in insects.

Monoamines and neurotoxicants share a binding pocket in VMAT1 featuring polar sites for specificity and a wrist-and-fist shape for versatility, and monoamine enrichment in storage vesicles arises from dominant import via favoured lumenal-open transition of VMAT1 and protonation-precluded binding during its cytoplasmic-open transition.