Volume 594 Issue 7864, 24 June 2021

A global movement of younger researchers is making its mark. Science must listen and learn from its next generation.

International financial institutions say that vaccines are the highest-return investment on Earth — it is past time for them to pay up.

Wells are proliferating, but data from across the country show that groundwater extraction is falling.

Food bags, drink bottles and similar items account for the biggest share of plastic waste near the shore.

Fish navigate mazes more quickly and efficiently after a regimen of jumping about on a solid surface.

Researchers track down a signalling molecule and brain cells involved in generating a sneeze.

Astronomers watch as a star is nearly totally blotted out, perhaps by a disk of material surrounding another star.

Modular materials can be programmed to self-assemble into hollow shells with a wide variety of shapes.

Its neighbours scream, but a new species of tree hyrax — a cousin of the elephant — unleashes a rattling bark.

The latest science news, in brief.

Is a trend of auctioning non-fungible tokens based on scientific data a fascinating art fad, an environmental disaster or the future of monetized genomics?

Scientists are searching for explanations to disappointing final-stage trial results. These insights could help guide the future development of mRNA vaccines.

Videos of the surprising phenomenon could help researchers to better understand natural ‘dust devils’ blowing across the red planet.

Scientists praise the budget boost slated for the National Science Foundation, but worry the legislation could dampen international collaborations.

A renewed focus on our planetary neighbour could help to answer major questions about its atmosphere and geology.

Well before people domesticated crops, they were grinding grains for hearty stews and other starchy dishes.

The vaccines do not pass through breast milk, but antibodies do — providing hope that breastfed babies might have some level of protection.

As the first national network of early-career researchers marks its 21st birthday, the founders of Hungary’s describe how and why they set up theirs in 2019.

A look at notable research tools and projects that have rocketed to prominence reveals some common routes to success.

Bernardo Reyes-Tur aims to unravel the mating mysteries of Cuba’s imperilled Polymita.

How animals sense Earth’s magnetic field is an enduring mystery. The protein cryptochrome ErCRY4, found in the eyes of migratory European robins, has the right physical properties to be the elusive magnetosensor.

Plasmons are combinations of light and collective electron oscillations. The demonstration that plasmons can be dragged by drifting electrons in the 2D material graphene could lead to advances in optical physics.

Combined imaging and gene-expression analyses reveal that the arrangement of cells in concentric rings in the disc-like structures that give rise to hair follicles predetermines their eventual fate and location in mature follicles.

Natural killer cells can drive spreading cancer cells to enter a state of dormancy. That finding, together with the discovery of a pathway that hinders this antitumour function, could spur the development of new treatments.

An imaging method has been developed that tracks ion transport in functioning battery materials in real time, at submicrometre scales — offering insights into how to design batteries that charge in minutes.

The Gaia database is used to identify stars from which astronomers on orbiting planets could see Earth transiting the Sun in the past, present and future.

As a blueprint for high-precision quantum simulation, an 18-qubit algorithm that consists of more than 1,400 two-qubit gates is demonstrated, and reconstructs the energy eigenvalues of the simulated one-dimensional wire to a precision of 1 per cent.

Direct infrared nano-imaging of plasmonic waves in graphene carrying high current density reveals the Fizeau drag of plasmon polaritons by fast-moving quasi-relativistic electrons.

Fizeau drag of plasmon polaritons by an electron flow in strongly biased monolayer graphene is directly observed by exploiting the high electron mobility and slow plasmon propagation of Dirac electrons.

The dynamics of ions within a working lithium-ion battery are examined using optical interferometric scattering microscopy, which allows ion transport to be related to phase transitions and microstructural features.

A molecular-scale pump whose operation is driven by a catalytic process when in the presence of chemical fuel is autonomous, within an operating window, as long as the fuel lasts.

Cryptochrome 4 from the night-migratory European robin displays magnetically sensitive photochemistry in vitro, in which four successive flavin–tryptophan radical pairs generate magnetic-field effects and stabilize potential signalling states.

All odours elicit a unique pattern of neuronal activity in primary olfactory cortex but these patterns drift over time, posing a problem for the perceptual constancy of odours.

Live imaging and single-cell transcriptomics of mouse hair follicles reveal their development from 2D concentric zones in the placode to 3D longitudinal compartments, one of which is a stem cell compartment.

Immunization of macaques with nanoparticle-conjugated receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 adjuvanted with 3M-052 and alum results in cross-neutralizing antibodies against bat coronaviruses, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 variants, and may provide a platform for developing pan-coronavirus vaccines.

MARK4 regulates cardiomyocyte contractility by promoting MAP4 phosphorylation, which facilitates the access of VASH2 to microtubules for the detyrosination of α-tubulin; MARK4 deficiency after acute myocardial infarction limits the reduction in the left ventricular ejection fraction.

Liver-resident natural killer (NK) cells sustain the dormancy of disseminated breast cancer cells, and a decrease in NK cells and increase in activated hepatic stellate cells is associated with the formation of liver metastases.

A small proportion of Spo11-dependent DNA double-strand breaks are ‘double cuts’—adjacent breaks that occur in concert—revealing that gap repair during meiosis includes that of DNA gaps generated by Spo11 itself.

Meiotic recombination in yeast is not only initiated by single break sites, but also caused by closely spaced Spo11-dependent double-stranded DNA breaks that create chromosomal gaps.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of mGlu2 and mGlu4 bound to heterotrimeric G_i protein shed light on the molecular basis of asymmetric signal transduction by metabotropic glutamate receptors.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of homo- and heterodimers of mGlu2 and mGlu7 provide insights into their dimerization modes and the subunit conformational changes that characterize the activation of these class C G-protein-coupled receptors.

Cryo-electron microscopy structure of heterodimeric GABA_B receptor in complex with G_i1 protein reveals that the mode of G-protein binding in this class-C G-protein-coupled receptor differs from that of other classes.