Volume 599 Issue 7884, 11 November 2021

Regulators and researchers should give patients and physicians meaningful information to guide decisions.

Sensors that peer underground chart the unexpected sprawl of Karakorum, established by the heir to Genghis Khan.

Even when deadlines are flexible, women are less likely than men to seek extra time for assignments.

A dose of silica-coated cancer cells helps to rally the immune system against malignancies in mice.

One master switch controls a wide range of behaviours in an ant that undergoes a radical makeover.

Light from 11 billion years ago provides a view of galactic ‘protoclusters’ that could grow into behemoths.

A laboratory ‘roundabout’ helps scientists to determine the types of barrier that can halt an underwater dune’s travels.

Important crop-growing regions, such as Brazil, are susceptible to droughts that strike with alarming speed.

The latest science news, in brief.

Studies suggest that a reversal of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision would be detrimental for many.

The country’s relaxation of measures such as masking — especially in England — is showing the limits of relying on vaccines alone.

An international team of researchers wants to find people who are genetically resistant to SARS-CoV-2, in the hope of developing new drugs and treatments.

Its ‘decadal survey’ pitches big new space observatories, funding for large telescopes and a reckoning over social issues plaguing the field.

Synapse genes help cells to communicate in sponge’s digestive chambers.

With a push from students and alumni, the university faced up to a legacy of support for eugenics. As it renames buildings and programmes, can its story serve as a model for others?

A book critiques the evidence for epigenetic inheritance of trauma.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.

As the pandemic continues, researchers are coming to terms with what they’ve learnt and lost so far, finds Nature’s global survey.

Scientists are developing ways to probe the activity, function and organization of neurons in real time with increasing precision.

Kendrew Colhoun tracks the movements of migratory birds in Ireland.

Molecular evidence has long indicated that aquatic animals called bryozoans should be found among the fossils of the Cambrian period, around 541 million years ago. Yet they have been conspicuously absent, until now.

The genomes of Bronze Age mummies from the Tarim Basin in northwest China suggest that these individuals were descended from an ancient Asian population that was genetically isolated, despite extensive cultural interactions in the region.

Understanding how diet affects tumour growth could lead to better treatments. Analysis in mice reveals that a low-calorie diet, but not a ketogenic diet, slows the growth of pancreatic cancer. This effect is mediated by lipid changes.

Nature’s pages feature a textbook that takes a new approach for covering science, and an obituary of Charles Babbage.

Palaeoclimate data and models have been used to produce a comprehensive report of Earth’s temperature changes over the past 24 millennia. The results suggest that modern warming differs from the gradual rise of the past 10,000 years.

Genomes from living and extinct rhinos reveal that different species evolved as a result of geographic isolation. A comparison of DNA from different species also shows that rhinos have long displayed low genetic variability.

An optical lattice for trapping a Bose–Einstein condensate reported here includes photon-mediated atom–atom interactions that replicate acoustic modes in real crystals.

A study reveals a temperature-dependent cascade of different symmetry-broken electronic states in the kagome superconductor CsV₃Sb₅, and highlights intriguing parallels between vanadium-based kagome metals and materials exhibiting similar electronic phases.

A study reports unconventional superconductivity and a pair density wave in the kagome superconductor CsV₃Sb₅, and provides a basis for understanding the microscopic origin of correlated electronic states and superconductivity in vanadium-based kagome metals.

An all-in-one methodology for fabricating soft robotics reported here uses interfacial flows in elastomers that cure to produce actuators that can be tailored to suit applications from artificial muscles to grippers.

Propene is obtained through propane dehydrogenation using catalysts that are toxic, expensive or demanding to regenerate with ecologically harmful compounds, but the ZnO-based alternative reported here is cheap, clean and scalable.

Paleoclimate datasets are integrated with a climate model to reconstruct global surface temperature since the Last Glacial Maximum, showing sustained warming until the mid-Holocene.

Numerical subduction models used to determine the consequences of bending-induced plate damage show that slab weakening and segmentation can occur at the outer-rise region of the subducting plate.

Interpretation of the early Cambrian fossil Protomelission gatehousei⁹ as a potential stem-group bryozoan realigns the fossil record with molecular clock estimations of the origins of Bryozoa.

A genomic analysis of human remains from the Bronze Age provides insights into the origin of the Tarim Basin mummies from the Xinjiang region.

Neurons in the medial amygdala regulate prosocial comforting behaviour towards distressed social partners in mice.

Stem cells cultured in a micropattern-constrained platform  form a quantitative and robust model of human neural tube morphogenesis.

Auxin rapidly modulates root growth through simultaneous activation of two opposing mechanisms—TMK1-mediated apoplast acidification and TIR1/AFB-mediated apoplast alkalinization.

Auxin induces transmembrane-kinase-dependent activation of H⁺-ATPase in the plasma membrane through phosphorylation of its penultimate threonine residue, promoting apoplastic acidification and hypocotyl cell elongation in Arabidopsis.

Virus-induced senescence is a central pathogenic feature in COVID-19, and senolytics, which promote apoptosis of senescent cells, can reduce disease severity in hamsters,mice, as well as humans infected with SARS-CoV-2.

This study reports the identification of a new post-translational modification, termed ADP riboxanation, which is mediated by the Shigella effector OspC3 and inactivates the cytosolic LPS sensing pathway of caspase-4 and caspase-11.

Increased glycogen metabolism in adipocytes leads to expression of uncoupling protein 1, thereby linking glucose metabolism to thermogenesis.

Lien et al. show that low glycemic diets can reduce tumour growth by deregulating lipid metabolism.

By developing a new eccDNA purification and profiling method, the study revealed close-to-random genomic origination, mechanism of biogenesis and function of eccDNAs. 

Cryo-EM structure of Nf1 protein is reported, revealing closed and open conformations that regulate interaction with Ras oncogene, setting the stage for understanding the mechanistic action of Nf1 and how disease mutations lead to dysfunction.

Cryo-electron microscopy studies show that dynamic coordination of Na⁺ in the ion channel of Dispatched homologue 1 and the transmembrane Na⁺ gradient have key roles in exporting lipid-modified Hedgehog protein signal.

The authors report the structures of glutamate-gated kainate receptors in complex with NETO2 in both the resting and the desensitized states and reveal how kainate receptors in the brain are regulated by NETO2.