Volume 604 Issue 7906, 21 April 2022

These are three mistakes universities make when they attempt to improve gender equity.

Traces of the psychoactive substance in mummies might be the earliest evidence of its use as an antidepressant.

Less than 4% of the world’s protected lands are in private hands, but they are crucial to conserving certain types of natural area.

Newly discovered object is at least 5 megaparsecs, or 16 million light years, across — making it the biggest known structure produced by a single galaxy.

Data from Chinese schools show that gender-based stereotypes of maths ability pass from parents to children — and from those children to others.

Rapa Nui has fewer than 10,000 residents but is on the receiving end of carbon monoxide from continents thousands of kilometres away.

The standard practice of treating only severe cases of high blood pressure during pregnancy might be misguided.

The subterranean form of the Mexican tetra has evolved thrifty genes that allow it to make the most out of infrequent meals.

The latest science news, in brief.

From laps of the apartment to fears for students who desperately need data, four researchers speak about their lockdown experience.

After a two-week trial, Feng ‘Franklin’ Tao was convicted on four of eight charges — but a judge is reviewing the case.

Supply shortages and limits on research leave low- and middle-income countries struggling to access Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral.

Radical emissions cuts combined with some atmospheric carbon removal are the only hope to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, scientists warn.

Jars contained fish, fruit and beeswax balm to sustain the tomb’s residents in the afterlife.

A satellite will scour the Milky Way for exoplanets orbiting stars just like the Sun.

Implants are becoming more sophisticated — and are attracting commercial interest.

Every large organization should plot a path to net gain in biodiversity — here’s how.

First-generation students face challenges navigating graduate school. How can institutions better support them?

Plant scientist Liang Lin develops cryopreservation technology to store seeds and plant tissues at liquid-nitrogen temperature to conserve biodiversity.

Gaining the ability to make stone tools was a useful development for early human ancestors in the hominin branch of the evolutionary tree. Could studying orangutans provide clues to how this behaviour arose?

Neutral atoms are fast becoming prime candidates for use in quantum computers. Two studies involving multiple quantum bits show how this platform enables creative solutions for building quantum circuits.

Climate effects on ecosystems shaped the evolution of our hominin relatives in the human family tree. A modelling study examines these habitat changes and the various ways in which they influenced hominin species.

Climate models can provide accurate seasonal forecasts of unusually warm ocean temperatures, enabling the models’ predictions to guide decisions made by stakeholders in the marine industries and conservation.

Two differing approaches that are used to study common and rare genetic causes of schizophrenia reveal convergent clues about the biology underlying this complex disorder.

Snippets from Nature’s past.

Throughout life, cells accrue mutations. It now emerges that longer-lived animals acquire mutations at a slower rate than do short-lived species, potentially explaining why cancer risk does not increase with lifespan.

The Human Pangenome Reference Consortium aims to offer the highest quality and most complete human pangenome reference that provides diverse genomic representation across human populations.

The identification and characterization of rapid bursts in three accreting white dwarfs have shown that magnetically confined thermonuclear runaways resembling type-I X-ray bursts may occur in the surface layers of white dwarf atmospheres.

A quantum processer is realized using arrays of neutral atoms that are transported in a parallel manner by optical tweezers during computations, and used for quantum error correction and simulations.

A programmable neutral-atom quantum computer based on a two-dimensional array of qubits led to the creation of 2–6-qubit Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger states and showed the ability to execute quantum phase estimation and optimization algorithms.

Piezoelectric coupling of a single superconducting qubit to two phononic crystal nanoresonators results in an integrated device that is able to control and read out the quantum state of the two mechanical resonators.

A study reveals light as a new dynamic knob to control ferromagnetic order in moiré superlattices.

  . Triplet fusion upconversion nanocapsules dispersed in a photopolymerizable resin allow for volumetric 3D printing at low-power continuous-wave excitation without support structures. 

A simple acid treatment can improve high-temperature annealed electrolyte surfaces, resulting in improved performance and stability at lower temperatures for protonic ceramic fuel/electrolysis cells, offering new understanding for sustainable energy infrastructures.

Climate forecast systems are used to develop and evaluate global predictions of marine heatwaves (MHWs), highlighting the feasibility of predicting MHWs and providing a foundation for operational MHW forecasts to support climate adaptation and resilience.

By combining experimental constraints on mantle melting with magnetotelluric data, volatile-rich melts emplaced by a mantle plume were shown to be present in the asthenosphere beneath the Cocos Plate.

A new model simulation of climate change during the past 2 million years indicates that the appearances and disappearances of hominin species correlate with long-term climatic anomalies.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

Whole-exome sequencing identifies ten risk genes for schizophrenia implicated by rare protein-coding variants, a subset of which overlap with risk genes in other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Whole-genome sequencing is used to analyse the landscape of somatic mutation in intestinal crypts from 16 mammalian species, revealing that rates of somatic mutation inversely scale with the lifespan of the animal across species.

MRI data from more than 100 studies have been aggregated to yield new insights about brain development and ageing, and create an interactive open resource for comparison of brain structures throughout the human lifespan, including those associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

The HSC signature RUNX1⁺HOXA9⁺MLLT3⁺MECOM⁺HLF⁺SPINK2⁺ distinguishes haematopoietic stem cells from their endothelial precursors and differentiated progenitors throughout ontogeny

Structural analysis of Clostridioides difficile RNA polymerase in complex with fidaxomicin combined with biochemical, genetic and bioinformatic analyses identifies a key residue that determines fidaxomicin sensitivity.

The structures of the open and closed states of the Omicron spike protein and its complex with the ACE2 receptor or a broadly neutralizing antibody are resolved and shed light on the receptor engagement and antibody neutralization of Omicron.

A study reports on the antigenic characterization of SARS-CoV-2 BA.1, BA.1.1 and BA.2 and the neutralizing activity of different monoclonal antibodies and sera against them.

The cryo-electron microscopy structure of human STING bound to both cyclic GMP-AMP and the small-molecule agonist C53 reveals an agonist-binding site in the STING transmembrane domain, and provides insight into the oligomerization and activation of STING.

A genome-wide CRISPR knockout screen in a model of glioblastoma shows that killing by chimeric antigen receptor T cells requires interferon-γ receptor-dependent adhesion to tumour cells, but cytotoxicity of liquid tumours does not rely on this pathway.

The transcriptional effect of an enhancer depends on its contact probabilities with the promoter through a nonlinear relationship, and enhancer strength determines absolute transcription levels as well as the sensitivity of a promoter to CTCF-mediated transcriptional insulation.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of human telomerase and telomerase in complex with TPP1 provide insights into the interactions of these proteins and their activities.