Volume 618 Issue 7967, 29 June 2023

Factors ranging from COVID-19 to Russia’s war in Ukraine are increasing extreme poverty. Finding effective solutions starts with agreeing on how to measure what poverty means.

Current funding models have high risks and low accountability. Public–private partnerships offer a better way.

The huge eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano generated more than 2,600 lightning flashes per minute.

Methods inspired by the Japanese paper art kirigami help to create a textile that moves with the body.

A technique called base editing has been used for the first time to treat human disease.

An elusive member of the gut microbiota can reduce cholesterol synthesis in the intestine.

Freely accessible large language models have accelerated the pace of innovation, computer scientists say.

A small subset of infected people spew huge amounts of virus into the air — despite having only mild symptoms.

Governments and companies are committing to cut and counter carbon emissions, but robust strategies to achieve their goals are lacking.

Following the signing of last year’s major biodiversity deal, countries are arguing over how to fairly finance conservation.

Researchers say a plan is needed to ensure countries aren’t being exploited, if the world is to prevent the next pandemic.

Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that a second world in a seven-planet system lacks an atmosphere.

Two studies help to explain why colorectal and bladder tumours take a bigger toll on men than on women.

Radiation in the water will be diluted to almost-background levels, but some researchers are not sure this will be sufficient to mitigate the risks.

The war is far from over but Ukraine’s government is already considering how to build back — and use the opportunity to move on from a Soviet-era system.

A New York experiment is part of a commercial race to develop ocean-based technologies to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Interest is growing in how little-known viruses could be used to overcome drug-resistant bacteria.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Mathematicians and their collaborators discuss the joys and challenges of working together on projects in science and the arts.

Specialists offer seven tips for effectively sharing your data.

Jes Lefcourt aims to guard African wildlife by creating a real-time tracking software.

Two studies now shed light on how chromosomes that undergo catastrophic shattering are transmitted to daughter cells during cell division, thereby enabling them to be reassembled for the benefit of cancer cells.

Periodic waves of changing electron density are linked to the ability of some materials to conduct electricity without resistance. Four studies reveal that such waves could emerge in more materials than expected.

Snippets from Nature’s past.

The protein NINJ1 drives membrane rupture associated with certain types of cell death. Investigation of NINJ1 reveals mechanistic details of how it functions, raising the possibility of developing new therapeutics.

Simulations using a model of the Earth system have shed light on the role of short-lived halogen-containing gases in climate change. The findings suggest that these gases should now be included in all Earth-system models.

The giant planet 8 Ursae Minoris b seems to have avoided engulfment by its giant host star through a stellar merger that either affected the evolution of the host star or produced 8 Ursae Minoris b as a second-generation planet.

A spin-triplet pair density wave is discovered in the candidate topological superconductor UTe₂ using superconductive scanning tunnelling microscopy tips.

A study using scanning tunnelling microscopy reveals a charge-density-wave state that is sensitive to magnetic fields and strongly intertwined with superconductivity in the heavy-fermion triplet superconductor UTe₂.

The primary pair density wave state has been discovered in a monolayer iron-based high-T_c superconductor, providing a platform to study the interplay between the correlated electronic states and unconventional Cooper pairing in high-T_c superconductors.

Measurements show that smectic pair-density-wave order exists in the magnetic iron pnictide superconductor EuRbFe₄As₄ and that the pair-density-wave state is a primary, zero-field superconducting state in this compound.

Our experimental proof of chiral phonons demonstrates a degree of freedom in condensed matter that is of fundamental importance and opens the door to exploration of emergent phenomena based on chiral bosons.

This study reports unlimited near-infrared photoswitching in inorganic avalanching nanoparticles via a discrete shift of threshold intensity mediated by internal defect-based colour centres.

By combining O₂/H₂O redox electrolysis with a modular solid-electrolyte reactor, a design for continuous electrochemical carbon capture showing high capture rates, high Faradaic efficiencies and low energy consumption is demonstrated.

Short-lived halogens have a substantial indirect cooling effect on climate and this cooling effect has increased since pre-industrial times owing to anthropogenic amplification of natural halogen emissions.

Reconstruction of oceanic phosphorus concentrations during a large negative carbon-isotope excursion co-occurring with global oceanic oxygenation and evolution of some of Earth’s earliest animals suggests that decoupled phosphorus and ocean anoxia cycles during the Ediacaran may have prolonged the rise of atmospheric oxygen.

A deep learning and data-driven modelling study finds that microbial carbon use efficiency is a major determinant of soil organic carbon storage and its spatial variation across the globe.

Ecological models of species with diverse life history traits show that complementary combinations of life history strategy contribute, together with fitness and niche differences, to the maintenance of biodiversity.

Analyses of multiple phylogenetic marker datasets of Asgard archaea provide insight into the transition from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, specifically placing eukaryotes within Asgard archaea and as a sister lineage to Hodarchaeales.

A computational model based on a heuristic value function and forward search algorithm predicts human choices, response times and eye movements in games of games of four-in-a-row, and shows evidence for increased planning and improved attention with increased expertise.

ESR1-expressing cells in the principal nucleus of the bed nucleus of stria terminalis are necessary, sufficient and naturally activated during infanticide, and they form reciprocal inhibition with the maternal cells to control young-directed behaviours in female mice.

Editing of a rice gene that has a role in phospholipid synthesis has endowed rice plants with broad-spectrum resistance to disease, including protection from common bacterial and fungal pathogens, without decreasing the yield.

An analysis of 780 breast cancer genomes shows that focal amplifications are frequently preceded by dicentric chromosome formation from inter-chromosomal translocations associated with oestrogen receptor binding, which leads to chromosome bridge formation and breakage, initiating the amplification process.

This article describes a mechanism through which CD4⁺ T cells can eradicate MHC-deficient tumours that escape direct CD8⁺ T cell targeting and thereby complement the activity of CD8⁺ T cells and natural killer cells to advance cancer immunotherapies.

The CIP2A–TOPBP1 complex tethers fragmented chromosomes from micronuclei for asymmetric mitotic inheritance, explaining distinct patterns of chromosome rearrangements in cancers and genomic disorders.

Chromothriptically produced pieces of a micronucleated chromosome are shown to be tethered together in mitosis by a protein complex consisting of MDC1, TOPBP1 and CIP2A, thus enabling their inheritance by a single daughter cell.

A single-cell ribosome profiling method can provide data at the level of allele-specific ribosome engagement in early development.

Structural, biochemical and mutagenesis studies indicate that, in dying cells, the membrane protein NINJ1 assembles into filaments, disrupting the cell membrane.

A monoclonal antibody that binds NINJ1 and inhibits NINJ1 oligomerization prevents plasma membrane rupture in dying cells, resulting in decreased inflammation of surrounding tissue in mice.

X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy analyses of Lettuce—a DNA mimic of GFP—bound to various fluorophores reveal previously unknown structures of DNA that rival analogous RNAs in complexity.

A new intracellular agonist-binding pocket is identified that is common to many G protein-coupled receptors, which will have implications for the development of biased compounds that target this large group of receptors.