Volume 623 Issue 7989, 30 November 2023

The United States and China are pursuing parallel scientific tracks. To solve crises on multiple fronts, the two roads need to become one.

California governor Gavin Newsom’s delegation is building on existing research and policy initiatives with China, showing that effective climate action can happen below the national level.

Cattle and other animals were slaughtered for rituals during the fifth century bc in what is now Spain.

Chemistry can transform disposable cups into industrially useful structures called cellulose nanocrystals.

The extra ingredient would explain why the Universe is expanding so fast now — but conflicts with data from ancient quasars.

An enzyme wielded by a common skin bacterium acts on nerve receptors that trigger intense itching.

Smoke from record-breaking fires in 2020 travelled all the way to Cyprus, where it helped to trigger cloud formation.

Unusual temperature inversion might have helped Ukraine to sink the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet last year.

A bird of prey called the striated caracara can figure out puzzles that are a struggle for Goffin’s cockatoos, which are known for their intelligence.

As part of his plan to address the country’s economic crisis, Javier Milei has promised to slash research funding and shut down key science agencies.

Studies find a densely connected network of neurons that communicate over long distances, rather than across synapses.

Researchers say that the model behind the chatbot fabricated a convincing bogus database, but a forensic examination shows it doesn’t pass for authentic.

The Northern Hemisphere experienced a sweltering summer due to climate and meteorological patterns. Scientists say the south will not escape.

A debacle at the company that built ChatGPT highlights concern that commercial forces are acting against the responsible development of artificial-intelligence systems.

A European bat has been captured on film engaging in what appears to be an unusual reproductive strategy.

Scientists still can’t explain what is causing unusually bright explosions in space — but a surprising observation might offer clues.

Firms commercializing perovskite–silicon ‘tandem’ photovoltaics say that the panels will be more efficient and could lead to cheaper electricity.

Putting the specific needs of individuals and communities at the heart of HIV/AIDS care, by harnessing behavioural science, is key to building on the progress already been made.

Why people take to the streets to march against global heating is relatively well documented. But it’s unclear why certain tactics work better than others in reaching the public and policymakers.

From classrooms to laboratories and conferences, working in chemistry presents huge challenges to disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent people. Some simple fixes can help to shift the dial.

Parents are pushing for employers to respect family time and keep meetings strictly to working hours.

Deep learning is driving the rapid evolution of algorithms that can automatically find and trace cells in a wide range of microscopy experiments.

Špela Borko tells how caving enhanced her appreciation of the myriad life forms that teem in underground lakes.

A team of amateur and professional astronomers has determined that a satellite one-third of the size of a tennis court is one of the brightest objects in the sky — with dire consequences for ground-based astronomy.

Assemblies of protein and RNA called stress granules appear in response to stressful conditions. The discovery that these granules can plug holes in punctured organelles sheds light on cellular defences against damage and infection.

In 2008, the first comprehensive sequence of a cancer genome was reported, ushering in a new era of molecular diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic advances informed by an essential framework to understand cancer’s complexities.

Increasingly intense wildfires in the United States could have profound impacts on natural habitats — potentially leaving hundreds of animal species struggling to recover.

Scientists are tantalized by the many forms that carbon could adopt — some of which are predicted to have extraordinary properties. The synthesis of three new all-carbon molecules is therefore a source of excitement.

Snippets from Nature’s past.

A study has revealed that eliminating extreme poverty would result in a relatively small increase in global greenhouse-gas emissions, dispelling the idea that efforts to combat climate change and poverty are incompatible.

Observations of optical flares from AT2022tsd (the ‘Tasmanian Devil’) show that they have durations on the timescale of minutes, occur over a period of months, are highly energetic, are probably nonthermal and have supernova luminosities.

Observations of six transiting planets around the bright nearby star HD 110067 show that they follow a chain of resonant orbits, with three of the planets inferring the presence of large hydrogen-dominated atmospheres.

We report the outcome of an international optical observation campaign of a prototype constellation satellite, AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3, which features a 64.3 m² phased-array antenna and a launch vehicle adaptor.

Scanning tunnelling microscopy imaging of the correlated phases of magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene shows marked signatures of interaction-driven spatial symmetry breaking.

The redox behaviour of pyridinium electrolytes under representative flow battery conditions is investigated, offering insights into air tolerance of batteries containing these electrolytes while providing a universal physico-chemical descriptor of their reversibility.

Cascaded compression, in which nanopores are compressed by cycles of shrinkage and expansion, is described, leading tohigh-density nanopores in monolayer graphene with a narrow pore-size distribution, left skewness and ultrasmall tail deviation.

A plasma set-up consisting of a pair of carbon-fibre-tip-enhanced electrodes enables the generation of a uniform, ultra-high temperature and stable plasma (up to 8,000  K) at atmospheric pressure using a combination of vertically oriented long and short carbon fibres.

We provide a modified strategy for the on-surface synthesis of cyclocarbons with 10 or 14 carbon atoms that provides a route for characterizing annular carbon allotropes.

The carbon allotrope cyclo[16]carbon has been synthesized using on-surface chemistry and characterized with scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy, revealing orbital densities and bond-length alternation, which show it to be doubly anti-aromatic.

Global emissions associated with the economic growth needed to alleviate extreme poverty are limited.

Analysis of research articles and patent applications shows that members of teams that collaborate remotely are less likely to make breakthrough discoveries than members of on-site teams.

Acute oedema after traumatic brain injury is accompanied by the suppression of glymphatic and lymphatic fluid flow due to excessive systemic release of noradrenaline.

Staphylococcus CdnE03 cyclase recognizes structured RNA molecules produced by staphylococcal phages, triggering cyclic oligonucleotide production and, thereby, bacterial cell death—a mechanism of antiviral defence conserved across domains of life.

Ferrosome organelles produced by Clostridioides difficile are required to support colonization of the inflamed gut, highlighting the potential of targeting ferrosome formation as an antimicrobial strategy against this important pathogen.

Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy structures of HIV-1 envelope (Env) trimers bound to one or two CD4 receptors identify intermediate Env conformations that precede host–virus fusion and inform the design of therapeutics to prevent HIV-1 infection.

HIV-1 Env trimers bound to one, two and three CD4 molecules are observed at membrane–membrane interfaces between HIV-1 and CD4-decorated virus-like particles.

A screen of nutrient-derived compounds identified trans-vaccenic acid as a promoter of effector T cell function, and functional assays demonstrate that this occurs via inactivation of GPR43 on T cells.

IFNγ signalling in epithelial cells promotes antigen presentation that confers intra-epithelial T cells the ability to limit extracellular ATP and consequent NLRP3 inflammasome activation, controlling pathogenic transformation of CD4⁺ T cells that promotes colitis and colorectal cancer in mouse models.

A translational study demonstrates the role of myeloid inflammatory cells in driving disease progression and treatment resistance in prostate cancer and shows that these cells can be targeted therapeutically.

Stress granules function at sites of intracellular membrane damage by forming on and stabilizing the ruptured membrane and promoting membrane repair.

Evolution has produced a range of diverse proteins, and now a generative model called Chroma can expand that set by allowing the user to design new proteins and protein complexes with desired properties and functions.

A study reports the development of a structural derivative of amphotericin B with broad antifungal activity in mice but without the renal toxicity associated with amphotericin B.

Structures of a vesicular monoamine transporter in complex with drugs and substrate provide insights into the physiology and pharmacology of neurotransmitter packaging.