Rhombohedral boron nitride films have a unique combination of properties that make them desirable in electronic and optical applications. An innovative method can be used to create particularly promising large-scale single crystals, bringing the films much closer to real-world applications.

Insect respiration is commonly thought to rely solely on direct gas exchange through air-filled tracheal tubes. The discovery of oxygen-transporting blood cells in fly larvae reveals a previously unknown way to oxygenate fly tissues.

Carbon storage in Earth’s oceans is controlled by deep-sea mixing processes, but the details have proved difficult to test. Ambitious efforts to track ocean mixing using dye have now demonstrated the pivotal role of the sea floor.

RNA-guided recombinase enzymes have been discovered that herald a new chapter for genome editing — enabling the insertion, inversion or deletion of long DNA sequences at user-specified genome positions.