Soil produced by the gradual breakdown of rock forms the planet’s thin but crucial ‘skin’. Analyses of a tectonically active landscape along the San Andreas fault aim to address a long-standing question in geomorphology and landscape evolution: what sets the pace at which rock transforms to soil?

Soft fibres that adapt their form and mechanical properties reversibly and rapidly under a magnetic field that is safe for human health have been developed and used to make yarns and fabrics. These programmable fibrous assemblies could be applied in soft robotics and wearable technologies.

The DNA of ancient individuals dating to between 10,000 and 150 years ago reveals the existence of a long-standing, yet previously uncharacterized, lineage in the Southern Cone of South America — a region comprising what is now Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. People with this ancestry produced offspring with other, pre-existing groups in surrounding regions. Genomic data from present-day inhabitants attest to the genetic continuity of the lineage in central Argentina.

Cells have evolved elaborate mechanisms to eliminate unwanted proteins and maintain homeostasis. Inhibitors of a diverse family of enzymes called kinases can co-opt and ‘supercharge’ these protein-degradation mechanisms to prompt kinase degradation.