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A soft sheet has been constructed that can be driven by electromagnetic forces to continuously change its shape, mimicking the behaviour of soft tissues in living organisms. The control system uses imaging data and an optimization algorithm to enhance the material’s morphing ability.
Analysis of early human embryos reveals that DNA duplication after fertilization is highly inefficient. This causes DNA damage, chromosome breaks and abnormal numbers of chromosomes, impairing embryo development.
The ozonolysis reaction is a classic of organic synthesis, but involves the formation of potentially explosive reaction intermediates. A modern, safer spin on this process makes use of previously overlooked chemistry.
When combined, two drugs alter the activity of a protein complex called target of rapamycin complex 1 such that it is inhibited in the brain but not the body, enabling the treatment of brain tumours in mice without systemic toxicity.
The process by which pixels fluoresce in electronic displays uses energy highly inefficiently. The identification of fluorescent molecules with an unusual order of excited states opens up a fresh approach to tackling this issue.
After around 780 years without volcanic activity, Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula sprang to life in 2021, when magma breached the surface at the Fagradalsfjall volcano. Observed changes in the lava composition have provided an unprecedented record of the supply and mixing mechanics of deep magma at the base of the crust.
Solid-state systems that are designed to simulate the quantum behaviour of electrons in a solid could rival established techniques that require exhaustive computation or precise control of atoms in dilute gases.
Can artificial cells be built from basic components? Systems that have complex architectures and functions evocative of natural cells have been prepared by recycling the contents of bacterial cells in synthetic droplets.
Gaps in the fossil record mean that the origins of ancient animals such as jellyfish and corals have remained a mystery. Now, a long-awaited fossil discovery reveals key features of this group during the early stages of its evolution.
The hormone auxin regulates plant growth through nuclear co-receptors. A rapid response also occurs at the cell surface after auxin is perceived by the receptor TMK1 and a co-receptor protein. Is ABP1 this co-receptor?
A diverse range of marine predators — including tunas, billfishes and sharks — in the North Pacific Ocean cluster together in clockwise-rotating eddies, seemingly to hunt deep-ocean prey, which are unusually abundant there. This suggests that there is a relationship between the foraging opportunities of predators and the energetics of this marine biome.
Global-warming projections that rely on bioenergy strategies to offset carbon dioxide emissions could be unduly optimistic, according to a study that accounts for how climate change affects crop yields.
For breast cancers that have spread, a randomized phase II clinical trial shows that using genomic analysis to target therapies can improve outcomes, but only in people with a genetic alteration that has previously been associated with antitumour activity in clinical trials.
Specialized neurons that are activated after infection have been identified in the brain. These neurons orchestrate an array of sickness behaviours that help the body to cope with disease and to fight infection.
Evidence that a child in a hunter-gatherer society survived amputation offers a remarkable insight into the origins of surgery. It challenges the current view that such procedures emerged alongside farming some 10,000 years ago.
A solid catalyst has been prepared in which pairs of active sites work synergistically to promote an industrial chemical reaction, and the mechanism has been determined — a breakthrough for ‘pair site’ catalysis.
