Volume 596 Issue 7870, 5 August 2021

When doses finally arrive, use cash incentives to overcome hesitancy.

A single individual harbours tens to hundreds of variants of this DNA-based virus, which can move from one person to another in donated blood.

Long-term follow up finds that more than half of children and adolescents with the disease develop complications within 15 years of diagnosis.

Bumblebees dosed with caffeine can more easily remember the scent of sugar-heavy blossoms.

Eye movements lasting only a few hundredths of a second create an information-laden ‘smear’ on the retina.

Research suggests that rivers are a bigger source of mercury in coastal waters than is the atmosphere — a finding that contradicts some global models.

Light can be used to both propel and steer tiny vehicles made with materials that have distinctive optical properties.

Researchers spy a dusty, moon-forming disk surrounding a planet beyond the Solar System.

The latest science news, in brief.

Some astronomers argue the flagship observatory — successor to the Hubble Space Telescope — will memorialize discrimination. Others are waiting for more evidence.

Studies show that vaccines reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by more than 80%, but the Delta variant is creating fresh uncertainty.

Electrons from a droplet of sodium and potassium turn water into a metallic material that conducts electricity.

Fossil discovered in northwestern Canada could rewrite the early history of animal life — but some palaeontologists are not convinced it’s real.

Researchers around the world are eagerly awaiting the completion of Tiangong, to study topics from dark matter and gravitational waves to the growth of cancer and pathogenic bacteria.

Many communities aren’t losing biodiversity, but ecosystems are changing rapidly and the future is far from rosy.

As women’s soccer, rugby and other sports gain popularity, scientists are racing to understand how the female brain responds to head injury.

A book from the Oxford–AstraZeneca team, and a documentary, go behind the scenes in the race to vaccinate the world.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.

Shooting glass beads across the inside of a satellite could probe the limits of quantum wave behaviour. Here’s how.

The disruption that the coronavirus has caused to daily life has created unique research opportunities for scientists.

By pushing fluorescent proteins further into the red, bioengineers are expanding the palette and penetration depth of biological imaging.

Agrochemical scientist Sarah Iveson is excited about digital agriculture’s potential to make crops more resilient to climate change as the global population grows.

Satellite imaging combined with population data shows that, globally, the number of people living in flood-prone areas is growing faster than is the number living on higher ground — greatly increasing the potential impact of floods.

At the outer border of the brain and spinal cord, immune cells have been observed that originate from the bone marrow of the adjacent skull and vertebrae. They reach this site through special bone channels, without passing through the blood.

Experiments show that a collection of bouncing fluid droplets can behave like a microscopic system of spins — the intrinsic angular momenta of particles. This discovery could lead to a better understanding of the physics of spin systems.

Nature’s pages feature an account of the unveiling of the theory of natural selection, and a reported sighting of an unusual type of lightning.

The enzymes separase and cyclin-dependent kinase are key orchestrators of cell division. Structural data reveal the surprisingly intricate mechanism that renders them both inactive when bound to each other.

This Review discusses how the activity of retrotransposons influences ageing and the role of these mobile genetic elements in age-related diseases and their treatment.

High-resolution observations confirm that Jupiter’s global upper atmosphere is heated by transport of energy from the polar aurora.

A macroscopic analogue of a spin system is shown to emerge in an ensemble of droplets bouncing on the surface of a vibrating bath, revealing symmetry-breaking phenomena such as ‘magnetic’ ordering.

Nonlinearity is shown to induce quantized topological transport via soliton motion; specifically, we demonstrate nonlinear Thouless pumping of photons in waveguide arrays with a non-uniformly occupied energy band.

A back-bending band structure and an emerging pseudogap are observed at the interface between a crystalline solid (black phosphorus) and disordered alkali-metal dopants.

The synthesis of aziridines—three-membered nitrogen-containing heterocycles—is achieved by a new method involving the electrochemical coupling of alkenes and amines, via a dicationic intermediate.

Satellite imagery for the period 2000–2018 reveals that population growth was greater in flood-prone regions than elsewhere, thus exposing a greater proportion of the population to floods.

Vermiform microstructure in microbial reefs dating to approximately 890 million years ago resembles the body fossils of Phanerozoic demosponges, and may represent the earliest known physical evidence of animals.

A comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic atlas of the mouse brain between gastrulation and birth identifies hundreds of cellular states and reveals the spatiotemporal organization of brain development.

Glial metabolic reprogramming by gut-derived cytokines in Drosophila results in lasting changes in the sensory system of an ageing organism

Experiments in mouse and hamster models show that monoclonal antibody combinations, using antibodies that correspond to products in clinical development, largely retain their efficacy in protecting against currently prevailing variant strains of SARS-CoV-2.

Analysis of antigen-specific B cells in lymph nodes of individuals vaccinated with BNT162b2 reveals lasting germinal centre responses, explaining the robust humoral immunity induced by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-based vaccines.

Studies of mouse and human IgA responses against Candida albicans and other common fungal species show that host adaptive immunity selects for fungal effectors that promote commensalism and prevent intestinal disease.

The authors use single-cell profiling and T cell receptor specificity screening to show how tumour antigen recognition shapes the phenotypes of CD8⁺ T cells and antitumour immune responses.

Single-cell RNA sequencing and T cell receptor sequencing are combined to identify transcriptional programs specific to mutation-associated neoantigen-specific T cells in non-small cell lung cancers treated with anti-PD-1, providing insights into resistance to PD-1 blockade.

BANP is identified as the transcription factor that binds the CGCG element in a DNA-methylation-dependent manner, opens chromatin and activates a class of essential CpG-island-regulated genes.

Structures of separase in complex with either securin or cyclin B–CDK1 shed light on the regulation of chromosome separation during the cell cycle.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of human Ca_v2.2 in the presence or absence of ziconotide reveal the molecular basis of the specificity of this painkiller for Ca_v2.2, and provide insights into electromechanical coupling in Ca_v channels.