Volume 602 Issue 7897, 17 February 2022

Research eminence alone is not enough for top science posts.

Semiconductor-based devices that adapt to a wide range of light intensities could prove useful in self-driving vehicles and assembly lines.

Scientists trace variation in methyl bromide levels to an increase in fires — which are linked to the climate pattern El Niño.

Gel blocks up to 2 millimetres long are the biggest structures yet to be brought to order by microscopic lengths of DNA.

Long structures that emit brilliant radio waves cannot be easily explained.

The fingerprint of the last ice age can still be seen in the genomes of reindeer that make long migrations.

Pterosaurs, prehistoric beasts that lived alongside the dinosaurs, not only flew like birds, but also vomited like them.

A lofty-sounding but vapid statement carried more weight with participants when they were told it came from a scientific source.

The latest science news, in brief.

Geneticist Eric Lander had a reputation for being a bully, scientists say, as they call for more inspiring leadership.

The experimental Joint European Torus has doubled the record for the amount of energy made from fusing atoms — the process that powers the Sun.

Researchers at WHO technology-transfer hub complete first step in a project aimed at building capacity for vaccine manufacturing in low- and middle-income countries.

Multiple studies are revealing why the SARS-CoV-2 variant is so transmissible, but also seems to cause milder disease.

Researchers brace for tense weeks ahead as Europe turns up the heat on research-programme negotiations.

US$25-million facility in Namibia will be Africa’s first millimetre-range radio telescope.

The 15 January blast sent shock waves around the globe and defied scientific expectations. Researchers are now scrambling to work out why.

The vital connection between body parts provides insight into the evolution of vertebrates’ closest kin.

Influenza, polio and more have shown that infections can change lives even decades later. Why the complacency over possible long-term effects of COVID-19?

Science-engagement initiatives in Africa disseminate knowledge and bridge the gap between research and the continent’s people.

Paula Littlejohn researches how nutrients in early life affect long-term health.

How should the bat family tree be arranged? Analysis of bats’ inner ear anatomy supports a previously proposed arrangement that was based on DNA analysis. The findings also shed light on the evolution of echolocation.

Alphaviruses are transmitted by mosquitoes to many species, and can be fatal to humans. The identification of virus receptors that are evolutionarily conserved between mosquitoes and humans might explain the wide range of viral hosts.

The torus of dust surrounding a quasar — a very luminous supermassive black hole that accretes matter from its surroundings — has now been captured with high-resolution infrared imaging.

Tests of relativity once required accurate clocks separated by thousands of kilometres. Optical techniques have now made such tests possible in an atomic cluster measuring no more than one millimetre in size.

The concept of 'Embodied Energy'—in which the components of a robot or device both store energy and provide a mechanical or structural function—is put forward, along with specific robot-design principles.

Mid-infrared observations of the dusty structures of the galaxy NGC 1068 support the unified model of active galactic nuclei.

Via spin-exchange interactions with ⁵¹V⁵⁺ ions, an optically addressed ¹⁷¹Yb³⁺ qubit in a nuclear-spin-rich yttrium orthovanadate crystal is used to implement a reproducible nuclear-spin-based quantum memory, and entangled Yb–V Bell states are demonstrated.

A newly designed control architecture uses deep reinforcement learning to learn to command the coils of a tokamak, and successfully stabilizes a wide variety of fusion plasma configurations.

Reducing the fractional uncertainty over the measurement of the frequency of an ensemble of trapped strontium atoms enables observation of the gravitational redshift at the submillimetre scale.

Multiple ultracold ensembles of strontium atoms are trapped in the same optical lattice, realizing a multiplexed optical clock where precision measurements can benefit from having all atoms share the same trapping light and clock laser.

Precise quantitative scaling laws are observed between the normalized T-linear coefficient and T_c among copper oxides, pnictides and a class of organic superconductors, suggesting a common underlying physics at work in these unconventional superconductors.

Atom-scale analysis of hydrogen and other elements at the grain boundaries of a 7xxx aluminium alloy shows that co-segregation of elements favours grain boundary decohesion, and that hydrogen embrittlement is prevented by strong partitioning into the second-phase particles.

An analysis of satellite observations and climate data shows that night-time fire intensity has increased over the past two decades owing to hotter and drier nights under anthropogenic climate change.

The presence of a variety of highly derived spiral ganglion structures of the inner ear is associated with diverse echolocation strategies in yangochiropteran bats and distinguishes them from Yinpterochiroptera.

Tamlo-R32, an engineered wheat mutant allele of the Mildew resistance locus O (MLO) gene, confers resistance to powdery mildew, retains robust wheat growth, and can be transferred to other agriculturally important wheat varieties.

In response to visual stimuli, hippocampal neurons in a body-fixed rat can respond to and encode visual information without locomotion or task demand, similar to the visual cortex.

Vagal afferents innervating the hepatic portal area respond to changes in gut osmolality and regulate thirst and drinking behaviour in mice.

Studies using viral coat glycoproteins show that alphaviruses can enter cells via the very low-density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) and apolipoprotein E receptor 2 (ApoER2), members of an evolutionarily conserved family of lipoprotein receptors.

More than one-third of wild deer tested in northeast Ohio showed evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection of human origin.

The SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant suppresses innate immune responses more effectively than isolates of first-wave SARS-CoV-2, and this is a result of mutations outside of the spike coding region that lead to upregulation of viral innate immune antagonists.

The Streptococcus pyogenes virulence factor SpeB triggers pyroptosis in keratinocytes by catalysing cleavage of host gasdermin A, a key event triggering the immune response to S. pyogenes infection.

Infusion of CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor T cells into two patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia resulted in complete tumour remission and persistence of the infused cells more than ten years later.

An analysis of clustered substitutions and indels across 30 cancer types provides insight into the role of APOBEC3 in giving rise to clustered mutation events through its activity on extrachromosomal DNA.

Extracellular glioblastoma-associated mutations reduce the ability of the epidermal growth factor receptor to distinguish between its ligands.

Modelling by SCUBA of the backbone-centred energy surface extends the diversity of designable proteins.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures are used to identify mechanisms underlying distinct features of extrasynaptic type A γ-aminobutyric acid receptors.