Volume 603 Issue 7899, 3 March 2022

Last year, nearly half of Nature authors agreed to publish anonymous referee reports. We hope that more will consider doing so this year.

Governments must focus on solutions that are already working, even when they aren’t glamorous or supported by powerful lobbyists.

A dive into old data reveals that the space rock Elektra has not two moons, but three.

Ethanol-producing bacteria endowed with extra enzymes convert unwanted gases into useful compounds.

The rodents learn from their mistakes to become accurate at judging the time needed to execute a lever push.

The arrival of British settlers disrupted Indigenous burning practices, setting the stage for large and destructive blazes.

The Yangtze River Delta, the nation’s economic powerhouse, is soaked by heavy rainstorms more often today than 50 years ago.

Pterosaurs living during the Jurassic period were thought to have been relatively small, but a stunning new skeleton shows otherwise.

Organic material proves superior to silicon for carrying ‘nerve’ signals to the carnivorous plant’s maw.

The latest science news, in brief.

Report authors say that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 jumped to people from animals sold at the market on two occasions in late 2019 — but some scientists want more definitive evidence.

The discovery is likely to reignite controversy over the US site where the fossils were found.

The rover collected exciting rock samples on the first leg of its epic journey. Next, it will turn towards an ancient river delta to look for past life.

In the next five years, the nation hopes to launch a robotic craft to an asteroid and two lunar missions.

Celebrated sociologist Alondra Nelson and genome leader Francis Collins will temporarily split Lander’s duties.

The fast-moving variant poses new puzzles in viral transmission, severity and evolution.

Two years into the pandemic, the COVID-19 drugs pipeline is primed to pump out novel treatments — and fresh uses for familiar therapies.

Analysis of pandemic economic recovery packages from the 20 largest economies reveals that governments are not spending on emissions cuts despite promises to ‘build back better’.

The continent’s role in the global economy depends on development from within.

Finding the right working culture pays dividends when trying to juggle academia and parenthood in Africa.

How networks can help to win research grants and equip labs in Africa.

Experience gained overseas can be used to develop home-grown solutions to local challenges.

‘Executable manuscripts’ insert results directly into documents, eliminating common mistakes.

Wansheng Jiang studies the endangered Chinese giant salamander to better protect its habitat.

Messenger RNA from the gene UNC13A is misprocessed in people who have neurodegenerative diseases known as ALS and FTD. The discovery could explain the disease risk associated with variants in this gene.

A plasma-based device is set to challenge particle accelerators that generate high-quality light pulses, with evidence that the cheaper plasma platform can run at competitive repetition rates.

Nature’s pages feature a look at some books for travellers, and success reported in the effort to preserve a Stone Age monument.

Measurements of atomic vibrations can now identify chemical isotopes on a sub-nanometre scale in an electron microscope. An innovative approach makes use of this resolution to build and track isotopic domains.

When mouse pups first open their eyes, what they see shapes neuronal connectivity. A study shows that this visual experience has cell-type-specific effects, acting only on a subset of malleable neurons.

Lung bacteria modulate the activity of immune cells in the central nervous system in a rodent model of autoimmunity. This finding might shed light on the neuroinflammation associated with multiple sclerosis.

Recent theoretical and experimental progress in identifying and understanding magnetic topological materials is reviewed, highlighting the antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi₂Te₄ and the ferromagnetic Weyl semimetal Co₃Sn₂S₂, and future research directions are discussed.

A persistent, blue-shifted absorption feature is reported in time-resolved UV spectroscopy of the neutron star binary Swift J1858.6-0814, revealing a warm, moderately ionized component in the accretion disk that is wind driven from this system.

Relaxation of a perturbed plasma back to its initial state over nanosecond timescales establishes that megahertz repetition rates are supported, and high luminosities and brilliances are in principle attainable with plasma-wakefield accelerator facilities.

Two types of skyrmion-like polar nanodomain are observed in oxide bilayers transferred onto silicon, and these nanodomains, with distinct resistive behaviour, can be converted to each other under an external electric field.

Vibrational electron energy-loss spectroscopy is used to distinguish two stable isotopes of carbon and to monitor their diffusion with subnanometre spatial resolution.

A certified efficiency of 26.4% in all-perovskite tandem solar cells, exceeding that of the best-performing single-junction perovskite solar cells, is achieved by control over surface defects in the Pb–Sn subcell.

A study presents a biocatalytic method for the formation of sterically hindered biaryl bonds, providing a tunable approach for assembling molecules with catalyst-controlled reactivity, site selectivity and atroposelectivity.

A hydrated, heterogeneous mantle resulting from magma ocean solidification is shown to be key to the rapid formation of Earth’s habitable surface environment during the Hadean era.

Examination of fish that died on the day the Mesozoic ended reveal that the impact that caused the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction occurred during boreal spring.

A meta-analysis combining whole-exome sequencing data from UK Biobank participants and imputed genotypes from FinnGen participants enables identification of genetic associations with human disease in the rare and low-frequency allelic spectrum

A stylized model of the climate–social system could help to understand policy and emissions futures.

Integration of a global temporal transcriptional module with cell-type-specific transcription factors influences neuronal wiring in the fly visual system.

Release from shunting inhibition and coincident excitation implement a multiplication-like synaptic interaction in motion-sensing neurons of Drosophila melanogaster.

TDP-43 controls an exon splicing event in UNC13A that results in the inclusion of a cryptic exon associated with frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Risk variants for ALS and FTD in the synaptic gene UNC13A increase the expression of an UNC13A cryptic exon in neurons with TDP-43 depletion.

Work in experimental autoimmune models shows that the lung microbiome is linked to immune reactivity in the brain through a mechanism in which the balance of pulmonary microorganisms regulates the activation state of microglia.

The cGAS–STING pathway has a central role in the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19 by driving the increase in type I interferons that occurs in the later stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In monozygotic twins discordant for multiple sclerosis, the influence of genetic predisposition and environmental factors is determined using matched-pair analyses.

The molecular target of the antidiabetic medicine metformin is identified as PEN2, a subunit of γ-secretases, and the PEN2–ATP6AP1 axis offers potential targets for screening for metformin substitutes.

A survey of potency and efficacy of 2,025 clinically relevant two-drug combinations against 125 molecularly characterized breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer cell lines identifies rare synergistic effects of anticancer drugs, informing rational combination treatments for specific cancer subtypes.

 The structure of the complete native spike complex of Lassa virus reveals its membrane topology and the matriglycan-depended recognition of its α-dystroglycan cellular receptor.

The structure of the human NALCN channelosome and a model of the gating mechanism are determined.