Volume 610 Issue 7932, 20 October 2022

This special issue is part of Nature’s commitment to change. We thank our inspiring guest editors for helping us to make it happen.

Martha Gilmore has faced not only accusations of theft and lying, but also quiet isolation and the pain of watching racism bear down on others.

Nadine Caron was appalled to hear racist views about Indigenous health from a project adviser. So she’s fighting to change perceptions.

Christopher Jackson felt obligated to speak out against racism in UK institutions, but a lack of support left him disillusioned with academia.

Chelsea Watego saw a message in the cold, cramped office space she was given. She decided to fight back.

Nadia Sam-Agudu is tired of how international funders and collaborators infantilize her and her colleagues.

Black and Hispanic people face huge hurdles at technology companies and in computer-science education in the United States, with far-reaching consequences for science and all of society.

Geneticists must rethink how they conduct their research and how they communicate results.

COVID-19 broadened the use of pulse oximeters for rapid blood-oxygen readings, but it also highlighted the fact that skin pigmentation alters measurements. Two groups of researchers analyse this issue, and its effects on people with dark skin.

An audit of commercial facial-analysis tools found that dark-skinned faces are misclassified at a much higher rate than are faces from any other group. Four years on, the study is shaping research, regulation and commercial practices.

Many research institutions in the United Kingdom gained prominence as the British Empire reached its zenith — bringing them a painful reckoning as they attempt to decolonize.

Damian Cohall’s studies of traditional medicine have sprouted new ideas for diabetes treatment and cross-Atlantic collaboration.

A polymer sandwich spun into thread and then twisted into rope can both flex and host tendon regrowth.

Researchers have found a compound that can block a mutant protein linked to many tumours.

Genomic analysis hints that the island’s early residents had the technology and know-how to catch some of the biggest animals on Earth.

An earthquake off the west coast of Mexico sent tsunami wave bouncing around Acapulco Bay for hours on end, thanks in part to local geology.

Analysis suggests that the screening method cuts risk of colorectal cancer by only a modest amount.

Species with very small eyes or no eyes at all have a highly uneven distribution of sensory receptors on their heads.

An unusual planetary system offers hints about the birth of planets with large iron cores and thin mantles.

The latest science news, in brief.

Rat–human hybrid brains offer new ways to study human neurological disorders, but also raise ethical questions.

India, Singapore and the Philippines are among those building new laboratories certified as biosafety level 3 or above, but some researchers worry about the costs and risks.

Iranian cosmologist Encieh Erfani tells Nature that protesting students are shaming the professors who refuse to speak out.

LHC to end 2022 data-taking season two weeks early to save on electricity, among other measures.

The mission, scheduled to launch on Sunday, will also help to improve forecasts of damaging space weather.

Cellular version of computer game challenges assumptions about intelligence.

Evidence from turtles and computer models indicates that a pattern of neuronal activity known as rotational dynamics governs locomotion. The finding challenges long-standing models of locomotor control.

Ancient genomic data have been retrieved for 13 Neanderthals from 2 caves in Siberia. The genomes provide unprecedented insights into the social organization of Neanderthal communities.

The apparent motion of a flier’s surroundings is shown to stabilize its flight by providing information about its orientation. Lapses in information are overcome through the effects of sensor noise and body oscillations.

Echoing the hierarchical Linnaean system for naming species, ecologists have developed a definitive classification of Earth’s ecosystems. This feat, achieved by a massive effort, could anchor conservation efforts for decades to come.

A highly sensitive observation has revealed a large, diffuse gas feature centred on the galaxy group Stephan’s Quintet — prompting a revision of our understanding of gas dynamics in the outer regions of galaxy groups.

Atomic hydrogen observations in the vicinity of Stephan’s Quintet are reported, showing a large gaseous structure of around 0.6 Mpc in size in the velocity range of 6,550–6,750 km s⁻¹.

A 51-minute-orbital-period, fully eclipsing binary system consisting of a star with a comparable temperature to that of the Sun but a 100 times greater density, accreting onto a white dwarf is reported.

A matter-wave interferometer is demonstrated with an interferometric phase noise below the standard quantum limit, combining two core concepts of quantum mechanics, that a particle can simultaneously be in two places at once and entanglement between distinct particles.

Reduced dielectric screening in a free-standing heterobilayer results in higher formation efficiency of interlayer excitons and leads to strongly enhanced dipole–dipole interactions, enabling the observation of many-body correlations at the quantum limit.

Attitude can be extracted from optic flow when combined with a motion model that relates attitude to acceleration direction, which leads to stable flight attitude control with slight oscillations due to unobservable conditions.

Combining computational thermodynamics and data science tools with lattice engineering enables the design of shape-memory ceramics with reduced hysteresis.

 Mimicking traditional digital neural networks with DNA-encoded ‘enzymatic’ neurons overcomes issues with other chemical approaches, and could allow notable increases in miniaturization and molecular implementation of these AI models, with potential applications including DNA data storage or cancer diagnosis.

For a minimal model system of colloidal droplet chains, with programmable DNA interactions, it is shown that controlling the order in which interactions are switched on directs folding into unique structures.

Modelling of regional and planetary boundaries for agricultural nitrogen pollution finds that the global nitrogen surplus boundary is lower than the current nitrogen surplus.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Global Ecosystem Typology has been developed to provide a systematic framework for data on all of Earth’s ecosystems in a unified theoretical context to support biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services.

Genetic data for 13 Neanderthals from 2 Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia presented provide insights into the social organization of an isolated Neanderthal community at the easternmost extent of their known range.

A study presents ensemble recordings of neurons in the lumbar spinal cord indicating that activity in spinal cord circuits for movement follows low-dimensional rotational dynamics, and proposes a theory of neural generation of movements.

Evolutionary conservation of plant receptor structure allowed for generation of new variants of wheat and barley nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs) that recognize AvrSr35 of the wheat stem rust pathogen, supporting proof of principle for structure-based engineering of NLRs for crop improvement.

Different pairs of antibiotics show qualitatively different bacterial clearance interactions—some pairs show reciprocal suppression whereby the drug mixture efficacy is weaker than the individual drugs alone, and the clearance efficacy decreases as more drugs are added.

Intraepithelial lymphocytes expressing γ and δ T cell receptor subunits protect Paneth cells from cell death caused by viral infection or Crohn's disease.

OPA1 regulates the formation of the distinct mitochondrial morphology observed in T helper 17 cells, which influences cytokine expression via LKB1.

Nicotine accumulates in the intestine during tobacco smoking and accelerates the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), but it can be degraded effectively by the human symbiont Bacteroides xylanisolvens.

The cryo-electron microscopy structure of NuA4 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae bound to the nucleosome illustrates how NuA4 is assembled and provides mechanistic insights into nucleosome recognition and transcription co-activation by a histone acetyltransferase.

The cryogenic-electron microscopy structure of the D. thermocuniculi IsrB protein in complex with its cognate ωRNA and a target DNA shows that the RNA-dominant IsrB effector complex shares a common scaffold with the protein-dominant Cas9 effector complex.

New agonists of the serotonin 5-HT_2A receptor (5-HT_2AR) confer high brain permeability and antidepressant activity and—in contrast to classic 5-HT_2AR agonists—lack psychedelic activity.