Volume 615 Issue 7952, 16 March 2023

Astronomy, like other scientific fields, continues to benefit from working scientists collaborating with amateur colleagues.

Artificial intelligence that can manipulate our emotions is a scandal waiting to happen.

A rising number of images by the famed telescope include satellite trails — a trend that will ultimately affect its science.

Bioengineering technique allows scientists to create plants that can protect themelves from pests and diseases.

Very young deer mice make squeaks audible to the human ear as well as ultrasound calls similar to those made by house mouse pups.

Well-schooled bees’ performances convey where to find food sources, but uneducated insects’ dances mislead.

Widely used polymers called polyurethanes are difficult to recycle, but a chemical strategy allows them to be easily broken down into useful components.

The vast prairie pothole complex across central Canada and the United States could emit double or even triple its current methane levels by 2100.

The number of acute liver injuries tied to paracetamol—opioid painkillers fell after a US mandate to limit pills’ active ingredients.

Proof-of-concept mouse experiment will have a long road before use in humans is possible.

House Republicans kick off investigation into how the pandemic began, with witnesses who mostly favour a lab origin.

Researchers worry Colombian environment ministry will side with animal-rights activists rather than curb the invasive animals’ spread.

Booming exploration and commercial activity could ruin the quiet environment of the lunar far side.

Multi-year project in Ukraine aims to uncover the health effects of chronic radiation exposure.

Scientists trace the neurons in the throat that detect signs of infection and relay this information to the brain.

The nation has spurned a major arms-control agreement, pushing nuclear powers towards a worrying lack of regulation, says non-proliferation researcher.

Geologists knew decades ago that a quake would strike southeastern Turkey, but precise prediction is still the stuff of science fiction.

Fifty years since the basis of magnetic resonance imaging was published, MRI scanners remain expensive — and impractical in many countries. Here’s how we are making them smaller and less costly.

Four researchers offer tips on ending, redefining and handing over projects.

Rather than relying on yeast and bacteria, bioengineers are looking for cheaper and easier ways to make proteins and other biomolecules.

Zoologist Zuofu Xiang’s research in Asia helps governments to protect the populations and teaches him the value of cooperation.

Particles that self-assemble from nanoribbons into bow-tie-shaped structures can be tailored to change the degree of their twist. A search for how best to quantify this twist homes in on a measure of how the bow ties respond to light.

Bacteria that cause meningitis have been found to stimulate nerve fibres in the brain’s meninges to release a neuropeptide molecule that dampens the response of immune cells and aids bacterial invasion of the central nervous system.

An analysis confirms that humid tropical forests recovering from degradation and deforestation absorb substantial amounts of carbon dioxide — but much less than is emitted by the destruction of the original forests.

Dominant mice that are forced to unexpectedly give way to subordinates in a rigged test lose social status and miss opportunities for pleasure. These effects are due to changes in a neuronal circuit that involves the brain’s ‘anti-reward’ centre.

Snippets from Nature’s past.

Cellular organelles called mitochondria contain their own DNA and RNA. The molecule fumarate has now been found to trigger the release of these nucleic acids into the cytosol, aberrantly activating inflammation.

Processes that regulate cell death can rid the body of cancer cells. However, some of these cells have ways to thwart such processes, and one such death-defying mechanism has been found to rely on cellular protrusions called blebs.

Using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, one of the first direct observations of topological spin texture is described, in the pseudogap phase of a high-temperature cuprate superconductor based on YBa₂Cu₃O_6+x.

A frequency-tunable laser based on a hybrid silicon nitride and lithium niobate integrated photonic platform has a fast tuning rate and could be used for optical ranging applications.

Self-limited assembly of 'imperfect' chiral nanoparticles enables formation of bowtie-shaped microparticles with size monodispersity and continuously variable chirality to be used for printing photonically active metasurfaces.

The proton-transfer tunnelling reaction rate between H₂ and D^– has been measured as about 1 out of 10¹¹ collisions, making it the slowest rate constant ever measured for an ion–molecule reaction in the gas phase.

The design, synthesis and characterization of a helically chiral triaryloxonium ion is reported, which is an example of a chiral non-racemic and configurationally stable molecule in which the oxygen atom is the sole stereogenic centre.

Analysis of satellite-based data on recovering degraded and secondary forests in three tropical moist forest regions quantifies the amount of aboveground carbon accumulated, which counterbalanced one quarter of carbon emissions from old-growth forest loss between 1984 and 2018.

A simple model describes the stochastic process of dynamic sea ice thickening, shows how reduced residence time affects changes in ice thickness and highlights the enduring impact of climate change on the Arctic Ocean.

New thermodynamic and geochemical modelling of melting shows that the observed composition of the cratonic mantle can be reproduced by deep and very hot melting, obviating the need for shallow melting and lithospheric stacking.

The Earth’s mantle viscosity is studied following a deep earthquake located near the bottom of the upper mantle, and a weak layer is detected that is consequential to the understanding of mantle dynamics.

Future extreme thermal events will force many vertebrate species and assemblages into constant severe thermal stress; however, lowering emissions would greatly reduce overall exposures.

Protomelission-like macrofossils from the Xiaoshiba Lagerstätte show features characteristic of dasycladalean green alga, suggesting that Protomelission is unlikely to be an early bryozoan.

Two Streptococcus spp. can utilize a neuropeptide (CGRP) and its receptor (RAMP1) on macrophages to promote brain invasion, a finding that may help the development of therapies for bacterial meningitis.

Serum antibody responses to sequential homologous booster vaccines derive overwhelmingly from primary cohort B cells at the expense of de novo responses; this ‘primary addiction’ can be overcome by boosting with variant antigens.

Inhibition of the tricarboxylic acid cycle enzyme fumarate hydratase leads to deregulation of cytokine production in macrophages, which has implications in human diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus.

Fumarate metabolism regulates the innate immune response through a mechanism in which high levels of fumarate result in the generation of mitochondrial-derived vesicles and the release of mitochondrial DNA into the cytosol, which activates inflammatory pathways.

Logic gating is used to develop a CAR T cell platform that is highly specific and allows the activity of T cells to be restricted to the encounter of two antigens, thus reducing on-target, off-tumour toxicity.

A study demonstrates that sustained membrane blebs in cancer cells recruit curvature-sensing septins that form plasma membrane-proximal signalling hubs that promote cancer cell survival.

A high-resolution microscopy screen of candidate nucleolar proteins identifies URB1 as a protein that is confined to the periphery of the dense fibrillar component, with key roles in pre-ribosomal RNA folding and processing.

Light energy transfer from abundant hydroxylated carotenoids to the retinal moiety of widespread light-driven proton pumps is detected.

Structural and biochemical studies of the Mycobacterium smegmatis hydrogenase Huc provides insights into how [NiFe] hydrogenases oxidize trace amounts of atmospheric hydrogen and transfer the electrons liberated via quinone transport.