Research articles

In the quest for fault-tolerant quantum computation, being able to interface different topological codes such as surface and color codes would allow to get the best of each code. Here, the authors show how to interface arbitrary topological quantum error correction codes in two dimensions.

Aftershocks are earthquakes triggered in the near field by the dynamic rupture of larger earthquake events. Here, the authors show along the San Andreas fault system that the early aftershock decay rate can be used to infer the variations of stress with depth.

Snowball Earth glaciations were some of the most extreme climate events in Earth history, and are temporally linked to major biogeochemical changes. Here, using geochemical proxies, the authors show that during the Marinoan glaciation, there was likely open water, active oxygen production, and nitrogen cycling.

IL-15 signals through STAT5 to modulate natural killer (NK) cell maturation, function and homeostasis, but the specific contributions of STAT5 dimers and tetramers are still unclear. Here the authors show that, while STAT5 dimers are sufficient for NK development, STAT5 tetramers are essential for NK homoeostasis by modulating apoptosis.

Identifying the mutational landscape of tumours from cell-free DNA in the blood could help diagnostics in cancer. Here, the authors present ichorCNA, software that quantifies tumour content in cell free DNA, and they demonstrate that cell-free DNA whole-exome sequencing is concordant with metastatic tumour whole-exome sequencing.

The detection of structural variants can be difficult with short-read sequencing technology, especially when variants are highly complex. Here, the authors use a MinION nanopore sequencer to analyse two patient genomes and develop NanoSV to map known and novel structural variants in long read data.

Solution processed colloidal quantum dots are emerging photovoltaic materials with tuneable infrared bandgaps. Here, Yang et al. create a class of quantum dot bulk heterojunction solar cell via ligand design, enabling longer photocarrier diffusion lengths for greater photocurrent and performance.

Cyanobacteria can be exploited to convert light energy into electrical current, however utilising them efficiently for power generation is a challenge. Here, the authors use a simple commercial inkjet printer to fabricate a thin-film paper-based biophotovoltaic cell capable of driving low-power devices.

Here, dynamical light squeezing is observed in the emission from two coupled weakly nonlinear populations of exciton-polaritons through ultrafast time-resolved second-order correlation measurements. Full quantum simulations link the squeezing to the periodic bunching observed in the light statistics.

Macrophage differentiation and inflammatory function are controlled by cell metabolism. Here, the authors use a viral hepatitis model and a high-fat diet model of insulin resistance to show how VSIG4 inhibits inflammatory macrophage activation by modulating mitochondrial pyruvate metabolism.

New examples of natural antireflective coatings are rare. Here, Yang et al. report the fabrication and optical characterization of a biologically inspired antireflective surface that emulates the surface architecture of the leafhopper-produced brochosomes with antireflective performance from 250 to 2000 nm.

Retrotransposons are abundant in eukaryotic genomes. Here, Sanchez et al. show evidence of high-frequency recombination between members of an LTR retrotransposon family during transposition bursts in Arabidopsis.

Fe/S clusters are synthesized by the mitochondrial iron-sulfur cluster assembly (ISC) machinery. Here the authors combine crystallography and small angle X-ray scattering measurements to structurally characterize the core ISC complex and give functional insights into eukaryotic Fe/S cluster synthesis.

Two-dimensional materials offer the prospect of excitonic devices operating at room-temperature. Here, Kleemann et al. demonstrate that by tuning the number of WSe₂ layers in a nanoparticle-on-mirror geometry, room-temperature plasmon strong-coupling can be achieved with large Rabi splittings.

Cysteine palmitoylation affects the localization and function of membrane proteins, but its stoichiometry and specificity are not well understood. Here, the authors show that palmitoylation is a stochastic process that depends on the accessibility of cysteines rather than a defined substrate motif.

Mesenchymal stem cells are essential for bone development, but it is unclear if their activity is maintained after late puberty, when bone growth decelerates. The authors show that during late puberty in mice, these cells undergo senescence under the epigenetic control of Ezh2.

Linear acoustic metamaterials based on resonances are generally tunable but limited by their narrow bands. Here, Fang et al. fabricate one- and two-dimensional nonlinear acoustic metamaterials with a broadband, low-frequency, response—greatly suppressing low frequency noise.

Tumorigenesis is a complex process driven by numerous risk factors. Here, genomic analysis of liver cancer reveals the evolution of mutational signatures during tumor development, highlighting mutational and structural signatures linked to environmental exposures and endogenous cellular processes.

Changes in synchrony of cortical populations are observed across the sleep-wake cycle, however the effect of fluctuations in synchrony during wakefulness is not understood. Here the authors show that visual cortical neurons have improved sensory encoding accuracy as well as improved perceptual performance during periods of local population desynchrony.

Harvesting excess energy from above-bandgap photons can break solar cells’ conventional efficiency limits. Using transient spectroscopy, modelling and ab-initio calculations, Fu et al., unravel the interplay between hot phonon bottleneck and Auger heating effects on hot-carrier cooling in halide perovskites.