A large planet orbiting a very low-mass star challenges theories of planet formation.

A vibrant history traces the triumphs and missteps of quantum, nuclear, and particle physics.

Dissection of multistep catalysis by a photoenzyme could inspire green chemistry applications.

8000 years ago-long before farming arrived-people in Siberia built defensive structures.

The IPCC and leading economic models have different ideas about emissions reduction costs.

AI-powered discovery could lead to revolutions in electronics, batteries, and solar cells.

Genes from second wild grass may have helped propel its success-but scientists don't know how.

Team solves first protein structures with lower cost device.

Researchers seek protection for pristine areas on Moon's far side and polar regions.

A volcanic island off the coast of Iceland celebrates six decades as a living laboratory.

In polycrystalline metals, plastic deformation is accompanied by lattice rotations resulting from dislocation glide. Following these rotations in three dimensions requires nondestructive methods that so far have been limited to grain sizes at the micrometer scale. We tracked the rotations of individual grains in nanograined nickel by using three-dimensional orientation mapping in a transmission electron

Skin-resident CD8 + T cells include distinct interferon-γ–producing [tissue-resident memory T type 1 (T RM 1)] and interleukin-17 (IL-17)–producing (T RM 17) subsets that differentially contribute to immune responses. However, whether these populations use common mechanisms to establish tissue residence is unknown. In this work, we show that T RM 1 and T RM 17 cells navigate divergent trajectories

Theories of planet formation predict that low-mass stars should rarely host exoplanets with masses exceeding that of Neptune. We used radial velocity observations to detect a Neptune-mass exoplanet orbiting LHS 3154, a star that is nine times less massive than the Sun. The exoplanet’s orbital period is 3.7 days, and its minimum mass is 13.2 Earth masses. We used simulations to show that the high planet-to-star

The origins of maize were the topic of vigorous debate for nearly a century, but neither the current genetic model nor earlier archaeological models account for the totality of available data, and recent work has highlighted the potential contribution of a wild relative, Zea mays ssp. mexicana . Our population genetic analysis reveals that the origin of modern maize can be traced to an admixture between

Meiotic recombination commences with hundreds of programmed DNA breaks; however, the degree to which they are accurately repaired remains poorly understood. We report that meiotic break repair is eightfold more mutagenic for single-base substitutions than was previously understood, leading to de novo mutation in one in four sperm and one in 12 eggs. Its impact on indels and structural variants is even

Photolyase is an enzyme that uses light to catalyze DNA repair. To capture the reaction intermediates involved in the enzyme’s catalytic cycle, we conducted a time-resolved crystallography experiment. We found that photolyase traps the excited state of the active cofactor, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), in a highly bent geometry. This excited state performs electron transfer to damaged DNA, inducing

The development of functionally distinct catalysts for enantioselective synthesis is a prominent yet challenging goal of synthetic chemistry. In this work, we report a family of chiral N -heterocyclic carbene (NHC)–ligated boryl radicals as catalysts that enable catalytic asymmetric radical cycloisomerization reactions. The radical catalysts can be generated from easily prepared NHC-borane complexes

When evaluating the effect of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) changes on Earth’s climate, it is widely assumed that instantaneous radiative forcing from a doubling of a given CO 2 concentration (IRF 2×CO2 ) is constant and that variances in climate sensitivity arise from differences in radiative feedbacks or dependence of these feedbacks on the climatological base state. Here, we show that the IRF 2×CO2 is

The electrocaloric effect demands the maximized degree of freedom (DOF) of polar domains and the lowest energy barrier to facilitate the transition of polarization. However, optimization of the DOF and energy barrier—including domain size, crystallinity, multiconformation coexistence, polar correlation, and other factors in bulk ferroelectrics—has reached a limit. We used organic crystal dimethylhexynediol

Microsleeps, the seconds-long interruptions of wakefulness by eye closure and sleep-related brain activity, are dangerous when driving and might be too short to provide the restorative functions of sleep. If microsleeps do fulfill sleep functions, then animals faced with a continuous need for vigilance might resort to this sleep strategy. We investigated electroencephalographically defined sleep in

Photolyases, a ubiquitous class of flavoproteins, use blue light to repair DNA photolesions. In this work, we determined the structural mechanism of the photolyase-catalyzed repair of a cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (CPD) lesion using time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (TR-SFX). We obtained 18 snapshots that show time-dependent changes in four reaction loci. We used these results to create

Many metallic quantum materials display anomalous transport phenomena that defy a Fermi liquid description. Here, we use numerical methods to calculate thermal and charge transport in the doped Hubbard model and observe a crossover separating high- and low-temperature behaviors. Distinct from the behavior at high temperatures, the Lorenz number L becomes weakly doping dependent and less sensitive to

Prokaryotic type III CRISPR-Cas antiviral systems employ cyclic oligoadenylate (cA n ) signaling to activate a diverse range of auxiliary proteins that reinforce the CRISPR-Cas defense. Here we characterize a class of cA n -dependent effector proteins named CRISPR-Cas-associated messenger RNA (mRNA) interferase 1 (Cami1) consisting of a CRISPR-associated Rossmann fold sensor domain fused to winged

A new kind of data revolution is unfolding around the world, one that is unlikely to be on the radar of tech giants and the power brokers of Silicon Valley. Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) is a rallying cry for Indigenous communities seeking to regain control over their information while pushing back against data colonialism and its myriad harms. Led by Indigenous academics, innovators, and knowledge-holders

It is clear that climate action is not on course either to achieve agreed-upon temperature goals or to protect people from increasingly severe climate impacts. The United Nations climate meeting (COP28) now underway is being called upon to provide a “course correction,” and the Global Stocktake (GST) to assess progress under the Paris Agreement has identified the need for “systems transformations.”

Reduced air pollution from coal power plants decreased mortality more than expected.

A phase diagram-based screen identifies optimal interface materials for devices that convert heat into electricity.

Cosmic rays are energetic charged particles from extraterrestrial sources, with the highest-energy events thought to come from extragalactic sources. Their arrival is infrequent, so detection requires instruments with large collecting areas. In this work, we report the detection of an extremely energetic particle recorded by the surface detector array of the Telescope Array experiment. We calculate

World's fastest supercomputers will sharpen climate forecasts and design new materials.

Technical and legal barriers may hinder widespread use.

In mice, pregnancy results in new neurons that support recognition of pups.

These and other ancient plants may provide alternatives to chemical insecticides.

After ancient extinctions, survivors switched to day shifts, study of fish suggests.

Future ecological value of emerging habitats must be considered as climate change transforms the planet.

Episodes of dissolution and crystal growth stoke the formation of a common carbonate mineral.

An optimistic game proves that solving hard problems can be serious fun.

Intercellular air spaces are necessary for phototropism in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Images of the cosmos from the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope have awed the public and astronomers alike. Until the Hubble, breakthroughs in astronomy came from big telescopes on mountain-top observatories—discoveries that include the expansion of the Universe and planets orbiting other stars. A new generation of extremely large ground-based telescopes is under development

Recent successes in deep learning for vision and natural language processing are attributed to larger models but come with energy consumption and scalability issues. Current training of digital deep learning models primarily relies on backpropagation that is unsuitable for physical implementation. Here, we proposed a simple deep neural network architecture augmented by a physical local learning (PhyLL)

At the UN climate summit (COP28) kicking off in Dubai next week, we can expect the nations of the world to issue a flurry of energy- and climate-related announcements, pledges, and plans. Like their global peers, African governments will be using COP28 to demonstrate their climate ambition, building on commitments they made at the inaugural African Climate Summit held three months prior in Nairobi

Despite their importance in life and material sciences, the efficient construction of stereo-defined glycosides remains a challenge. Studies of carbohydrate functions would be advanced if glycosylation methods were as reliable and modular as palladium (Pd)-catalyzed cross-coupling. However, Pd-catalysis excels in forming sp 2 -hybridized carbon centers whereas glycosylation mostly builds sp 3 -hybridized

Thermoelectric interface materials (TEiMs) are essential to the development of thermoelectric generators. Common TEiMs use pure metals or binary alloys but have performance stability issues. Conventional selection of TEiMs generally relies on trial-and-error experimentation. We developed a TEiM screening strategy that is based on phase diagram predictions by density functional theory calculations.

During vertebrate organogenesis, increases in morphological complexity are tightly coupled to morphogen expression. In this work, we studied how morphogens influence self-organizing processes at the collective or “supra”-cellular scale in avian skin. We made physical measurements across length scales, which revealed morphogen-enabled material property differences that were amplified at supracellular

In plants, light direction is perceived by the phototropin photoreceptors, which trigger directional growth responses known as phototropism. The formation of a phototropin activation gradient across a photosensitive organ initiates this response. However, the optical tissue properties that functionally contribute to phototropism remain unclear. In this work, we show that intercellular air channels

Fitness landscape theory predicts that rugged landscapes with multiple peaks impair Darwinian evolution, but experimental evidence is limited. In this study, we used genome editing to map the fitness of >260,000 genotypes of the key metabolic enzyme dihydrofolate reductase in the presence of the antibiotic trimethoprim, which targets this enzyme. The resulting landscape is highly rugged and harbors

Adult neural stem cells (NSCs) contribute to lifelong brain plasticity. In the adult mouse ventricular-subventricular zone, NSCs are heterogeneous and, depending on their location in the niche, give rise to different subtypes of olfactory bulb (OB) interneurons. Here, we show that multiple regionally distinct NSCs, including domains that are usually quiescent, are recruited on different gestation days

Reconstructions of coupled carbon, oxygen, and sulfur cycles rely heavily on sedimentary pyrite sulfur isotope compositions (δ 34 S pyr ). With a model of sediment diagenesis, paired with global datasets of sedimentary parameters, we show that the wide range of δ 34 S pyr (~100 per mil) in modern marine sediments arises from geographic patterns in the relative rates of diffusion, burial, and microbial

Preparation of diverse homologs from lead compounds has been a common and important practice in medicinal chemistry. However, homologation of carboxylic acid derivatives, particularly amides, remains challenging. Here we report a hook-and-slide strategy for homologation of tertiary amides with tunable lengths of the inserted carbon chain. Alkylation at the α-position of the amide (hook) is followed

Crystals grow in supersaturated solutions. A mysterious counterexample is dolomite CaMg(CO 3 ) 2 , a geologically abundant sedimentary mineral that does not readily grow at ambient conditions, not even under highly supersaturated solutions. Using atomistic simulations, we show that dolomite initially precipitates a cation-disordered surface, where high surface strains inhibit further crystal growth

Reconstructions of past environmental conditions and biological activity are often based on bulk stable isotope proxies, which are inherently open to multiple interpretations. This is particularly true of the sulfur isotopic composition of sedimentary pyrite (δ 34 S pyr ), which is used to reconstruct ocean-atmosphere oxidation state and track the evolution of several microbial metabolic pathways.

Biocatalysis harnesses enzymes to make valuable products. This green technology is used in countless applications from bench scale to industrial production and allows practitioners to access complex organic molecules, often with fewer synthetic steps and reduced waste. The last decade has seen an explosion in the development of experimental and computational tools to tailor enzymatic properties, equipping

Microbial systems underpin many biotechnologies, including CRISPR, but the exponential growth of sequence databases makes it difficult to find previously unidentified systems. In this work, we develop the fast locality-sensitive hashing–based clustering (FLSHclust) algorithm, which performs deep clustering on massive datasets in linearithmic time. We incorporated FLSHclust into a CRISPR discovery pipeline

Policy-makers seeking to limit the impact of coal electricity-generating units (EGUs, also known as power plants) on air quality and climate justify regulations by quantifying the health burden attributable to exposure from these sources. We defined “coal PM 2.5 ” as fine particulate matter associated with coal EGU sulfur dioxide emissions and estimated annual exposure to coal PM 2.5 from 480 EGUs

Strange-metal behavior has been observed in materials ranging from high-temperature superconductors to heavy fermion metals. In conventional metals, current is carried by quasiparticles; although it has been suggested that quasiparticles are absent in strange metals, direct experimental evidence is lacking. We measured shot noise to probe the granularity of the current-carrying excitations in nanowires