-
Verbose robots, and why some people love Bach: Books in Brief Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.
-
A year in the life: what I learnt from using a time-tracking spreadsheet Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
A low-tech solution helped Megan Rogers to increase her productivity and maintain a good work–life balance.
-
Building a heart atlas: researchers map organ in stunning detail Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
Cutting edge imaging techniques reveal how cells organise as the heart develops.
-
-
Mobile delivery of COVID-19 vaccines improved uptake in rural Sierra Leone Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Alison Buttenheim, Harsha Thirumurthy
Vaccination rates in rural areas improve when vaccines are delivered.
-
Bird-flu threat disrupts Antarctic penguin studies Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Projects have been cancelled in an effort to curb the virus’s spread.
-
Inside China’s giant underground neutrino lab Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Due to come online this year, the JUNO facility will help to determine which type of neutrino has the highest mass — one of the biggest mysteries in physics.
-
People, passion, publishable: an early-career researcher’s checklist for prioritizing projects Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Stuck between several lines of research? Here’s how we decide which ones to pursue, say Elizabeth Tenney, Jacqueline Chen and McKenzie Preston.
-
First US drug approved for a liver disease surging around the world Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
A therapy called resmetirom improves hallmarks of an obesity-linked condition that can lead to liver failure.
-
A fundamental constant in physics gets an update Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Scientists controlled a hydrogen atom with electric fields to derive a highly precise estimate of the Rydberg constant.
-
Ditching ‘Anthropocene’: why ecologists say the term still matters Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Beyond stratigraphic definitions, the name has broader significance for understanding humans’ place on Earth.
-
Neural and behavioural state switching during hippocampal dentate spikes Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jordan S. Farrell, Ernie Hwaun, Barna Dudok, Ivan Soltesz
-
AIRE relies on Z-DNA to flag gene targets for thymic T cell tolerization Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Yuan Fang, Kushagra Bansal, Sara Mostafavi, Christophe Benoist, Diane Mathis
-
Blueprinting extendable nanomaterials with standardized protein blocks Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Timothy F. Huddy, Yang Hsia, Ryan D. Kibler, Jinwei Xu, Neville Bethel, Deepesh Nagarajan, Rachel Redler, Philip J. Y. Leung, Connor Weidle, Alexis Courbet, Erin C. Yang, Asim K. Bera, Nicolas Coudray, S. John Calise, Fatima A. Davila-Hernandez, Hannah L. Han, Kenneth D. Carr, Zhe Li, Ryan McHugh, Gabriella Reggiano, Alex Kang, Banumathi Sankaran, Miles S. Dickinson, Brian Coventry, T. J. Brunette
-
Drought triggers and sustains overnight fires in North America Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Kaiwei Luo, Xianli Wang, Mark de Jong, Mike Flannigan
-
Fork coupling directs DNA replication elongation and termination Science (IF 56.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Yang Liu, Zhengrong Zhangding, Xuhao Liu, Tingting Gan, Chen Ai, Jinchun Wu, Haoxin Liang, Mohan Chen, Yuefeng Guo, Rusen Lu, Yongpeng Jiang, Xiong Ji, Ning Gao, Daochun Kong, Qing Li, Jiazhi Hu
DNA replication is initiated at multiple loci to ensure timely duplication of eukaryotic genomes. Sister replication forks progress bidirectionally, and replication terminates when two convergent forks encounter one another. To investigate the coordination of replication forks, we developed a replication-associated in situ HiC method to capture chromatin interactions involving nascent DNA. We identify
-
Penning micro-trap for quantum computing Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Shreyans Jain, Tobias Sägesser, Pavel Hrmo, Celeste Torkzaban, Martin Stadler, Robin Oswald, Chris Axline, Amado Bautista-Salvador, Christian Ospelkaus, Daniel Kienzler, Jonathan Home
-
Chatbot AI makes racist judgements on the basis of dialect Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
Some large language models harbour hidden biases that cannot be removed using standard methods.
-
Did ‘alien’ debris hit Earth? Startling claim sparks row at scientific meeting Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says that an interstellar meteor showered Earth with particles. At a planetary-science conference this week, researchers begged to differ.
-
Daily briefing: In most mammal species, males and females are the same size — or females are bigger Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
Charles Darwin’s claim about male mammals usually being bigger than females is proved wrong. Plus, OpenAI’s Sora can create amazing video from text prompts, and what’s wrong with how we treat the menopause.
-
Continuous evolution of compact protein degradation tags regulated by selective molecular glues Science (IF 56.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Jaron A. M. Mercer, Stephan J. DeCarlo, Shourya S. Roy Burman, Vedagopuram Sreekanth, Andrew T. Nelson, Moritz Hunkeler, Peter J. Chen, Katherine A. Donovan, Praveen Kokkonda, Praveen K. Tiwari, Veronika M. Shoba, Arghya Deb, Amit Choudhary, Eric S. Fischer, David R. Liu
Conditional protein degradation tags (degrons) are usually >100 amino acids long or are triggered by small molecules with substantial off-target effects, thwarting their use as specific modulators of endogenous protein levels. We developed a phage-assisted continuous evolution platform for molecular glue complexes (MG-PACE) and evolved a 36–amino acid zinc finger (ZF) degron (SD40) that binds the ubiquitin
-
Generalized fear after acute stress is caused by change in neuronal cotransmitter identity Science (IF 56.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Hui-quan Li, Wuji Jiang, Li Ling, Marta Pratelli, Cong Chen, Vaidehi Gupta, Swetha K. Godavarthi, Nicholas C. Spitzer
Overgeneralization of fear to harmless situations is a core feature of anxiety disorders resulting from acute stress, yet the mechanisms by which fear becomes generalized are poorly understood. In this study, we show that generalized fear in mice results from a transmitter switch from glutamate to γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in serotonergic neurons of the lateral wings of the dorsal raphe. Similar change
-
The DTC microbiome testing industry needs more regulation Science (IF 56.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Diane E. Hoffmann, Erik C. von Rosenvinge, Mary-Claire Roghmann, Francis B. Palumbo, Daniel McDonald, Jacques Ravel
A growing body of research has suggested the potential for improving human health by better understanding the human microbiome. This research has led to the emergence of a global industry selling direct-to-consumer (DTC) microbiome testing services. Regulation of this industry has been generally ignored despite its having made a mark on the lifestyle health and wellness market. Yet companies’ claims
-
Divas, captains, ghosts, ants and bumble-bees: collaborator attitudes explained Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Olga Lehmann made sense of challenges she faced in teamwork by analysing how she and her colleagues behaved and what she could have done differently.
-
A Black mathematical history Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Documentary reveals how Black US scholars shaped today’s mathematics community and provides hope for the future.
-
More than 4,000 plastic chemicals are hazardous, report finds Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Year-long effort compiles comprehensive database of chemicals in plastics.
-
The neuroscientist formerly known as Prince’s audio engineer Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Susan Rogers worked with the legendary singer-songwriter before earning a PhD in her 50s on auditory memory and how we listen to music throughout life.
-
Do black holes explode? The 50-year-old puzzle that challenges quantum physics Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Stephen Hawking’s paradoxical finding that black holes don’t live forever has profound, unresolved implications for the quest for unifying theories of reality.
-
Fungal diseases are spreading undetected Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Low- and middle-income countries are grappling with widespread shortages of diagnostic tests for infections that kill millions.
-
Daily briefing: How Hawking’s paradox still puzzles physicists Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
On the sixth anniversary of Stephen Hawking’s death, we revisit his landmark paper. Plus, a stunning 3D atlas of the heart and the mysterious rise of cancer in young people.
-
These cyborg jellyfish could monitor the changing seas Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
A hat-like prosthesis helps the invertebrates to swim more efficiently and can be used to carry ocean sensors.
-
Couple-close construction of polycyclic rings from diradicals Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Alice Long, Christian J. Oswood, Christopher B. Kelly, Marian C. Bryan, David W. C. MacMillan
-
US oil and gas system emissions from nearly one million aerial site measurements Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Evan D. Sherwin, Jeffrey S. Rutherford, Zhan Zhang, Yuanlei Chen, Erin B. Wetherley, Petr V. Yakovlev, Elena S. F. Berman, Brian B. Jones, Daniel H. Cusworth, Andrew K. Thorpe, Alana K. Ayasse, Riley M. Duren, Adam R. Brandt
-
Spatially organized cellular communities form the developing human heart Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Elie N. Farah, Robert K. Hu, Colin Kern, Qingquan Zhang, Ting-Yu Lu, Qixuan Ma, Shaina Tran, Bo Zhang, Daniel Carlin, Alexander Monell, Andrew P. Blair, Zilu Wang, Jacqueline Eschbach, Bin Li, Eugin Destici, Bing Ren, Sylvia M. Evans, Shaochen Chen, Quan Zhu, Neil C. Chi
-
High-speed and large-scale intrinsically stretchable integrated circuits Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Donglai Zhong, Can Wu, Yuanwen Jiang, Yujia Yuan, Min-gu Kim, Yuya Nishio, Chien-Chung Shih, Weichen Wang, Jian-Cheng Lai, Xiaozhou Ji, Theodore Z. Gao, Yi-Xuan Wang, Chengyi Xu, Yu Zheng, Zhiao Yu, Huaxin Gong, Naoji Matsuhisa, Chuanzhen Zhao, Yusheng Lei, Deyu Liu, Song Zhang, Yuto Ochiai, Shuhan Liu, Shiyuan Wei, Jeffrey B.-H. Tok, Zhenan Bao
-
Substrate-induced condensation activates plant TIR domain proteins Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Wen Song, Li Liu, Dongli Yu, Hanna Bernardy, Jan Jirschitzka, Shijia Huang, Aolin Jia, Wictoria Jemielniak, Julia Acker, Henriette Laessle, Junli Wang, Qiaochu Shen, Weijie Chen, Pilong Li, Jane E. Parker, Zhifu Han, Paul Schulze-Lefert, Jijie Chai
-
Dopamine receptor D2 confers colonization resistance via microbial metabolites Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Samantha A. Scott, Jingjing Fu, Pamela V. Chang
-
Time-resolved cryo-EM of G-protein activation by a GPCR Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Makaía M. Papasergi-Scott, Guillermo Pérez-Hernández, Hossein Batebi, Yang Gao, Gözde Eskici, Alpay B. Seven, Ouliana Panova, Daniel Hilger, Marina Casiraghi, Feng He, Luis Maul, Peter Gmeiner, Brian K. Kobilka, Peter W. Hildebrand, Georgios Skiniotis
-
Mitochondrial complex I activity in microglia sustains neuroinflammation Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 L. Peruzzotti-Jametti, C. M. Willis, G. Krzak, R. Hamel, L. Pirvan, R.-B. Ionescu, J. A. Reisz, H. A. Prag, M. E. Garcia-Segura, V. Wu, Y. Xiang, B. Barlas, A. M. Casey, A. M. R. van den Bosch, A. M. Nicaise, L. Roth, G. R. Bates, H. Huang, P. Prasad, A. E. Vincent, C. Frezza, C. Viscomi, G. Balmus, Z. Takats, J. C. Marioni, A. D’Alessandro, M. P. Murphy, I. Mohorianu, S. Pluchino
-
Last-mile delivery increases vaccine uptake in Sierra Leone Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Niccolò F. Meriggi, Maarten Voors, Madison Levine, Vasudha Ramakrishna, Desmond Maada Kangbai, Michael Rozelle, Ella Tyler, Sellu Kallon, Junisa Nabieu, Sarah Cundy, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
-
Roll-to-roll, high-resolution 3D printing of shape-specific particles Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jason M. Kronenfeld, Lukas Rother, Max A. Saccone, Maria T. Dulay, Joseph M. DeSimone
-
Rapid unleashing of macrophage efferocytic capacity via transcriptional pause release Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Turan Tufan, Gamze Comertpay, Ambra Villani, Geoffrey M. Nelson, Marina Terekhova, Shannon Kelley, Pavel Zakharov, Rochelle M. Ellison, Oleg Shpynov, Michael Raymond, Jerry Sun, Yitan Chen, Enno Bockelmann, Marta Stremska, Lance W. Peterson, Laura Boeckaerts, Seth R. Goldman, J. Iker Etchegaray, Maxim N. Artyomov, Francesca Peri, Kodi S. Ravichandran
-
Evolutionary trajectories of small cell lung cancer under therapy Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Julie George, Lukas Maas, Nima Abedpour, Maria Cartolano, Laura Kaiser, Rieke N. Fischer, Andreas H. Scheel, Jan-Philipp Weber, Martin Hellmich, Graziella Bosco, Caroline Volz, Christian Mueller, Ilona Dahmen, Felix John, Cleidson Padua Alves, Lisa Werr, Jens Peter Panse, Martin Kirschner, Walburga Engel-Riedel, Jessica Jürgens, Erich Stoelben, Michael Brockmann, Stefan Grau, Martin Sebastian, Jan
-
Global supply chains amplify economic costs of future extreme heat risk Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Yida Sun, Shupeng Zhu, Daoping Wang, Jianping Duan, Hui Lu, Hao Yin, Chang Tan, Lingrui Zhang, Mengzhen Zhao, Wenjia Cai, Yong Wang, Yixin Hu, Shu Tao, Dabo Guan
-
The evolution of menopause in toothed whales Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Samuel Ellis, Daniel W. Franks, Mia Lybkær Kronborg Nielsen, Michael N. Weiss, Darren P. Croft
-
Neural signatures of natural behaviour in socializing macaques Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Camille Testard, Sébastien Tremblay, Felipe Parodi, Ron W. DiTullio, Arianna Acevedo-Ithier, Kristin L. Gardiner, Konrad Kording, Michael L. Platt
-
Self-enhanced mobility enables vortex pattern formation in living matter Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Haoran Xu, Yilin Wu
-
Anoxygenic phototroph of the Chloroflexota uses a type I reaction centre Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 J. M. Tsuji, N. A. Shaw, S. Nagashima, J. J. Venkiteswaran, S. L. Schiff, T. Watanabe, M. Fukui, S. Hanada, M. Tank, J. D. Neufeld
-
APOE4/4 is linked to damaging lipid droplets in Alzheimer’s disease microglia Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Michael S. Haney, Róbert Pálovics, Christy Nicole Munson, Chris Long, Patrik K. Johansson, Oscar Yip, Wentao Dong, Eshaan Rawat, Elizabeth West, Johannes C. M. Schlachetzki, Andy Tsai, Ian Hunter Guldner, Bhawika S. Lamichhane, Amanda Smith, Nicholas Schaum, Kruti Calcuttawala, Andrew Shin, Yung-Hua Wang, Chengzhong Wang, Nicole Koutsodendris, Geidy E. Serrano, Thomas G. Beach, Eric M. Reiman, Christopher
-
Drought-fuelled overnight burning propels large fires in North America Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jennifer K. Balch, Adam L. Mahood
Analysis of large wildfires indicates key role of overnight burning.
-
Being a parent is a hidden scientific superpower — here’s why Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
My lack of time and fresh perspective has made me a better, more focused scientist, says nutrition epidemiologist Lindsey Smith Taillie.
-
Structural basis of U12-type intron engagement by the fully assembled human minor spliceosome Science (IF 56.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Rui Bai, Meng Yuan, Pu Zhang, Ting Luo, Yigong Shi, Ruixue Wan
The minor spliceosome, which is responsible for the splicing of U12-type introns, comprises five small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs), of which only one is shared with the major spliceosome. In this work, we report the 3.3-angstrom cryo–electron microscopy structure of the fully assembled human minor spliceosome pre-B complex. The atomic model includes U11 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP), U12 snRNP
-
The temporal and genomic scale of selection following hybridization Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (IF 11.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Jeffrey S. Groh, Graham Coop
Genomic evidence supports an important role for selection in shaping patterns of introgression along the genome, but frameworks for understanding the evolutionary dynamics within hybrid populations that underlie these patterns have been lacking. Due to the clock-like effect of recombination in hybrids breaking up parental haplotypes, drift and selection produce predictable patterns of ancestry variation
-
Frequent winners explain apparent skewness preferences in experience-based decisions Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (IF 11.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Sebastian Olschewski, Mikhail S. Spektor, Gaël Le Mens
Do people’s attitudes toward the (a)symmetry of an outcome distribution affect their choices? Financial investors seek return distributions with frequent small returns but few large ones, consistent with leading models of choice in economics and finance that assume right-skewed preferences. In contrast, many experiments in which decision-makers learn about choice options through experience find the
-
Dependence on relative humidity in the formation of reactive oxygen species in water droplets Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (IF 11.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Mohammad Mofidfar, Masoud A. Mehrgardi, Yu Xia, Richard N. Zare
Water microdroplets (7 to 11 µm average diameter, depending on flow rate) are sprayed in a closed chamber at ambient temperature, whose relative humidity (RH) is controlled. The resulting concentration of ROS (reactive oxygen species) formed in the microdroplets, measured by the amount of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), is determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and by spectrofluorimetric assays
-
Transcription-induced active forces suppress chromatin motion Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (IF 11.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Sucheol Shin, Guang Shi, Hyun Woo Cho, D. Thirumalai
The organization of interphase chromosomes in a number of species is starting to emerge thanks to advances in a variety of experimental techniques. However, much less is known about the dynamics, especially in the functional states of chromatin. Some experiments have shown that the motility of individual loci in human interphase chromosome decreases during transcription and increases upon inhibiting
-
Photo-neuro-immuno-endocrinology: How the ultraviolet radiation regulates the body, brain, and immune system Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (IF 11.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Radomir M. Slominski, Jake Y. Chen, Chander Raman, Andrzej T. Slominski
Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is primarily recognized for its detrimental effects such as cancerogenesis, skin aging, eye damage, and autoimmune disorders. With exception of ultraviolet B (UVB) requirement in the production of vitamin D3, the positive role of UVR in modulation of homeostasis is underappreciated. Skin exposure to UVR triggers local responses secondary to the induction of chemical, hormonal
-
A redox switch allows binding of Fe(II) and Fe(III) ions in the cyanobacterial iron-binding protein FutA from Prochlorococcus Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (IF 11.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Rachel Bolton, Moritz M. Machelett, Jack Stubbs, Danny Axford, Nicolas Caramello, Lucrezia Catapano, Martin Malý, Matthew J. Rodrigues, Charlotte Cordery, Graham J. Tizzard, Fraser MacMillan, Sylvain Engilberge, David von Stetten, Takehiko Tosha, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jonathan A. R. Worrall, Jeremy S. Webb, Mike Zubkov, Simon Coles, Eric Mathieu, Roberto A. Steiner, Garib Murshudov, Tobias E. Schrader
The marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus is a main contributor to global photosynthesis, whilst being limited by iron availability. Cyanobacterial genomes generally encode two different types of FutA iron-binding proteins: periplasmic FutA2 ABC transporter subunits bind Fe(III), while cytosolic FutA1 binds Fe(II). Owing to their small size and their economized genome Prochlorococcus ecotypes typically
-
KCTD10 regulates brain development by destabilizing brain disorder–associated protein KCTD13 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (IF 11.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Jianbo Cheng, Zhen Wang, Manpei Tang, Wen Zhang, Guozhong Li, Senwei Tan, Chenjun Mu, Mengyuan Hu, Dan Zhang, Xiangbin Jia, Yangxuan Wen, Hui Guo, Dan Xu, Liang Liu, Jiada Li, Kun Xia, Faxiang Li, Ranhui Duan, Zhiheng Xu, Ling Yuan
KCTD10 belongs to the KCTD (potassiumchannel tetramerization domain) family, many members of which are associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the biological function underlying the association with brain disorders remains to be explored. Here, we reveal that Kctd10 is highly expressed in neuronal progenitors and layer V neurons throughout brain development. Kctd10 deficiency triggers
-
A minimal physical model for curvotaxis driven by curved protein complexes at the cell’s leading edge Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (IF 11.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Raj Kumar Sadhu, Marine Luciano, Wang Xi, Cristina Martinez-Torres, Marcel Schröder, Christoph Blum, Marco Tarantola, Stefano Villa, Samo Penič, Aleš Iglič, Carsten Beta, Oliver Steinbock, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Benoît Ladoux, Sylvain Gabriele, Nir S. Gov
Cells often migrate on curved surfaces inside the body, such as curved tissues, blood vessels, or highly curved protrusions of other cells. Recent in vitro experiments provide clear evidence that motile cells are affected by the curvature of the substrate on which they migrate, preferring certain curvatures to others, termed “curvotaxis.” The origin and underlying mechanism that gives rise to this