Volume 629 Issue 8013, 23 May 2024

Criticism of our decision to publish AlphaFold3 raises important questions. We welcome readers’ views.

Solving problems in a safe, collaborative environment can help us think out of the box and build empathy — crucial skills in a warming world.

Borrowing the idea of ‘bug bounties’ from the technology industry could provide a systematic way to detect and correct the errors that litter the scientific literature.

Applicants whose essays had broader ‘semantic content’ tended to achieve higher marks.

A gel made from a milk protein reduces alcohol levels in the blood of intoxicated mice.

Combining a brain organoid with a blood-vessel organoid yields a system similar to a protective mesh in the brain.

Climate change and deforestation have increased the frequency of blazes in the humid forests of West and Central Africa.

Test of weight-loss candidate in mice shows that there is still room for improvement in a burgeoning field.

Experiments generate quantum entanglement over optical fibres across three real cities, marking progress towards networks that could have revolutionary applications.

Nature talks to physicists about what to expect in the next few months and beyond as the Sun hits its ‘maximum’.

The Sumatran orangutan used a plant known to humans for its medicinal qualities.

Kiri Wagstaff, who temporarily shelved her academic career to provide advice on federal AI legislation, talks about life inside the halls of power.

Google scientists have modelled a fragment of the human brain at nanoscale resolution, revealing cells with previously undiscovered features.

The US$665-million High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) outside Beijing puts China among only a handful of countries that have fourth-generation synchrotron light sources.

For 100 years, Egypt’s scientists have watched as their nation’s story was largely told by institutions from Europe and the United States. Can a stunning new museum change that narrative?

As researchers increasingly face many kinds of attack over their work, there is debate about how to support and protect them.

It’s time to sustainably manage the international ocean for marine and human life, says bold investigative book.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Environmental scientist who revealed the crucial role of underground animals in sustainability.

Without international partnerships, NASA’s groundbreaking mission could fail to be ready in time for its optimal launch window.

Researchers find ways to interweave faith and science, from discussing Ramadan fasts with colleagues to applying religious parables to lab work.

Mackenzie and Alexander Mathis were still early in their careers when their software created a sensation. Now they’re using it to support other young scientists.

Neven Iveša investigates the invasive species in the Adriatic Sea, and works out how to lessen its impact.

What lessons can we learn from the factors that govern the resilience of human populations? A large-scale analysis examining ancient societies around the world provides a detailed look at what drives sustainability.

The Chilean soapbark tree is the source of QS-21 — a valuable but hard-to-obtain vaccine additive. Yeast strains engineered to express all components of the QS-21 biosynthetic pathway provide an alternative route to this therapeutic.

A phenomenon that affects the magnetic fields of rotating bodies could be involved in recurring changes in the Sun’s behaviour, which are related to a periodic flipping of its field. The proposal is a fresh take on this strange effect.

Some genes carry an ‘imprint’ on either the maternal or the paternal copy, which determines whether or not that copy is expressed. This 1984 discovery changed how scientists think about gene regulation and inheritance.

The chemistry of promethium, a rare radioactive element, has been clouded in mystery, owing to its scarcity and the difficulties involved in working with it. The synthesis of a complex of promethium plugs this knowledge gap.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, emphasizes the importance of conserving wild plant species, plus a wonderstruck sky-watcher spots a brilliant meteor, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.

Genetic sequencing of human kidney cancers worldwide has revealed associations between geographical locations and specific mutation patterns, indicating exposure to known and unknown mutation-promoting agents.

Simple analytic estimates and detailed numerical calculations show that the solar dynamo begins near the surface, rather than at the much-deeper tachocline.

A new method based on the Josephson effect is described, allowing to measure the superfluid fraction of a supersolid, which captures the effect of spatially periodic modulation leading to reduction in the stiffness of superfluids.

A type of qubit that has inherent resistance to bit-flip errors has been manipulated with a bit-flip time of more than 10 s without losing that error protection.

Electro-optical photonic integrated circuits based on lithium tantalate perform as well as current state-of-the-art ones using lithium niobate but the material has the advantage of existing commercial uses in consumer electronics, easing the problem of scalability.

We develop a method for providing high-quality, holographic, three-dimensional augmented-reality images in a small form factor suitable for incorporation in eyeglass-scale wearables, using high-refraction-index glass waveguides with nanoscale metasurfaces, and incorporating artificial intelligence.

A pioneering design strategy for amorphous p-type semiconductors can be used in high-performance, stable p-channel TFTs and complementary circuits, which may establish viable amorphous p-channel TFT technology and large-area complementary electronics in a low-cost manner.

Using a three-pronged approach — spanning field-driven negative capacitance stabilization to increase intrinsic energy storage, antiferroelectric superlattice engineering to increase total energy storage, and conformal three-dimensional deposition to increase areal energy storage density — very high electrostatic energy storage density and power density are reported in HfO₂–ZrO₂-based thin film microcapacitors integrated into silicon.

A conformal ultrasound patch can be used for hands-free volumetric imaging and continuous monitoring of cerebral blood flow

Stable chelation of the ¹⁴⁷Pm radionuclide in aqueous solution by the newly synthesized organic diglycolamide ligand is demonstrated and the resulting complex studied, showing accelerated shortening of bonds at the beginning of the lanthanide series.

A completely genetically encoded boronic-acid-containing designer enzyme was created and characterized using X-ray crystallography, high-resolution mass spectrometry and ¹¹B NMR spectroscopy, allowing chemistry that is unknown in nature and currently not possible with small-molecule catalysts.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, managing ecosystem health, and preventing biological invasions and biodiversity loss could help to reduce the burden of plant, animal and human diseases, especially when coupled with improvements to social and economic determinants of health.

Analysis of population decline shows that frequent disturbances enhance a population’s capacity to resist and recover from downturns and that trade-offs exist when adopting new or alternative land-use strategies.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

Using intergenic regions and coalescent methods to analyse the genomes of 363 bird species, the authors present a well-supported tree confirming that Neoaves experienced rapid radiation at or near the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary.

We examined how familiar faces are encoded in inferotemporal, perirhinal and temporal pole face patches, and found that relative response magnitude to familiar versus unfamiliar faces was not a stable indicator of familiarity in any patch.

In the lungs, recently identified epithelial structures known as hillocks can act as injury-resistant reservoirs of stem cells.

By demonstrating a computational approach to restore the clinical efficacy of a COVID-19 antibody, the potential to rapidly update clinical antibodies is explored.

Two species of auxotrophic marine bacteria are shown to share precursors to synthesize the essential cofactor vitamin B₁₂, and such ligand cross-feeding may be a common phenomenon in the ocean and other ecosystems.

Lipopolysaccharide-induced breakdown of the blood–brain barrier requires activation of GSDMD-mediated plasma membrane permeabilization and pyroptosis in brain endothelial cells.

A subset of Macro-positive macrophages is identified to have immunosuppressive functions in the periportal vein zones of the liver to mediate excessive inflammation, and their effects depend on commensal gut bacteria.

Whole-genome sequencing of 962 clear cell renal cell carcinomas from 11 countries shows geographic variations in somatic mutation profiles, including a mutational signature of unknown cause in 70% of cases from Japan.

RMC-7977, a compound that exhibits potent inhibition of the active states of mutant and wild-type KRAS, NRAS and HRAS variants has a strong anti-tumour effect on RAS-addicted tumours and is well tolerated in preclinical models.

RMC-7977, a multi-selective RAS(ON) inhibitor, exhibits potent tumour-selective activity in multiple pre-clinical models of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma through a combination of pharmacology and oncogene dependence.

QS-21—an FDA-approved vaccine adjuvant—and several structural analogues of QS-21 can be synthesized in engineered yeast strains, and this process is much less laborious compared with the conventional mode of extraction from the Chilean soapbark tree.

Biochemical screening and optimization identify small molecules that inhibit the formation of lipoprotein(a), and these inhibitors reduce the levels of Lp(a) in several animal models, suggesting that they could provide a therapeutic option in humans.

We propose a model for a sequential, multistep activation mechanism of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5, including a series of structures in lipid nanodiscs, from inactive to fully active, with agonist-bound intermediate states.