Notes from Nature, Science, and Cell.
A consortium reports a workflow that produced 1,116 phased genome assemblies from Han and minority Chinese individuals, cataloguing structural variants absent from earlier reference panels. The authors position the resource as a population-matched substrate for medical and evolutionary genetics work in East Asian cohorts.
Using gravitational-wave catalogue data, researchers report a dip in the merging black-hole mass distribution near 50 to 120 solar masses, matching stellar-evolution predictions for the pair-instability regime. The team argues the feature, absent in earlier smaller samples, constrains the outcomes of massive-star collapse.
Chemists describe a small-molecule agonist of the mu-opioid receptor that surpasses morphine potency in rodent analgesia assays while producing lower respiratory depression and reduced constipation at equianalgesic doses. The authors attribute the selectivity to biased signalling away from beta-arrestin recruitment.
Researchers assembled a catalogue of bacterial anti-phage defence proteins covering several thousand gene families, combining structural prediction with activity screens. The authors suggest the collection as a starting point for engineering nucleases, toxin-antitoxin modules and signalling components for use outside their native hosts.
Working in mouse tumour models, researchers report that intratumoural dendritic cells accumulate damaged mitochondria and shift toward glycolysis, weakening their ability to prime CD8 T cells. Pharmacological rescue of mitochondrial function restored T-cell priming and slowed tumour growth in the tested lines.
A team flew a research aircraft through the exhaust plume of a commercial jet running a lean-burn combustor, sampling particle counts and ice nuclei over multiple passes. The measurements indicate that soot reductions alone do not prevent contrail formation, since volatile organic residues continue to seed ice crystals at cruise altitudes.
Materials researchers demonstrate perovskite photovoltaic cells using lead extracted from centuries-old musket ammunition recovered at European battlefield sites. The recycled feedstock reached device efficiencies comparable with reagent-grade lead after purification, offering a closed-loop source for a metal otherwise associated with environmental liability.
Engineers report a new reflective-optics train for extreme-ultraviolet lithography that reduces wavefront error at the reticle plane, enabling printing of features below the previous EUV floor. The authors frame the tool as a response to demand for denser logic chips from machine-learning workloads, without projecting specific node timelines.
Two analyses reduce the estimated qubit count and wall-clock time required to factor 2048-bit RSA integers using Shor's algorithm on fault-tolerant hardware. The authors argue the updated estimates shorten the window for classical-cryptography migration but stress the underlying hardware does not yet exist.
Mission scientists outline geological features the Artemis II crew will image during their lunar flyby, including portions of the South Pole-Aitken basin and far-side mare patches not previously photographed at human-eye resolution. The account distinguishes crew-obtained observations from data already returned by robotic orbiters.
A team reports a set of fossils from South China pre-dating the Cambrian boundary that preserve bilaterally symmetric body plans and differentiated tissues. The authors argue the assemblage pushes the origin of several animal body plans deeper into the Ediacaran, though they note the specimens are few and the taphonomy unusual.
Behavioural assays show that newly emerged cicadas orient toward dark vertical silhouettes rather than toward light sources, consistent with skototaxis rather than phototaxis. The team replicates the response in arenas with artificial silhouettes of varying contrast and concludes that dark-target seeking drives the climb to canopy.
Clinicians report a pilot study in which computational models built from each patient's cardiac MRI flagged ablation targets for ventricular tachycardia ahead of the procedure. Across the reported cohort, every treated patient remained arrhythmia-free at follow-up, though the authors note the small number and open-label design.
Palaeontologists describe a Utah specimen roughly 500 million years old that preserves chelicerae-like claws on an early chelicerate relative of spiders and scorpions. The authors argue the find pushes the appearance of the defining arachnid appendage back into the Cambrian, earlier than prior body-fossil evidence supported.
A new resource estimate suggests that on the order of 10,000 logical qubits, rather than millions, could suffice to factor 2048-bit RSA integers given improved error-correction scheduling. The authors stress that fault-tolerant hardware at that scale does not yet exist but argue the estimate tightens migration planning for post-quantum cryptography.
Reanalysis of 2017 observations of comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak indicates the nucleus reversed its spin direction over several weeks, with outgassing jets supplying the required torque. The authors model the sequence as a precursor to rotational destabilisation that could fragment small cometary nuclei.
A team using passive seismic sensors tracked groundwater-linked soil changes across tilled and no-till plots, reporting that intensive tilling reduces the soil matrix's ability to buffer both flooding and drought. The authors read the seismic signal as a proxy for micro-pore structure that conventional surveys miss.
Theorists propose a quantum-entanglement-based protocol that lets verifiers confirm a prover's claimed spatial location with security guarantees rooted in no-cloning rather than computational hardness. The authors note that practical deployment would require synchronised quantum channels to multiple reference stations.
A study tracking self-reported mind-wandering content across several hundred adults finds that episodes directed toward bodily sensations correlate with lower scores on depression and ADHD scales, compared with task-unrelated abstract wandering. The authors caution that the association is cross-sectional and does not establish a direction of effect.
Researchers report that the iron-handling protein FTL1 accumulates in ageing mouse hippocampus and that lowering its expression restores synaptic density and improves performance on spatial-memory tasks. The authors frame FTL1 as a candidate node in brain-ageing biology rather than a validated drug target.
Physicists report a stacked nanostructure that confines mid-infrared light to a dielectric layer roughly 40 nanometres thick, with an upconversion path that emits visible blue photons. The authors argue the design offers a route to compact infrared detectors without cryogenic cooling.
Laboratory simulations reproducing Mars-analogue dust storms generate persistent triboelectric discharges that convert chloride minerals into perchlorate and chlorate species. The authors argue the mechanism can help account for the abundance of oxidised chlorine compounds detected by landers in Martian regolith.
Field measurements across several Alaskan watersheds show that dissolved and particulate organic carbon mobilised from thawing permafrost is, by radiocarbon dating, thousands of years old. The authors estimate the flux is increasing with summer discharge and argue that standard inventories underweight this release pathway.
Using targeted manipulation of astrocyte calcium signalling in the basolateral amygdala, researchers report bidirectional effects on fear-memory acquisition and extinction in mice. The authors position astrocytes as active participants in the amygdala circuit rather than passive support cells, with possible relevance to post-traumatic models.
Materials chemists report a molten-salt route that produces titanium-carbide MXene sheets with long-range atomic order, yielding electronic conductivity roughly 160 times higher than conventionally etched equivalents. The authors measure transport along single flakes and argue that disorder, not intrinsic band structure, limited earlier samples.
Analyses of stellar-evolution models coupled with orbital-decay calculations indicate that short-period gas giants are typically swallowed by their host stars during the red-giant phase, before the star sheds its envelope. The authors argue that signatures of recently ingested planets should appear in the photospheres of a subset of red giants.
Clinicians report results from ten patients carrying OTOF-related congenital deafness who received an intracochlear adeno-associated virus vector delivering a functional otoferlin gene. Audiometry showed measurable hearing recovery within weeks in all participants; the authors note the open-label single-arm design and short follow-up.
Chemical biologists describe a synthetic DNA construct that releases a cytotoxic payload only when both of two tumour-associated markers are present on a target cell, using a strand-displacement AND gate. In cultured co-assays the construct spared cells carrying only one marker, though the authors have not yet tested it in animals.
Sequencing African cichlid lineages, researchers identify recurrent chromosomal inversions that bind together alleles associated with colour, morphology and behaviour into inherited supergenes. The authors argue that these locked haplotypes let local populations adapt to new lake habitats faster than free recombination would allow.
A team applied machine-learning classifiers to 16S and metagenomic profiles from several hundred patients and reports microbial-community features that separate early-stage gastrointestinal cancers from matched controls. The authors present the signatures as candidates for non-invasive screening rather than stand-alone diagnostics.