Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Articles in this Issue
Social mobilizations for sustainability transformations
Overlooked and overexploited: Extensive conversion of grasslands and wetlands driven by global food, feed, and bioenergy demand
Natural ecosystems are increasingly threatened by global agricultural supply chains, and a narrow policy focus on forests has fueled agricultural expansion into ecologically significant but severely o...
Navigating the mysterious space of evolutionary histories
The way of life: The network challenge of blood flow in the brain
Studying adaptation at the invisible scale
In order to understand adaptation by natural selection, it is necessary to observe organisms in their natural habitat. For this reason, the field of behavioral ecology, which specializes in testing ad...
Phenotypic polymorphism via mate copying
Classical mate choice theories assume independent decision-making, yet mounting evidence shows that individuals often use social information and copy conspecifics’ mate choices, a behavior termed mate...
Structural and evolutionary constraints of organophosphate resistance in dipteran carboxylesterases
Enzymatic detoxification of organophosphate (OP) insecticides can confer resistance in some insects, yet the precise molecular basis of this trait, and how it has evolved, remains poorly understood. I...
The cognitive underpinnings of minority overestimation
Kava consumption and the rise of sociopolitical complexity in Oceania
Humans have been using psychoactive substances for millennia, despite their potential negative health and social consequences. According to some scholars, our craving for mind-altering drugs is an evo...
Tectonism rather than “snowball Earth” glaciation is responsible for the Great Unconformity
The Great Unconformity (GUn)—a widely recognized discontinuity and associated gap in the rock record between Precambrian and Cambrian rocks—represents a globally important interval of continental expo...
Accelerated north–east shift of the global green wave trajectory
Viewed from space, a “green wave” seasonally traverses Earth’s surface, from the north in boreal summer to the south in austral summer. This wave represents vegetation phenology, driven primarily by s...
Effects of correlated collisions and intermittency on the growth of lucky droplets
To trigger precipitation, water droplets in warm clouds need to attain a sufficient size. Theoretical estimates based on condensation and gravitational collisions alone fail to explain the observed ti...
Profile of Emily E. Brodsky
To study the interplay of mechanical stress and strain in faults, seismologist Emily Brodsky looks for earthquakes with a known trigger, such as a volcano or injection of underground wastewater. These...
Reply to Fernández-Quevedo García et al.: Surface tension in phase-separated active Brownian particles
The problem of the mechanical surface tension of active Brownian particle interfaces
A quantum leap at a time: In memory of Bruce D. Hammock
Distinguished Bruce D. Hammock (1947–2026) was a prolific scientist, gifted teacher, and extraordinary collaborator whose work transformed entomology, immunochemistry, and inflammation biology. Author...
A universal brown dwarf desert formed between planets and stars
Giant planets and brown dwarfs play a crucial role in star and planet formation as they are situated at the boundary between planets and stars with uncertain formation mechanisms. Previous observation...