Science

Advancing science by designing for surprise

Recovering lost origins

Integrated evidence helps triangulate the origins of African slaves buried on St Helena

The rise and fall of the Amazon Soy Moratorium

Challenges to the voluntary zero-deforestation pact could impose costs for forests and the soy sector

AI in scientific publishing: Slower, worse, and more expensive

There’s a saying in the management world, popularized by NASA administrator Daniel Goldin in the 1990s, that the goal of technological improvements is to make products faster, better, and cheaper. Alt...

Scandinavian radar array will probe mysteries of the aurora

EISCAT_3D will paint a new picture of the upper atmosphere as it is roiled by solar outbursts

Tracing the origins of St Helena’s liberated Africans

In the mid-19th century, St Helena became a key receiving point for Africans “liberated” from illegal slave ships by the British Royal Navy. Of the ~27,000 landed, ~8000 died soon after arrival and we...

Cross-cohort analysis of expression and splicing quantitative trait loci in TOPMed

Most genetic variants associated with complex traits are hypothesized to regulate gene expression. To understand the genetics underlying gene expression variability, we characterized 14,324 RNA-sequen...

U.S. researchers express outrage over proposed changes to managing federal grants

White House receives 340,000 comments on rules many fear would politicize science

A transcriptional biosensor reveals mechanisms of α-ketoglutarate signaling to chromatin

The metabolite α-ketoglutarate (αKG) is required for chromatin demethylation, but mechanisms that control αKG abundance in the nucleus are poorly defined. We designed a biosensor to monitor this metab...

As the Arctic warms, gray whale boom turns into a bust

Scientists point to changes that jeopardize the marine mammals’ critical feeding grounds

Lymph nodes now optional

A subset of dendritic cells orchestrates the formation of tertiary lymphoid structures in tumor tissues

Parallel independent voltage computing along dendrites of CA3 pyramidal neurons

Dendritic computation contributes to information processing in cortical circuits. Hippocampal CA3 plays a central role in navigation, but how the dendrites of CA3 pyramidal neurons process information...

Cyclic sealing and drainage on an oceanic transform fault

Oceanic transform faults have been considered conservative, shear-dominated boundaries, yet their proximity to magmatic systems implies fluid involvement. In this work, we discovered tidally modulated...

Drying of the Aral Sea reshapes the anthropogenic carbon inventory of Central Asia

Lakes store large quantities of carbon in their sediments, contributing to climate regulation. Yet the fate of this carbon after lake desiccation remains unclear. Using a space-for-time substitution a...

Social calibration of sycophantic AI—Response

Structure and evolution-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases

The design of RNA-guided nucleases with properties not limited by evolution can expand programmable genome-editing capabilities. However, generating diverse multidomain proteins with robust enzymatic...

Robust single-electron memory with quantum states manipulation

The ultimate goal of information storage is single-electron memory. Quantum mechanics predicts that two distinguishable quantum states can be realized by confining a single electron within an ultrasma...

Direct interaction of Vδ7 TCRs with IL17RA drives the differentiation of T _H 1-like γδT cells

Of the three classes of lymphocytes that constitute the adaptive immune system, γδT cells are the only class for which the principles of antigen recognition remain enigmatic. Although endogenous γδT c...

Restored clearance of senescent neutrophils by tissue-resident macrophages limits organ aging

Aging disrupts tissue homeostasis across organ systems. Here, we identify tissue-resident macrophages (TRMs) as central coordinators of age-related organ decline through impaired clearance of senescen...

Tree-killing beetle is spreading to urban forests around the world

As researchers piece together the pest’s global trek, countries are working to contain the growing threat

What tears can say

Tidying up aging organs

A prostaglandin prevents macrophages from clearing toxic neutrophils in aging organs

Surface-dominant transport in Weyl semimetal NbAs nanowires for next-generation interconnects

Ongoing demands for smaller and more energy-efficient electronic devices necessitate alternative interconnect materials with lower electrical resistivity at reduced dimensions. We report the synthesis...

Spatiotemporally homogeneous crystallization for ambient scalable perovskite photovoltaics

Commercializing perovskite solar cells (PSCs) will likely require the scalable deposition of homogeneous perovskite films under ambient conditions. However, the spatially heterogeneous degradation of...

Performance trade-offs define a fundamental dental dichotomy in mammals

Teeth define mammalian evolution, and one of many adaptive dental breakthroughs in crown mammals is the tribosphenic molar: a tooth with a dual shearing-crushing function, often considered a key adapt...