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A device involving solar panels and a gel produces substantial amounts of water in one of the world’s driest deserts.

A single trapped ytterbium ion can be used to simulate complex changes in the energy levels of organic molecules interacting with light.

Lucrative prizes are offered for an AI-powered breakthrough in communications between humans and other species.

The highs and lows of looking for ‘the one’ during a PhD. Plus, mice with a human gene grow bigger-than-usual brains and reptiles might have evolved 35 million years earlier than we thought.

A longstanding question in the judgment and decision making literature is whether experts, even in high-stakes environments, exhibit the same cognitive biases observed in controlled experiments with inexperienced participants. Massey and Thaler (2013) claim to have found an example of bias and irrationality in expert decision making: general managers’ behavior in the National Football League draft

In his 1996 paper, Talagrand highlighted that the Law of Large Numbers (LLN) for independent random variables can be viewed as a geometric property of multidimensional product spaces. This phenomenon is known as the concentration of measure. To illustrate this profound connection between geometry and probability theory, we consider a seemingly intractable geometric problem in multidimensional Euclidean

The US administration has cancelled ‘DEI grants’ without defining DEI, leaving health-equity researchers in the dark.

In response to US turmoil, premier establishments such as the European Research Council have sweetened incentives to attract talent.

Ku70 and Ku80 form Ku, a ring-shaped complex that initiates the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) DNA repair pathway.1 Ku binds to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) ends and recruits other NHEJ factors (e.g., LIG4, DNA-PKcs). While Ku can bind to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)2 and trap mutated-DNA-PKcs on ribosomal RNA (rRNA),3,4 the physiological role on Ku-RNA interaction in otherwise wildtype cells remains

Immune-system responses to cell therapies produce long-term effects on cognition in mice.

The consumption and investments of the wealthiest 10% contribute disproportionately to the emissions that drive heat waves and drought.

The sacs grew to roughly 2 centimetres wide and could be used to study early pregnancy.

Treatment seems to have been effective, but it is not clear whether such bespoke therapies can be widely applied.

‘Directed’ evolution in the laboratory creates an editing tool that outperforms classic CRISPR systems.

Methylthioadenosine phosphorylase ( MTAP ) gene deletions are frequent in human cancers. Loss of MTAP leads to significantly increased cellular levels of methylthioadenosine (MTA), a cellular metabolite and specific inhibitor of the cell-essential enzyme Protein Arginine Methyltransferase-5 (PRMT5). Using a cofactor-directed screening strategy and DNA-encoded libraries, we identify a class of PRMT5

Nonlinear dynamical systems are ubiquitous in nature and they are hard to forecast. Not only they may be sensitive to small perturbations in their initial conditions, but they are often composed of processes acting at multiple scales. Classical approaches based on the Lyapunov spectrum rely on the knowledge of the dynamic forward operator, or of a data-derived approximation of it. This operator is

Ewing sarcoma (EwS) is an aggressive cancer of bone and soft tissue that predominantly affects children and young adults. A chromosomal translocation joins the low-complexity domain (LCD) of the RNA-binding protein EWS (EWS LCD ) with the DNA-binding domain of Friend leukemia integration 1 (FLI1 DBD ), creating EWS::FLI1, a potent fusion oncoprotein essential for EwS development and responsible for

A growing body of research suggests that the recent generation of large language model (LLMs) excel, and in many cases outpace humans, at writing persuasively and empathetically, at inferring user traits from text, and at mimicking human-like conversation believably and effectively—without possessing any true empathy or social understanding. We refer to these systems as “anthropomorphic conversational

We show that, in the space of all totally real fields equipped with the constructible topology, the set of fields that admit a universal quadratic form, or have the Northcott property, is meager. The main tool is a theorem on the number of square classes of totally positive units represented by a quadratic lattice of a given rank.

We employ a family of ancilla qubit variational wave functions [Y.-H. Zhang and S. Sachdev, Phys. Rev. Res. 2 , 023172 (2020)] to describe the polaronic correlations in the pseudogap metal phase of a hole-doped 2D Fermi–Hubbard model. Comparison to ultracold atom quantum simulator data [J. Koepsell et al ., Science 374 , 82 (2021)] reveals both qualitative and quantitative agreement with the numerical

A kinetic model coupling prebiotically plausible synthesis of enantioenriched proteinogenic amino acids with catalytic peptide ligation leads to an autocatalytic network that may exhibit symmetry breaking and chiral amplification, providing a feasible route to the emergence of biological homochirality. We show that symmetry breaking leading to chiral amplification can occur in two ways: a constructive

It has long been recognized that energy is the currency of evolution, but contrasting conceptions of the relationship between energy and adaptation have yielded different interpretations. In the equal fitness paradigm (EFP), fitness (defined as the energetic equivalent of surviving offspring per generation) is held to be a constant within and between species in a steady-state, zero-sum closed system

Desert surfaces are typically nonuniform, with individual sand dunes generally surrounded by gravel or nonerodible beds. Similarly, beaches vary in composition and moisture that enhances cohesion between the grains. These bed heterogeneities affect the aeolian transport properties greatly and can then influence the emergence and dynamics of bedforms. Here, we propose a model that describes how, due

Yellow fever virus (YFV) replicates its RNA genome in membranous vesicles derived from the invagination of endoplasmic reticulum membranes, designated as replication organelles (ROs). Nonstructural protein 4B (NS4B) of flaviviruses play essential roles in the biogenesis of ROs and evasion of innate immune responses. We report herein that the binding of an antiviral agent, acetic acid benzodiazepine

Humans differ in their levels of aversive (“dark”) personality traits such as egoism or psychopathy. Building upon theories suggesting that socioecological factors coshape the development of personality traits, it can be predicted that prior aversive societal conditions (ASC) (herein assessed via corruption, inequality, poverty, and violence) explain individuals’ levels of aversive personality (assessed

IgG antibodies are the basis for many successful therapeutics. A single, N-linked glycan is present on the Fc on all IgGs, and the composition of that glycan exerts marked influence over effector functions of the IgG. We and others have shown terminal sialylation of the Fc glycan confers anti-inflammatory activity to the IgG1 subclass and is thought to be responsible for the anti-inflammatory activity

Oxygen is crucial for mitochondrial energy production in neurons and is efficiently stored and transported within the hydrophobic core of phospholipid bilayers. Using a diffusive model derived from molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that oxygen storage in a bilayer follows first-order kinetics, which can be effectively represented by an RC (resistor–capacitor) circuit. For myelin, with

The switch from precursor cell proliferation to onset of differentiation in adult stem cell lineages must be carefully regulated to produce sufficient progeny to maintain and repair tissues, yet prevent overproliferation that may enable oncogenesis. In the Drosophila male germ cell lineage, spermatogonia produced by germ line stem cells undergo a limited number of transit amplifying mitotic divisions

Tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (TNFR2) activation is a promising-therapeutic strategy for autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and chronic neuropathic pain (CNP). This study aimed to identify mechanisms governing the sex-specific efficacy of TNFR2 activation on abrogating pain and motor disease severity in mice experiencing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a rodent

Anther dehiscence is the process that facilitates pollen release from mature anthers in flowering plants. Despite its crucial importance to reproduction, the underlying developmental mechanism and its integration with environmental cues remain poorly understood. Establishing noninvasive, controlled humidity treatments of Arabidopsis thaliana flowers, we show here that high humidity prevents anthers

The adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) by rural–urban migrants is reshaping job-search mobility, significantly shaping city-level workforce geographical diversity. This study provides compelling evidence of ICT’s impact by examining China’s cities. We introduce the rural–urban migrant workforce Geographical Diversity Index (GDI), a metric that captures the mobility patterns

Critical to their survival, natural organisms have developed exoskeletons that can withstand and inflict damage over their lifetime. The Bouligand structure of the exoskeleton plays a key role in toughness and damage resistance under external impacts. Numerous studies have investigated the morphology of Bouligands and their mechanical properties, yet understanding their structure–function relationship

In human acute myeloid leukemia (AML), mutations of isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 ( IDH1 ) often co-occur with NPM1 mutations, and less frequently with FLT3 mutations. To investigate whether the effects of IDH1 mutation differ according to the specific co-occurring mutation, we generated two strains of double knock-in mutant mice. Idh1 R132H combined with Npm1c induced overt AML, whereas Idh1 R132H plus

Found from bacteria to humans, small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are the least understood protein chaperones. HSPB5 (or αB-crystallin) is among the most widely expressed of the 10 human sHSPs, including in muscle, brain, and eye lens where it is constitutively present at high levels. A high content of disorder in HSPB5 has stymied efforts to uncover how its structure gives rise to function. To uncover

The interaction between interplanetary shocks or planetary bow shock and upstream magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) waves (hereafter referred to as wave–shock interactions) is of fundamental importance to plasma physics. Linear waves and shocks, which are supported by MHD framework, are ubiquitous in almost all plasma environments. A thorough understanding of the interaction between linear waves and shocks

Buried in lab work or drowning in data? Take a break and help shape the future of PhD education.

Why is recruitment often speedier in industry? Julie Gould investigates what the two sectors can learn from each other in the race to source top talent.

When LLMs are grouped together, they exhibit similar characteristics to human societies.

Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 14 May 2025