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Zuhra and Petrosino et al. report evidence that cyanide acts as a regulatory gasotransmitter in mammalian cells, where it is shown to affect cellular bioenergetics, most likely via protein S-cyanylation.

Rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu contain some of the molecular building blocks of life on Earth, such as amino acids and nucleobases. They also carry ammonia that formed billions of years ago in cold, distant regions of our Solar System.

Entanglement was observed in top–antitop quark events by the ATLAS experiment produced at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN using a proton–proton collision dataset with a centre-of-mass energy of √s  = 13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 fb⁻¹.

Müller-Tidow and colleagues perform a randomized clinical trial and show that administration of convalescent plasma improves COVID-19 outcome in patients with cancer who are unable to generate an adequate immune response.

By increasing NAD⁺ consumption in various organelles, mitochondria are revealed to act as buffers that help maintain subcellular NAD⁺ levels. At the same time, cells are found to be particularly sensitive to a decline in NAD⁺ levels originating from mitochondria themselves.

Social insects often groom nestmates as an anti-pathogen behaviour, providing social immunity. Here the authors show that anti-fungal grooming behaviour by ants selects for the fungus to produce more but less-virulent and less-detectable spores, suggesting pathogen adaptation to social immunity.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

Mussel adhesion depends on secreted dopa-modified proteins, but the dopa groups are prone to oxidation, which decreases their stickiness. A second mussel protein is now shown to regulate the redox state of these adhesive groups by coupling thiol oxidation to dopa reduction.

The CMS Collaboration reports evidence for off-shell Higgs boson contributions in the production of Z boson pairs, and measures the width of the Higgs boson, which is inversely related to its lifetime.

The CMS Collaboration reports the study of three simultaneous hard interactions between quarks and gluons in proton–proton collisions. This manifests through the concurrent production of three J/ψ mesons, which consist of a charm-quark–antiquark pair.

The most up-to-date combination of results on the properties of the Higgs boson is reported, which indicate that its properties are consistent with the standard model predictions, within the precision achieved to date.

BCL2-inhibitor venetoclax is used to treat relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Here, the authors show the clonal dynamics towards venetoclax resistance by performing whole-exome sequencing of 8 CLL patients undergoing venetoclax treatment.

A first-in-human phase I clinical trial demonstrates the feasibility and safety of non-viral precision genome-engineering of a personalized adoptive cell transfer anticancer therapeutic.

In a recent clinical trial for oral administration of cipargamin in individuals with malaria, there was an emergence of recrudescent parasites with a G358S mutation in PfATP4. In this work, the authors investigate the effect of this mutation on the function of the ATPase, on parasite growth and susceptibility to antimalarial drugs.

Lianas are an important component of tropical forests. Here the authors compare liana and tree functional trait distributions from across the tropics and use a liana-tree competition model to show that a key hydraulic trait influences liana viability and its response to future climate conditions.

Ten years after the discovery of the Higgs boson, the ATLAS  experiment at CERN probes its kinematic properties with a significantly larger dataset from 2015–2018 and provides further insights on its interaction with other known particles.

Hydropower dams in the Lower Mekong basin have profound impact on the riverine ecosystems. Here the authors use strategic dam planning and power system modelling to show that there are economically and technically feasible alternatives to these dams with solar energy and power trading.

Irisin is shown to mediate beneficial effects on cognitive function associated with exercise and to improve cognitive function in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, probably through its direct action in the brain.

Goel et al found similar deficits in visual discrimination in humans and in a mouse model of FXS. In mice, a robust decrease in PV cell activity mediated this impairment, suggesting that manipulating inhibition may improve sensory processing in FXS.

Cells with mitochondrial defects are shown to be eliminated by cell competition in the early mouse embryo, thus suggesting that cell competition acts as a purifying selection that optimizes mitochondrial performance during development.

Known as a regulator of lipolysis, ABHD5 is found to also act as a serine protease that cleaves HDAC4 in response to catecholaminergic stimulation, thus resulting in the formation of a polypeptide that protects against metabolic-stress-induced heart failure.

Smaldino et al. develop a formal model to explain cross-cultural differences in personality structure. Complex societies with more diverse niches show less covariation among behavioural traits, resulting in greater variability in personality types.

Both a high number of species and abundance in multiple trophic levels are required for ecosystems to continue to provide the services humans require of them.

Scheiermann and colleagues show that circadian clocks control the infiltration of dendritic cells into skin lymphatics in mice and humans, with a peak migration to the lymph nodes during the rest phase.

Combined analysis of proton-proton collision data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN by the CMS and LHCb collaborations leads to the observation of the extremely rare decay of the strange B meson into muons; the result is compatible with the standard model of particle physics, and does not show any signs of new physics, such as supersymmetry.

In the Andean Amazon basin, irrigation will be vital to maintaining food production and livelihoods of local communities under climate change, but unplanned irrigation expansion could lead to the loss of hydropower, according to an analysis using catchment and hydropower models.