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Here, particulate matter metrics are assessed and associated with sand and dust storm health risks. The oxidative potential and the environmentally persistent free radicals of particulate matter could be used to develop effective sand and dust risk prevention in dust-prone countries.

The exciton–phonon coupling (EXPC) affects the opto-electronic properties of atomically thin semiconductors. Here, the authors develop two-dimensional micro-spectroscopy to determine the EXPC of monolayer MoSe₂.

Immune checkpoint inhibition is a successful form of immune therapy; however response rates vary widely among individual patients. Here authors show that circulating small extracellular vesicles might contribute to poor response to anti-PD-1 treatment by carrying PD-1 and CD80 which results in higher level of vesicular PD-L1 expression in the circulation at the expense of expression on tumour cell membranes, causing immunosuppression.

A catalytic method involving coupling of two readily accessible components to construct ortho-quinodimethanes (o-QDMs) is lacking. Herein, the authors describe a palladium carbene migratory insertion enabled dearomative C(sp3)-H activation to form active o-QDM species through the cross-coupling of N-tosylhydrazones with aryl halides.

A gap-free telomere-to-telomere genome assembly for a ram of Hu sheep uncovers genes and variants associated with domestication and selection for wool fineness.

This study maps the single-axon projections of 7,180 hypothalamic peptidergic neurons in male mice and uncovers extensive collateralization, topographic target innervation and modular intra-hypothalamic organization.

The development of gold catalysis is restricted by its high redox potential, and the introduction of strong oxidants to overcome this is accompanied by poor functional group compatibility. Here electrochemical oxidation is used to control gold valence changes, showing excellent compatibility with a wide range of active functional groups and bio-additives.

Analysing data from seven countries, this study found that unmarried individuals had a higher depression risk than married individuals. This risk was higher in Western countries, among males and among those with higher educational attainment.

Giant cell tumor of bone (GCTB) is a rare primary osteolytic bone tumor with high local recurrence rate after surgical resection. Here the authors conduct a phase Ib/II trial, evaluating the efficacy and safety of JMT103 (RANK-RANKL inhibitor) in patients with unresectable or surgically-challenging GCTB.

‘Protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) is known to regulate the expression of genes involved in metastasis. Here, the authors show that PRMT5 methylates Akt and methylation is required for phosphorylation and activation of Akt; ultimately leading to the increase in expression of pro-metastatic transcription factors.

The poor structural stability of cathode materials is responsible for the rapid capacity loss of sodium-ion batteries during cycling. This work addresses the instability by introducing vacancies into the transition metal layers and realize long-life pouch cells.

While chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell-based therapy has been approved for clinical use for certain types of blood cancers, it remains difficult to achieve precise spatiotemporal control of the elicited anti-tumour response. Here, the authors propose light-switchable CAR T cells that can be remotely activated by a nano-optogenetic approach, reducing unwanted side effects.

Hydronium ions bordering cancer cells are highly concentrated into a small extracellular region, and in tumour tissue such severely polarized acidity correlates with the expression of monocarboxylate transporters and with the exclusion of cytotoxic T cells.

A set of LOV2 circular permutants (cpLOV2) have been engineered to expand the existing optogenetic toolbox. cpLOV2 enables the design of both ON- and OFF-switches to control cell signaling, gene expression, cell fate and cancer immunotherapy.

Zhao et al. report that the Z compartment protein HERD-1 regulates transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in Caenorhabditis elegans at least in part by preventing the mixing of germ granule condensates.

Nanostructured design of mono- and multimetallic particles can be leveraged to achieve highly active catalysts. Now, a gas-balancing adsorption strategy is presented to prepare alloy nanowires with diameter of around 1 nm, whereby resulting catalysts achieve excellent performance for both anion- and proton-exhange membrane fuel cells.

Soft robots have potential in carrying out underwater tasks, but achieving the right level of adhesion and shape-changing ability is challenging. Here, the authors report the development of protein-based hydrogels with iron oxide nanoparticles with photothermal and magnetic responsiveness, capable of carrying out complex tasks.

The authors observe a coherent Kondo lattice in a monolayer of VSe₂ grown on a superconducting 2H-NbSe₂ substrate. Superconductivity is established in the Kondo lattice through proximity effect from the substrate.

Species genomes are important for analyses of genetic variation. Wu et al. assembled a T2T genome of a male cashmere goat, including 288.5 Mb of previously unresolved regions, and identified selective variants and genes associated with domestication and cashmere traits.

In this paper, the authors reveal a robust weakening of the subtropical atmospheric circulation across CMIP6 models driven by global-mean surface warming, which is partially offset by the direct CO₂ effect.

Photo-crosslinking polymerization facilitates precise control of hydrogel formation for various applications including tissue engineering, but most existing photo-crosslinking methods fail to achieve deep-tissue penetration, especially within bone structures. Here the authors report a strategy of low-dose X-ray-activated polymerization that enables deep-tissue hydrogel formation.

Methods to identify protein interaction networks often suffer from poor spatiotemporal resolution. Here the authors present a light-activated proximity labeling method where the protein of interest is fused to the photosensitizer protein miniSOG, allowing temporally resolved labeling of interactors.

IPSC-derived organoids model diseases. Multiplexed coculture and demultiplexing natural genetic barcodes aid in studying genetic effects. Here, authors introduce Vireo-bulk to deconvolve bulk RNA-seq data, quantify donor abundance and identify differentially expressed genes.

The new kagome metals can exhibit unconventional electron correlated states beyond recently discovered kagome superconductors AV₃Sb₅. Here, the authors report discovery of superconductivity and intrinsic nematic order in a new titanium-based kagome metal CsTi₃Bi₅ without charge density wave order.

Sequencing studies in clinical and cancer genomics often utilize public data sets to identify genes enriched with pathogenic variants. Here, the authors propose a framework which controls for confounding factors that can bias the results in these studies.

The authors study the layered superconductor AuSn₄ (T_c = 2.4 K) and reveal a two-fold symmetric angular dependence, consistent with unconventional pairing. They argue that the two-fold symmetry results from the Rashba-driven mixture of p-wave surface and s-wave bulk contributions.

The mediators of bone-fat axis remain largely unknown. Here, the authors show SHN3 gene-deficiency in bone can protect mouse models from weight gain driven by diet-induced obesity through secreting a bone-derived cytokine, C-fragment of SLIT2, which could stimulate adipocyte browning.

Non-retroviral endogenous viral elements are widely dispersed in eukaryotic genomes, but their functions remain largely unknown. Here, Huang et al show that one such element in planthoppers has been co-opted and contributes to insect fitness..

Solving the interlayer charge transfer issue of Bi₃TiNbO₉ is crucial for overcoming its limitation in photocatalytic overall water splitting. Here, the authors introduced gradient doping to promote the separation and transfer of photogenerated charges and enhance the photocatalytic activity.

A systematic design of light-absorbing molecules is challenging for them to satisfy multiple key requirements for efficient solar cell application. Here, the authors optimize halogen substitution position in terminal groups of acceptors for realizing ternary cells with efficiency approaching 20%.

Diarrhoea is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in China. Here, the authors present results from a large sentinel surveillance scheme from 217 hospitals in all 31 provinces in mainland China, including ~150,000 patients with acute diarrhoea and covering years 2009-2018.

Volcano curves have become the gold standard in catalyst design. Here, the authors propose synergy-dependent volcano curves by disclosing both support- and adsorbate-induced catalyst restructuring, ideally bridging the gap between theoretical models and experimental observations.

Triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) nanoparticles (NPs) are a promising material for diverse applications, but TTA-UC is sensitive to oxygen, which hinders its biological utility. Here, the authors report an enzymatic method to deplete oxygen and amplify the upconversion of TTA-UCNP in aqueous solution, and develop background-free glucose and glucose metabolism enzyme sensors.

Exceptional alpine plant diversity exists in the Hengduan Mountains. Here, through genome assembly and population genomics studies, the authors find notable intraspecific divergence among Cushion willow populations isolated by the sky island-like habitats and consider it contributes to speciation and biodiversity.

The toxicity and complicated administration procedures of transition metal catalysts have hampered the applications of bioorthogonal catalysis in vivo. Here the authors fill the needles of a microneedle array patch with palladium nanoparticles deposited on titanium nanosheets and show that the device, applied locally on the skin of mouse models bearing melanoma, promotes intratumoural conversion of systemically injected caged doxorubicin into the active drug, reducing its toxicity and side effects.

Extremely light apatite δD values indicate deep-originated water in intracontinental granites and basalts from the North China Craton, probably from a stagnant slab within the mantle transition zone.

Tetrahedral DNA framework-enabled bulk enzyme heterojunctions have been used to program biosensor interfaces. Here, the authors use DNA tetrahedrons to tether enzymes of an enzymatic cascade to gold electrodes, hence raising them over the bulk solution, which led to improved kinetics and sensitivity.

Cycloaddition reactions play a pivotal role in synthetic chemistry for the direct assembly of cyclic architectures. However, hurdles remain for extending the C4 synthon to construct diverse heterocycles via programmable [4+n]-cycloaddition. Herein, the authors report an intermolecular cycloaddition using furan-fused cyclobutanones as a C4 synthon.

Varying growth temperatures enables the tuning of the degree of disorder, which is fully described by the absence/presence of medium-range order and temperature-dependent densities of nanocrystallites, and electrical conductivity in amorphous monolayer carbon films.

Designing photocatalysts to enhance the efficiency of non-oxidative coupling of methane is a challenging task. Here, the authors report that the anatase TiO₂ with exposed {101} facets and Pd co-catalyst enables efficient and selective methane coupling to ethane via a heterogeneous-homogeneous hybrid reaction pathway.