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Many montane birds seasonally migrate between elevations. This study shows two bird species exhibit phenotypic plasticity in response to this altitude shift: the small-scale elevational migrant shows greater temperature-driven plasticity, while the large-scale migrant displays stronger hypoxia-driven plasticity.

Orthogonal acute inducible degradation cell lines are used to delineate the mechanisms of how extrusive cohesin, cohesive cohesin and condensin interact to remodel chromosome architecture from interphase to mitosis.

The clinical outcomes of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remain poor, and thus it remains critical to find prognostic molecular markers. Here, the authors identify prognostic ESCC subtypes based on bulk and single-cell RNA-seq combined with histology AI in samples from patients with more than four years of follow-up, and find markers associated with immune evasion.

Noble metals play a momentous role in heterogeneous catalysis but still face a huge challenge in selectivity control. Herein, the authors demonstrate that isolating contiguous Pt atoms and forming Pt-Zn intermetallic nanoparticles is an effective strategy to optimize the selectivity of Pt catalysts.

Crystallization kinetics of metal-organic frameworks in conventional organic solvents are usually very slow. Here, the authors show that an ionic liquid medium accelerates considerably the formation of Zr-based metal-organic frameworks that are active catalysts in the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reaction.

Traditional protein engineering methods are often slow and labor-intensive. Here, authors develop an automatic protein evolution platform enabled by a protein language model. Using this platform, they significantly improved the activity of a tRNA synthetase within ten days.

The performance of n-i-p perovskite-organic tandem solar cells is hampered by non-ideal interconnection layers. This study reports an optimized metal-based interconnection stack featuring high transparency and efficient carrier recombination, achieving 25.34% efficiency and improved stability in tandems.

Although ammonia synthesis represents a major chemical industry, developing highly effective non-iron catalysts is a challenging task. Now it has been shown that anchoring fullerene onto non-iron transition metals separates and activates catalytic sites for hydrogen and nitrogen intermediates, boosting ammonia synthesis rates.

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.

Enhancing corrosion resistance is crucial for efficient electrocatalysts in the acidic oxygen evolution reaction. Here, the authors report the strategic manipulation of local compressive strain to improve the anti-corrosion properties of Co3O4, demonstrating stability for over 400 hours at 30 mA cm^-2.

Iron-based nanozymes are promising for tumor catalytic therapy owing to their biocompatibility and peroxidase-like activity, but the concurrent catalase-like activity undermines the therapeutic efficacy. Here, the authors address this issue by developing a hemin–cysteine–Fe nanozyme, which exhibits catalytic selectivity and exclusive peroxidase-like activity.

Condensin-depleted mitotic chromosomes compartmentalize and form contacts among regulatory elements despite lacking transcription and most chromatin-associated factors. Heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) proteins are surprisingly dispensable for compartmentalizing constitutive heterochromatin.

Seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness depends on including virus strains in the vaccine that closely match those circulating in the upcoming season. In this study, the authors develop a computational model of influenza virus evolution to predict future circulating strains and therefore support vaccine strain selection.

Here, the authors show that two mutations in the Plasmodium de-ubiquitinase UBP1 alter the ubiquitination level, membrane localization, and ligand transport direction of multidrug resistance transporter 1 (MDR1), leading to multiple drug resistances.

The suboptimal optical transmittance of back electrodes and complex fabrication process hindered development of bifacial perovskite solar cells. Here, authors apply single-walled carbon nanotubes as front and back electrodes, achieving power generation density of 36% and bifaciality factor of 98%.

A study reports and characterizes a high-entropy electrocaloric polymer that switches under low fields, and discusses its potential suitability for use in caloric heat pumps.

The comprehensive understanding of complex catalytic mechanisms under harsh reaction conditions for efficient bifunctional single-atom electrocatalysts remain challenging. Here the authors found microenvironment reconsitution of highly active Ni single atoms on oxygen-incorporated Mo2C for water splitting.

Being able to selectively derive desired compounds from biomass feedstock is very challenging. Now the selectivity of Pt–Co catalysts for the electroreduction of guaiacol and other lignin-derived substrates is shown to depend on the Co speciation and preferential C–OH cleavage can be obtained, retaining the C–OR group.

Single-atom catalysts can exhibit improved catalytic performance with respect to their bulk counterparts. Now, the authors introduce a yolk@shell catalyst with spatially separated Pd and Fe single sites that simultaneously catalyse nitroaromatic hydrogenation and alkene epoxidation reactions, leading to a cascade synthesis of amino alcohols.

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant has spread rapidly worldwide. Here, the authors characterise a single chain of transmission of Delta in China, and find evidence that it is more infectious and replicates faster during early infection compared to early pandemic lineages.

Zintl-phase thermoelectrics are predominantly p-type. Here, Zhanget al. use tellurium to n-dope Mg₃Sb_1.5Bi_0.5and obtain thermoelectric figures of merit up to 1.6 at 700 K. Calculations show that these performances result from a conduction band with sixfold valley degeneracy.

Thermoelectric materials with enhanced performances need to be identified. Here, the authors use the crystal field splitting energy of orbitals as a descriptor to design thermoelectric materials by solid solution maps and strain engineering in layered CaAl₂Si₂-type Zintl compounds.

The neurotoxicity of organophosphate compounds damages nerve system by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase (AChE) expression, but it is difficult to overcome the deactivation of AChE. Here, the authors report the design of Lewis acid sites in metal-organic frameworks as AChE mimics for effective neuroprotection.

Light-driven synthesis of hydrocarbons could be an attractive route to fuels, but approaches towards this have typically needed H₂ as a reactant. Here the authors report that a TiO_2−x/Ni catalyst can produce hydrocarbons from CO and water at atmospheric pressure in a light-driven process.

Ethanol steam reforming (ESR) reaction is an environmentally benign and sustainable route for H₂ production. Herein, the authors demonstrate a conceptional strategy for rational design and preparation of highly-efficient catalyst toward ESR via an RhNi-TiO₂ strong bimetal-support interaction.

While renewable CO₂ conversion provides a means to remove and recycle waste emissions, there are few earth-abundant materials that are both efficient and active. Here, authors prepare N-doped carbon with atomic manganese as high-performance CO₂ reduction electrocatalyst.

Multimetal oxyhydroxides are among the most active catalysts for alkaline water oxidation, but tuning their properties remains a challenge. Now, the performance of NiFe- and FeCo-based catalysts is optimized with the incorporation of high-valence modulator metals, which shifts the active metals towards lower valence states and enables lower overpotentials.

Developing effective catalysts based on earth abundant elements is critical for electrochemical CO₂ reduction. Here, the authors prepare a manganese single atom catalyst with high CO₂ reduction performance, which can be attributed to the Mn-N₃ site embedded in graphitic carbon nitride.

Producing two-dimensional metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with highly exposed active surfaces is important for catalysis. Here, authors prepare MOF nanosheets by using CO₂ as a capping agent to control the oriented growth of MOFs.

The ratio of tumour area to metastatic lymph node area (T/MLN) is a clinical indicator that can improve prognosis prediction of gastric cancer. Here, the authors use machine learning on whole slide images to generate a method that can predict metastatic lymph nodes and obtain T/MLN.

Renal tubular epithelial cells (TECs) can initiate an adaptive or maladaptive response after injuries of different severity. Here, the authors elucidate a chromatin-mediated mechanism underlying the responses of TECs to varying kidney injuries.

Amorphous metal catalysts often exhibit appealing catalytic properties, however, accurate control synthesis of amorphous nano-metal catalysts is a challenge. Here, the authors report a feasible strategy to prepare the amorphous Cu catalysts by supercritical CO₂ treatment followed by electroreduction. The resulted catalyst shows high selectivity towards multi-carbon products for CO₂ electroreduction.

The combination of tumour-infarction therapy and chemotherapy, delivered via nanoparticles decorated with a tumour-homing peptide and encapsulating thrombin and doxorubicin, outperforms the corresponding monotherapies in tumour-bearing mice and rabbits.

Layered oxide heterostructures are widely studied because of the new quantum states that can arise at the interface between the oxide materials used. Here, the authors are able to link the rotation of crystallographic oxygen octahedra at the interface to a modified ferromagnetic state in such heterostructures.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are present in circulation at relatively early stages of disease, providing potential opportunities for early cancer diagnosis. Here, the authors report a covalent chemistry-based hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-specific EV purification system for early detection of HCC by performing digital scoring on the purified EVs.

Uncovering the dynamics of active sites in the working conditions is important yet challenging. Here the authors identify dynamic-coupling oxygen on atomically dispersed iridium sites during oxygen evolution reaction using in situ techniques.

A photocatalyst for CO2 reduction to C3H8 is prepared by implanting Cu single atoms on vacancy rich TiO2 single layers. Key reaction intermediates, *CHOCO and *CH2OCOCO, are stabilized on the catalyst which promotes C-C bond formation.

Single-atom catalysts maximize metal atom efficiency and exhibit properties that can be considerably different to their nanoparticle equivalent. Now a general host–guest strategy to make various single-atom catalysts on nitrogen-doped carbon has been developed; the iridium variant electrocatalyses the formic acid oxidation reaction with high mass activity and displays high tolerance to CO poisoning.

The seawater oxidation reaction faces challenges from competitive chloride oxidation reaction. Herein, the authors have utilized chlorine adsorption to modulate the single-atom Ir coordination state and promote seawater oxidation and catalyst stability.

The selective oxidation of glycerol to glyceric acid is an important value-added cascade catalytic process. Here the authors report a cascade synergistic catalysis strategy by atomic and low-coordinated cluster Pt on well-defined Cu-CuZrOx to simultaneously achieve high activity and selectivity.

Describing changes in the timing of life history events is critical to understanding effects of climate change. Wang et al. relocated plant communities up and down elevation gradients and found that warming lengthened the reproductive and activity phases, while cooling reduced the vegetative and reproductive phases.

Selective hydrogenolysis of biomass glycerol to propanediol is a promising route for the production of high-value chemicals but remains a challenge. Here, the authors find a PtCu single atom alloy catalyst exhibits remarkably boosted performance with a turnover frequency value of 2.6 × 10³ mol_glycerol·mol_PtCu–SAA⁻¹·h⁻¹.