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An electrolyte design using small-sized fluoroacetonitrile solvents to form a ligand channel produces lithium-ion batteries simultaneously achieving high energy density, fast charging and wide operating temperature range, desirable features for batteries working in extreme conditions.

Tear secretion from lacrimal gland is essential for ocular health, but the regulatory role of sympathetic nervous system is unclear. The authors show that sympathetic activation suppresses lacrimal tear secretion and aggravates dry eye disease via NA–Adra1a–Ucp2 signaling.

Electrolyte interactions critically govern battery performance yet lack precise design principles. The authors introduce interaction motif descriptors to design an electrolyte enabling 99.7% Li-metal Coulombic efficiency for 4.5 V batteries.

Rooftop photovoltaic systems are often seen as a niche solution for mitigation but could offer large-scale opportunities. Using multi-source geospatial data and artificial intelligence techniques, the authors map their potential for reducing global temperatures and analyse regional differences.

Batteries generally do not perform well at extreme temperatures, and electrolytes are mainly to blame. Here, the authors dissolve fluorinated electrolytes in highly fluorinated non-polar solvents, enabling batteries that can operate at a wide temperature range (−125 to +70 °C).

Using a deep neural network and statistical analyses of atomic force microscopy images of individual RNA molecules enables the mapping of RNA conformational space in solution.

Conventional Li-ion battery electrolytes often show sluggish kinetics and severe degradation due to high Li⁺ desolvation energies and poor compatibility. Now, a molecular-docking strategy between solvents and inducers has been shown to enable dynamic Li⁺ coordination that promotes fast, stable and high-voltage lithium battery chemistries.

Protection afforded by inorganic minerals is assumed to make mineral-associated organic carbon less susceptible to loss under climate change than particulate organic carbon. However, a global study of soil organic carbon from drylands suggests that this is not the case.

Arabidopsis thaliana PIN3 structures reveal the molecular mechanisms of the transport of indole-3-acetic acid and the inhibition of polar auxin transport by N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid.

The authors uncover a Père David’s deer-like design for long noncoding RNAs such as metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1), which partially mimics the transfer RNA (tRNA) structure to recruit select tRNA processing enzymes for maturation and to create novel regulatory RNAs such as the MALAT1-associated small cytoplasmic RNA.

Cation solvation in batteries is well understood in bulk solutions but less so at electrode/electrolyte interfaces. This study reveals how external and intramolecular fields affect Li-ion solvation, proposing a dielectric protocol to enhance cation–anion coordination and improve performance in Li-metal pouch cells.

Hepatitis B virus is an ancient human pathogen that dates back more than 10,000 years. Here, the authors investigate the evolutionary history of the virus in Eastern Eurasia by sequencing 34 genomes dating from approximately 400–5,000 years ago and comparing them with other contemporary sequences.

RNA conformational heterogeneity is important to diverse functions. Here, the authors use AFM to directly visualize individual RNA molecules that are in various conformational states under near physiological solution conditions for the first time.

The parasitic reactions at the electrolyte/electrode interfaces inhibit the increase of the charging cut-off voltage and the improvement of energy density. Herein, the authors design multifunctional solvent molecules and propose a practical design principle to stabilize the electrolyte/electrode interfaces for high-voltage Li ion batteries.

The authors find a reversal in El Niño sea surface temperature variability under persistent greenhouse warming, from an increase pre-2100 to a reduction post-2100 amid the development of a permanent El Niño-like warming pattern.

Here the authors show that immune cell exclusion and immunosuppression in the melanoma microenviromment are driven by nerve growth factor interactions with tropomyosin receptor kinase A on melanoma cells and that a tropomyosin receptor kinase inhibitor can sensitize these tumors to immune checkpoint blockade.

The low conductivity of LiF disturbs Li⁺ diffusion across solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and induces Li⁺ transfer-driven dendritic growth. Herein, the authors establish a mechanistic model to decipher how the SEI affects realistic Li plating in high-fluorine electrolytes.

T-box riboswitch RNAs directly bind to specific tRNA and regulate the transcription or translation of downstream genes in bacteria. Using single-molecule FRET and ensemble biophysical analyses, here the authors uncover a Venus flytrap-like mechanism where tRNA binding to a T-box riboswitch mRNA triggers its rapid ___domain closure.

Some patients with COVID-19 fail to clear the viral infection quickly, yet our understanding for the underlying immune characteristics is still lacking. Here the authors use single-cell RNA sequencing and other data form such patients to show that persistent infection is associated with immune suppression and reduced expression of ribosomal protein genes.

The Hippo pathway is a major regulator of organ size and growth control. Here Wu et al. provide evidence for a novel link between the Hippo signalling pathway and the unfolded protein response (UPR) in regulating organ growth and tumorigenesis.

The DAWN study is a phase 3 clinical trial that demonstrates effective glycemic control of dorzagliatin as an add-on therapy to metfomin in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Here the authors report that the Taf2 and Taf14 subunits of the yeast TFIID complex interact and mediate binding to chromatin. Binding of Taf2 to Taf14 promotes a conformational rearrangement in Taf14, resulting in a release of the linker region for the engagement with the nucleosome and their association with DNA is essential for transcriptional regulation.

Here, using structural and biochemical methods, the authors reveal the existence of an intermediate state of the influenza polymerase, which allows it to toggle between the transcribing and replicative states.

Analysis of climate models under future greenhouse-gas forcings shows that the frequency of consecutive La Niña events will increase, driven by ocean–atmosphere feedbacks that slow the heat recharge of the equatorial Pacific.

Potential rooftop photovoltaic in China affords 4 billion tons of carbon mitigation in 2020 under ideal assumptions, equal to 70% of China’s carbon emissions from electricity and heat. Yet most cities have exploited the potential to a limited degree.

Polyketide yields in Streptomyces are boosted by routing stored intracellular triacylglycerol into pathways that make industrially relevant products.

The Atlantic Niño/Niña is an important mode of tropical climate variability, but how it changes with global warming is not clear. Here the authors use a comprehensive model ensemble to show that the Atlantic Niño/Niña system will probably weaken under greenhouse warming.

The mechanistic details of fatty acid uptake into cells remains poorly understood. Here, the authors identify CD36 internalization via cavaeolae and demonstrate dynamic palmitoylationof CD36 is required for endocytic uptake of fatty acids.

The North Pacific Meridional Mode (NPMM) can trigger El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. Climate simulations suggest that with warming ocean temperatures, the NPMM’s impact on future ENSO strengthens, contributing to increased frequency of future extreme ENSO events and their predictability.

It is unclear how extreme positive Indian Ocean Dipole will respond to 1.5 °C of warming. Here the authors show that the frequency of these events increases linearly with warming, doubling at 1.5 °C from the pre-industrial level, but plateaus thereafter.

The centrosome is a membraneless organelle composed of two centrioles and an amorphous pericentriolar material but the overall centrosome organizations remains unknown. Here authors show that two scaffold proteins, Cep63 and Cep152, self-assemble into a higher-order cylindrical architecture capable of recruiting downstream components, including Plk4.

Cocrystal and cryo-EM structures of Geobacillus kaustophilus glyQ and Bacillus subtilis glyQS T-box-tRNA complexes establish a universal mechanism of amino acid sensing on tRNAs and gene regulation by T-box riboswitches.

Oxygen vacancies can impart interesting properties in complex oxides, but specific architectures designed to create high-density oxygen vacancies are largely unknown. Here the authors report a fluorite-bixbyite nanobrush platform to tune interfacial oxygen and show that an atomically well-defined heterointerface can induce charge modulation.

Among the wide range of potential applications of graphene, photodetection is believed to be among the most promising. By combining graphene with plasmonic nanostructures, Duan and colleagues observe dramatic improvements in the efficiency and spectral sensitivity of graphene-based photodetectors.

Chloroplast proteins are synthesized in the cytosol and imported into the chloroplast before being delivered to the thylakoids. The authors report that an ankyrin-repeat protein, LTD, is essential for the routing of chlorophyll-binding proteins to the signal recognition particle pathway.

Sulfide electrolyte materials offer the opportunity for the development of solid-state batteries. Here the authors further improve the voltage stability of core-shell structured sulfides by modifying the microstructures, and pair the optimized electrolytes with lithium metal anode into battery devices.

Electrochemical devices based on oxide materials, such as batteries or fuel cells, rely on the transport of ions through the crystal lattice. Here, the authors model ion diffusion through CeO₂and observe that edge dislocations slow down ion diffusion, contrary to similar processes in metals.

How the shelf ocean around Antarctica changes with warming is not well known. Here, the authors show that a projected increase in El Niño–Southern Oscillation variability accelerates warming of the Antarctic shelf ocean but slows warming around the sea ice edges, thus influencing ice melt.