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Extending the endurance of mushroom-type phase change memory remains challenging. Here, the authors design a nano-confined cell with an embedded heater, achieving a 1000 × improvement and attributing failure to carbon-induced collapse of the switching volume.

Wan, J. Shi, M. Shi, Huang et al. report a role for lactate dehydrogenase B in regulating CD8⁺ T cell disulfidptosis and exhaustion through the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, thereby impacting the efficacy of antitumour immunity.

Traditional theory favors positively charged membranes for Li+ /Mg2+ separation, but practical use prefers negatively charged ones. The authors uncover a counter-ion competition mechanism in negatively charged nanofiltration membranes, achieving high Mg2+ rejection and exceptional Li+ permeability.

Vocal learning is a feature that is specific to some species of mammals and birds, including oscine songbirds. Liu et alstudy the vocal, non-learning, eastern phoebe suboscine, and find that it uses the forebrain to control the vocal-motor system, similar to vocal learning oscines.

The study of speech or vocal disorder resulting from neurological diseases lacks a model capable of recapitulating vocal learning. This study suggests that the vocal disorder associated with Huntington's disease is observed in transgenic zebra finches carrying the full-length human mutant huntingtin gene.

Multi-species acute systemic toxicity assessment is fundamental for chemical classification, labelling and risk management. Here, the authors propose a machine learning paradigm, Adjoint Correlation Learning, yielding significant improvements for data-scarce endpoints and offering a useful computational tool for regulatory applications.

The blood ApoM-S1P complex regulates vascular functions, but its role in neurogenic niches remains unclear. Here, the authors show that the blood ApoM-S1P complex preserves V-SVZ homeostasis and protects against early features of Alzheimer’s disease.

Manipulating perineuronal nets (PNNs) in the motor nucleus HVC of zebra finches alters the structure of vocalizations acquired during development, highlighting a causal contribution of PNNs in motor circuitry to the performance of learned behaviors.

Dense-core granules (DCG) store insulin in pancreatic β cells. Here the authors show that crinosome, formed by fusing lysosome and DCGs, are pathogenic in mouse models of type 1 diabetes by diversifying local insulin epitopes beyond those tolerizing ones expressed in the thymus, thereby inducing autoreactive CD4 T cells for β cell death and insulin deficiency.

Rapid diagnosis of bloodstream infections is vital for timely effective treatment. Here, Mao and Wan et al developed a method using a dual stem-loop DNA signal amplifier, to achieve ultrasensitive, rapid, amplification-free detection of pathogens from human serum.

ELD1, a CCHC-type zinc finger protein, is found to modulate alternative splicing of the core oscillator gene OsCCA1 and thereby regulate photoperiodic flowering in rice. This reveals additional links between light signaling and the circadian clock.

Wan-Chun Liu et al. demonstrate that the sensory phase of vocal learning in zebra finches is split across two stages: (1) passive listening and formation of a memory, and (2) active listening and behavioral engagement of juveniles with adult tutors. Furthermore, they show that approach behavior is correlated with song imitation quality, and immediate early gene expression in the caudal medial nidopallium linked to auditory behavior.

DEK, a chromatin-associated oncoprotein, regulates chromatin dynamics and cell fate. This study reveals the structural basis of DEK’s interaction with nucleosomes, showing its role in maintaining embryonic stem cell identity by modulating H3K27me3.

The mechanism of HBsAg antigen presentation to T cells during liver HBV infection is incompletely understood. Here, the authors show that in mice, intrahepatic type I dendritic cells acquire HBsAg by MHC-I complexes through cross-dressing for CD8⁺ T cell priming, whereas CD4⁺ T cell responses rely on MHC-II-dependent antigen presentation by B cells in secondary lymphoid tissues.

The mechanism of HIV-1 latency reversal remains unclear. The authors suggest that PRMT3 drives the reversal by enhancing chromatin accessibility to form a transcriptional hub containing TEAD4 and P-TEFb at the viral promoter.

Frost is typically seen as a threat to plants and is expected to lead to decreased ecosystem carbon uptake due to reduced photosynthesis. However, this research shows that spring frosts can actually enhance ecosystem carbon absorption, while autumn frosts behave as expected, prompting an increase in carbon emissions.

Tu, Qian et al. identify BAZ2B as an epigenetic regulator of hepatocyte senescence, linking liver aging to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis through PPARα and lipid metabolism.

Increased movement is associated with improved vocal activity in young zebra finches, while reducing locomotion leads to poor vocal learning. These results suggest that exercise in juvenile birds may actually promote their ability to learn and produce songs.

Cervical screening is a key method for detecting cervical cancer, but is limited by pathologist detection. Here, the authors use artificial intelligence to predict cytology grades from whole slide images.

An analysis of genomic, molecular and neuroanatomical traits across extant primates reveals early divergence in visual and olfactory systems of major primate lineages consistent with lineage-specific shifts in diel activity and dietary niche, providing support for a sensory ‘reallocation’ hypothesis.

Lewis acid additive semicarbazide hydrochloride improves the formation of α-phase FAPbI₃-based films and promotes a homogeneous vertical distribution of A-site cations through a deprotonation–reprotonation process. The upgraded device performance reaches up to 26.12% with high stability, and mini-module perovskite solar cells achieving 21.47% (area, 11.52 cm²) demonstrate great scalability.

An annually resolved 3476-year tree-ring record from the Tibetan Plateau reveals severe 20^th century droughts and highlights the interplay between the Asian Monsoon and Westerlies. Droughts are often linked to the collapse of dynasties.

Disorder has emerged as a promising tool to manipulate properties of superconducting circuits. Here the authors demonstrate the use of disordered spinodal superconductor for fluxonium qubit fabrication and reveal an interesting correlation between the material disorder and the 1/f-type flux noise.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is challenging to purify and prepare large amount of methacrylated proteins from cells. Here, the authors develop genetic code expansion technology to site-specifically incorporate ε-N-Methacryllysine into proteins and identify the post-translational modification ε-N-methyl-ε-N-methacrylation.

Metallic altermagnets are promising for applications due to the spin-polarized electric current that originates from their spin-split band structure. Now d-wave altermagnetism with antisymmetric spin polarization has been demonstrated in KV₂Se₂O.

The gut microbiota bacterium Ruminococcus gnavus is implicated in the development of cirrhotic liver encephalopathy through the production of neurotoxins.

Superconductivity mediated by phonons is usually conventional due to isotropic electron-phonon coupling. Here, Wang et al. report highly anisotropic phonons only along [001] direction in Sr_0.1Bi₂Se₃, indicating a singular electron-phonon coupling which favors a p-wave nematic superconductivity scenario.

Many two-dimensional materials exhibit isotropic properties, but anisotropy can extend the functionality of future devices. Here, the authors fabricate field-effect transistors from single and few-layer rhenium disulfide and observe an anisotropic ratio of three to one along the two principle axes

Tungsten ditelluride has been recently discovered to possess very large and unsaturated magnetoresistance, up to 60 T. Here the authors apply high pressure on this material and observe a dome-shaped superconducting phase transition.

The thinness and elastic properties of graphene make it an ideal candidate for nanoelectromechanical systems. Here, the authors demonstrate the positive piezoconductive effect in suspended bi- and multi-layer graphene, showing the most pronounced response for three layer samples.

The development of dental calculi involves bacteria in local mature biofilms converting the DNA in neutrophil extracellular traps from being degradable by the enzyme DNase I to being degradation resistant.

A biomimetic olfactory system that integrates nanotube sensor arrays with up to 10,000 individually addressable sensors per chip can offer high sensitivity to various gases with excellent distinguishability for mixed gases and 24 distinct odours.

The mechanisms of bifurgation, a key step in thyroid development, are largely unknown. Here, Fang et al. find that HGF/Met is indispensable for the bifurgation of the thyroid primordium during zebrafish thyroid development.

Topological magnonic materials display exotic properties which may enable high-efficiency and low-cost spintronic devices. Here the authors demonstrate a three-dimensional antiferromagnet Cu₃TeO₆ that hosts symmetry-protected Dirac and triply degenerate magnons.

The mainstream passivation strategies routinely rely on crystalline materials for perovskite photovoltaics. Here, authors utilize a solid phase reaction to prepare an amorphous (lysine)₂PbI₂ layer to neutralize surface and interface defects, achieving device efficiency of over 26% for solar cells.

The complexity of carbohydrate structures makes their synthesis challenging. Now, an automated glycan synthesizer is reported which is capable of preparing a library of bioactive oligosaccharides, including a fully protected fondaparinux pentasaccharide. Furthermore, the synthesizer can rapidly assemble arabinans up to 1,080-mer size, starting from monosaccharide building blocks.