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Continuous shape morphing for small robots can offer advantages, but it is difficult to perform tasks if they are not stiff enough. Xu et al. present here a design combining liquid crystal elastomers and shape memory polymers to lock morphable elements in place.

Genome sequences from 112 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection showed two clades of SARS-CoV-2 virus with similar virulence and clinical outcome, and clinical data from 326 cases suggest that T cell depletion and cytokine bursts are associated with a worse prognosis.

Methods that enable the cleavage of Si−C(sp³) bonds catalytically remain rare. Here the authors report the synthesis of spirosilacycles via palladium-catalysed spiro-sila-cyclization of trialkylsilane derivatives; the reaction proceeds via cleavage of a C(sp³)−Si bond and insertion of an alkylpalladium complex.

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is the main cause of hypothyroidism. Here the authors develop a deep learning model for diagnosis of HT on a large multi-site dataset including image and video data.

Perovskite solar cells often rely on ordered molecular contacts for favourable charge-carrier transport, and any organizational disruption reduces device efficiency. Now a contact featuring an orthogonal π-skeleton has been shown to afford a high resilience to external stimuli plus long-term durability in accelerated-ageing tests.

Replacement of oxoamide units with thioamides in peptide therapeutics is a valuable tactic to improve biological activity and resistance to enzymatic hydrolysis. Here, the authors develop a direct coupling of readily available nitroalkane and amines with elemental sulfur and base and provide an efficient way to form thioamides and thiopeptides.

Blind and partially sighted individuals face considerable challenges when interacting with digital information. This Perspective highlights important bottlenecks in information accessibility, design considerations for future wearable assistive devices and the outlook for improved access to and delivery of information in text and images.

A peri-fused polyaromatic core structure is used to produce a relatively chemically inert and structurally rigid molecular contact that improves the efficiency and durability of perovskite solar cells.

Tumour repopulating cells (TRC) are stem-like cells that can escape immune-mediated killing. Here, the authors show IFN-γ results in either dormancy or apoptosis of TRC depending on the activation of the IDO1 metabolic pathway, and that combining IFN-γ with IDO1 inhibitors results in enhanced tumour regression.

A major challenge of spintronics is achieving magnetic field free electrical control of magnetisation. Here, Xie et al. achieve perpendicular magnetisation switching in a CoPt alloy, breaking inversion symmetry by varying the composition of the alloy in the growth direction.

Materials for multifunctional molecular recognition are essential in industry. Here, the authors present a cost-effective, stable and multifunctional Ni-cubane MOF that effectively separates hexane isomers, xenon/krypton, and carbon dioxide/nitrogen.

A ketogenic diet can reduce calorie absorption and protect against obesity by inducing changes to the gut microbiota and the bile acid pool.

High-entropy hybrid perovskites exhibit improved materials properties compared with their individual components. When employed in solar cells, champion devices achieve a certified power conversion efficiency of 25.5% and an extrapolated T₉₀ lifetime of over 5,000 h under continuous light soaking.

In this work, the authors report that Histidine residues play a critical role in modulating amyloid-like assembly and building active sites for Fmoc–F–F and Aβ aggregates. Aβ1-42 filaments were found to perform peroxidase-like activity to enhance oxidative stress, which might also be ascribed to the interaction mode of His and F-F.

The mechanism by which the chromatinized HBV genome is transcribed remains poorly understood. In this study, Liu et al. demonstrate how HBx exploits Spindlin1, a histone methylation reader, to overcome heterochromatin barriers and enhance HBV transcription from the cccDNA minichromosome.

Breviscapine is the flavonoid extract from medical plant Erigeron breviscapus for the treatment of cardio- and cerebrovascular disease. Here, the authors identify the key enzymes of the biosynthetic pathway from the plant genome and engineer yeast to produce breviscapine from glucose.

The dual-cations electrochemical system was considered to be a promising strategy to facilitate sluggish diffusion kinetics. Here the authors prepare zinc-based alloy anode with three-dimensional interface, thus to improve the interfacial stability, achieve high-performing battery system in the aqueous electrolytes containing dual cations.

A CRISPR–Cas9 screen in a tumour mouse model identifies CD300ld as a tumour receptor on polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cells and in vivo experiments indicate that it is a promising target for cancer immunotherapy.

The molecular mechanism underlying the DNA hypermethylation phenotype observed in the SPOP-mutant prostate cancers is unclear. Here, the authors show that mutant SPOP induces global aberrant DNA methylation patterns through GLP/G9a and renders prostate cancer cells susceptible to DNA demethylating agents.

Metal anode instability due to several intrinsic factors limits their widespread use in energy storage. Here, the authors report a 3D alloy anode via a universal alloy electrodeposition approach to overcome the anode instability issues and demonstrate a seawater-based aqueous battery.

Genome-wide siRNA screens identify an essential function for sorting nexin 5 in virus-induced autophagy and immunity mediated via class III phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase complex 1.

The imaging of tumours is challenging because of the wide range of different cancers. Now, the rapid detection of tumours, independent of type, is achieved using a nonlinear amplification strategy that employs ultrasensitive pH-responsive fluorescent nanoparticles that illuminate within tumour neovasculature or in response to the tumour’s acidic extracellular environment.

While recurrence is frequent in ependymoma, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain to be explored. Here, the authors investigate epigenetic, genetic and tumorigenic changes in 30 patient-matched repeated relapses over 13 years and identify distinct patterns of DNA methylation.

As guidelines, therapies and literature on cancer variants expand, the lack of consensus variant interpretations impedes clinical applications. CIViC is a public-___domain, crowd-sourced and adaptable knowledgebase of evidence for the clinical interpretation of variants in cancer, designed to reduce barriers to knowledge sharing and alleviate the variant-interpretation bottleneck.