Volume 628 Issue 8009, 25 April 2024

The United Kingdom is correct to attempt to end the single largest preventable cause of illness and death, as was New Zealand before its government changed its mind.

The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in a Swiss case cements the concept that climate inaction violates human rights — responsible nations around the world will take heed.

Amid the data deluge provided by lab-based techniques, such as environmental-DNA analysis, true connection still comes only in the outdoors.

Antarctic observatory gathers the first clear evidence of mysterious subatomic particles from space.

The gigantic animals have worked out an unusual way to exfoliate — a perfect way to deal with whale lice.

Static electricity generated by the foot striking the ground can be captured to kill pathogens.

Finds in pyramid at Guatemalan site suggest that remains were disinterred and desecrated in a public ritual.

Countries are cracking down on tobacco use and vaping — the laws could save thousands of lives and billions of dollars, say scientists.

Results from the telescope could help to end a long-standing disagreement over the rate of cosmic expansion. But scientists say more measurements are needed.

Litigation can lead governments to strengthen their climate policies and curb companies’ greenwashing, say scientists.

Algorithm examines images of metastatic cells to identify the location of the primary tumour.

Stanford University’s 2024 AI Index charts the meteoric rise of artificial-intelligence tools.

The agency’s head calls the current plan for delivering samples collected by the Perseverance rover ‘too expensive’ and its schedule ‘unacceptable’.

A newly discovered ‘organelle’ that converts nitrogen gas into a useful form could pave the way for engineered plants that require less fertilizer.

The island nation is expanding its territory by dredging up sediment from the ocean floor. But scientists, former government officials and activists say such reclamation can harm marine ecosystems and make the country more vulnerable to rising seas.

Researchers are using various machine-learning strategies to speed up climate modelling, reduce its energy costs and hopefully improve accuracy.

The world should learn from past disasters and prepare for the effects of future, inevitable volcanic catastrophes, a wide-reaching book teaches us.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Theoretical physicist saw his eponymous particle discovered after 48 years.

As artificial intelligence transforms the global economy, researchers need to explore scenarios to assess how it can help, rather than harm, the climate.

Nature’s Where I Work images are being exhibited in the UK capital until June.

Nature’s annual photography competition attracted stunning images from around the world, including two very different shots featuring the Polarstern research vessel.

In Grenada, public-health researcher Lindonne Telesford tests a soil additive made from recycled glass that could help farmers adapt to climate change.

Mating between different species has often been considered an evolutionary dead end, but a study in longwing butterflies suggests that such hybridization could underlie the origins of a new species.

A technique called surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy can detect tiny quantities of compounds in solution, but has been difficult to use for quantitative analysis. A digital approach involving nanoparticles suggests a way forward.

Animals that receive an inhibitor of an antiviral cell-death response called necroptosis are less likely to die of influenza even at a late stage of infection. This has implications for the development of therapies for respiratory diseases.

The hinge enables insects to control their wing movements, but how it works is hard to study. Multidisciplinary research, using imaging and machine-learning methods, now sheds light on the mechanism that underlies its operation.

A highly precise timekeeping instrument has been adapted for the real world. The compact and robust device is smaller than its commercial counterparts and performs comparably in the laboratory and aboard a naval ship.

Birds emerge as top suspects for unexplained flower mutilation, and reflections from 1974 mark the 21st anniversary of the discovery of the DNA double helix, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.

A therapeutic strategy that alters gene expression in a rare and severe neurodevelopmental condition has been tested in stem-cell-based models of the disease, and has been shown to correct genetic and cellular defects.

Analysis of the energy budget of a sample of 54 well-observed stripped-envelope supernovae of all sub-types shows statistically significant, largely model-independent, observational evidence for a non-radioactive power source in most of them.

Sea-based optical clocks combining a molecular iodine spectrometer, fibre frequency comb and electronics for monitoring and control demonstrate high precision in a smaller volume than active hydrogen masers.

We show that domain walls in minimally twisted bilayer graphene support exceptionally robust proximity superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime.

We develop an optical method that can set and read the state of electrons in the valley polarization of bulk transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors, with potential utility as digital storage at quantum coherent timescales and application in quantum computing.

We introduce strong tailored light-wave-driven time-reversal symmetry breaking in monolayer hexagonal boron nitride, realizing a sub-laser-cycle controllable analogue of the topological model of Haldane and inducing non-resonant valley polarization.

A strategy for the transfer-free direct growth of ultralong, high-quality graphene nanoribbons, which have desirable electronic properties, between layers of a boron nitride insulator is reported.

A study introduces a novel method to grow single-crystal Cu₂O thin films with selected crystal orientations, highlighting enhanced bulk carrier mobility and carrier diffusion length along the [111] direction that yields Cu₂O photocathodes with improved performance.

Research published in Nature shows that surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy carried out with colloids can quantify a range of molecules down to concentrations at the femtomolar level.

Using complementary multiplicity-edited ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, oxidative dearomatization is shown to be a key driver for generating structural diversity during processing of dissolved organic matter and the data also suggest high abundance of OC_qC₃ units.

Recent sequences of reverse-faulting earthquakes at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Carlsberg Ridge show that tectonic extension at mid-ocean ridge axes can be partially undone by tectonic shortening across the ridge flanks.

This study presents an approach to deal with spatial, temporal and phylogenetic non-independence in large-scale analyses of biodiversity change, improving trend estimation and inference across scales.

Measurements of fly muscle activity using a genetically encoded calcium indicator and high-speed imaging of wing movement were used to construct a model of the insect wing hinge and the role of steering muscles in flight control.

We build a polyploid reference genome for hybrid sugarcane cultivar R570, improving on its current ‘mosaic monoploid’ representation, enabling fine-grain description of genome architecture and the exploration of candidate genes underlying the Bru1 brown rust resistance locus.

Genomic studies of Heliconius butterflies provide evidence that Heliconius elevatus is a hybrid species, and that its speciation was driven by introgression of traits from Heliconius melpomene into the other parent, an ancestor of Heliconius pardalinus.

Antisense oligonucleotides effectively decrease the inclusion of exon  8A of CACNA1C in human cells both in vitro and in rodents transplanted with human brain organoids, and a single intrathecal administration rescued both calcium changes and in vivo dendrite morphology of patient neurons.

In response to acute thermal challenge, thermosensing glutamatergic neurons of the parabrachial nucleus in mouse brain activate tanycytes, which reduce the excitability of Flt1-expressing dopamine and agouti-related peptide-containing neurons, thus suppressing appetite.

A newly developed RIPK3 inhibitor blocks necroptosis of lung cells, reduces lung inflammation and prevents mortality in a mouse model of influenza A virus infection.

The POLG1 mutation p.W748S, which is associated with mitochondrial recessive ataxia syndrome, dampens innate immune responses by compromising mtDNA replisome stability, and this explains why a viral infection can trigger the development of the disease and contribute to its variable clinical manifestation.

Studies in mice show that effector T regulatory cells in the gut are most functional in the lamina propria, but this homeostatic niche is disrupted in inflammation, suggesting a spatial mechanism of tolerance to commensal microorganisms.

A molecular mechanism for brain-specific angiogenesis operates under the control of Wnt7a/b ligands.

Interim data from a clinical trial of mRNA-3927—an mRNA therapeutic for propionic acidaemia—provide early indications of the safety and efficacy of the treatment, and suggest that this approach might be applicable to other rare diseases.

A synthetic proteome-scale strategy enables the identification of a diverse range of human proteins that can induce the degradation or stabilization of a target protein in a proximity-dependent way.

A study presents two cryo-EM structures of yeast Pol II pre-termination transcription complexes bound to Rat1–Rai1, and provides the mechanisms for termination of mRNA transcription in yeast and other eukaryotes.

Citrate synthase from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus is shown to self-assemble into Sierpiński triangles, a finding that opens up the possibility that other naturally occurring molecular-scale fractals exist.

An ensemble of cryo-electron microscopy structures of the KpsMT ABC transporter in complex with the KpsE co-polymerase and a glycolipid substrate reveal how capsular polysaccharides are recognized and translocated across bacterial cell membranes.

The molecular basis of OSCA/TMEM63 channel mechanosensitivity was investigated by determining 44 cryogenic electron microscopy structures of channels in different environments, expanding understanding of channel-mediated mechanotransduction and pore formation, with implications for two protein families.