Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors.

Extreme event attribution assesses how climate change affected climate extremes, but typically focuses on single events. Furthermore, these attributions rarely quantify the extent to which anthropogenic actors have contributed to these events. Here we show that climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000-2023 more likely and more intense, to which each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel and cement producers) substantially contributed.

Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars.

The Perseverance rover has explored and sampled igneous and sedimentary rocks within Jezero Crater to characterize early Martian geological processes and habitability and search for potential biosignatures. Upon entering Neretva Vallis, on Jezero Crater's western edge, Perseverance investigated distinctive mudstone and conglomerate outcrops of the Bright Angel formation. Here we report a detailed geological, petrographic and geochemical survey of these rocks and show that organic-carbon-bearing mudstones in the Bright Angel formation contain submillimetre-scale nodules and millimetre-scale reaction fronts enriched in ferrous iron phosphate and sulfide minerals, likely vivianite and greigite, respectively.

DNA methylation cooperates with genomic alterations during non-small cell lung cancer evolution.

Aberrant DNA methylation has been described in nearly all human cancers, yet its interplay with genomic alterations during tumor evolution is poorly understood. To explore this, we performed reduced representation bisulfite sequencing on 217 tumor and matched normal regions from 59 patients with non-small cell lung cancer from the TRACERx study to deconvolve tumor methylation. We developed two metrics for integrative evolutionary analysis with DNA and RNA sequencing data.

On the origin of the late-flowering ppd-H1 allele in barley.

To breed for climate resilient crops, an understanding of the genetic and environmental factors influencing adaptation is critical. Barley provides a model species to study adaptation to climate change. Here we present a detailed analysis of genetic variation at a major photoperiod response locus and relate this to the domestication history and dispersal of barley.

Health disparities in neurology.

Health disparities are preventable differences in health between different populations, and they are endemic throughout medicine owing to social, economic and environmental disadvantages. Neurology is no exception, and health disparities for systematically marginalized groups are present in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of all neurological disorders. The aetiology of these disparities is complex and multifactorial, reflecting the interplay of structural, institutional and individual-level factors.

Agrifood value chain employment and compensation shift with structural transformation.

The traditional structural transformation narrative emphasizes intersectoral labour reallocation out of agriculture, ignoring whether workers exit agrifood value chains or merely migrate within them. Here we decompose multiregional input-output table data into industry- and country-specific annual labour value-added estimates by final consumer market segment, matching them with industry-specific employment data to estimate average worker compensation. Using data covering most of the global economy over 1993-2021, we report ten stylized facts about labour reallocation amid structural transformation.

Plasma proteomic associations with Alzheimer's disease endophenotypes.

Clinical Alzheimer's disease is currently characterized by cerebral β-amyloidosis associated with cognitive impairment. However, most cases of Alzheimer's disease are associated with multiple neuropathologies at autopsy. The peripheral protein changes associated with these disease endophenotypes are poorly understood.

Probing the anion binding promiscuity of the soluble nitrate sensor NreA from Staphylococcus carnosus.

Promiscuity, or selectivity on a spectrum, is an encoded feature in biomolecular anion recognition. To unravel the molecular drivers of promiscuous anion recognition, we have employed a comprehensive approach - spanning experiment and theory - with the Staphylococcus carnosus nitrate regulatory element A (ScNreA) as a model. Thermodynamic analysis reveals that ScNreA complexation with native nitrate and nitrite or non-native iodide is an exothermic process.

Heart failure-specific cardiac fibroblasts contribute to cardiac dysfunction via the MYC-CXCL1-CXCR2 axis.

Heart failure (HF) is a growing global health issue. While most studies focus on cardiomyocytes, here we highlight the role of cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) in HF. Single-cell RNA sequencing of mouse hearts under pressure overload identified six CF subclusters, with one specific to the HF stage.

The impact of private hosting on the integration of Ukrainian refugees in Germany.

Amid the Ukrainian displacement crisis, private hosting of refugees in Europe has surged, yet its impact on integration remains understudied. This research examines the short- to medium-term effects of private hosting on Ukrainian refugee integration in Germany. Using data from one of the largest non-profit platforms that matches private hosts with refugees, we compare the multidimensional integration outcomes of refugees who were matched with private hosts to those of observably similar refugees who applied for private hosting but were not matched (n = 1,700).

Active use of latent tree-structured sentence representation in humans and large language models.

Understanding how sentences are represented in the human brain, as well as in large language models (LLMs), poses a substantial challenge for cognitive science. Here we develop a one-shot learning task to investigate whether humans and LLMs encode tree-structured constituents within sentences. Participants (total N = 372, native Chinese or English speakers, and bilingual in Chinese and English) and LLMs (for example, ChatGPT) were asked to infer which words should be deleted from a sentence.

Low-grade non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer: molecular landscape, treatment strategies and emerging therapies.

Low-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer is a specific category of bladder cancer with a favourable prognosis; however, its management presents several challenges. The risk of stage progression is very low, but approximately half of patients will experience recurrence within the first 5 years after diagnosis. This high propensity for recurrence, coupled with the threat of progression, mandates ongoing surveillance.

Functional synapses between neurons and small cell lung cancer.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly aggressive type of lung cancer, characterized by rapid proliferation, early metastatic spread, frequent early relapse and a high mortality rate. Recent evidence has suggested that innervation has an important role in the development and progression of several types of cancer. Cancer-to-neuron synapses have been reported in gliomas, but whether peripheral tumours can form such structures is unknown.

Long-range PM pollution and health impacts from the 2023 Canadian wildfires.

Smoke from extreme wildfires in Canada adversely affected air quality in many regions in 2023. Here we use satellite observations, machine learning and a chemical transport model to quantify global and regional PM (particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter) exposure and human health impacts related to the 2023 Canadian wildfires.

Myeloid progenitor dysregulation fuels immunosuppressive macrophages in tumours.

Monocyte-derived macrophages (mo-macs) often drive immunosuppression in the tumour microenvironment (TME) and tumour-enhanced myelopoiesis in the bone marrow fuels these populations. Here we performed paired transcriptome and chromatin accessibility analysis over the continuum of myeloid progenitors, circulating monocytes and tumour-infiltrating mo-macs in mice and in patients with lung cancer to identify myeloid progenitor programs that fuel pro-tumorigenic mo-macs. We show that lung tumours prime accessibility for Nfe2l2 (NRF2) in bone marrow myeloid progenitors as a cytoprotective response to oxidative stress, enhancing myelopoiesis while dampening interferon response and promoting immunosuppression.

Late fluid flow in a primitive asteroid revealed by Lu-Hf isotopes in Ryugu.

Carbonaceous asteroids are the source of the most primitive meteorites and represent leftover planetesimals that formed from ice and dust in the outer Solar System and may have delivered volatiles to the terrestrial planets. Understanding the aqueous activity of asteroids is key to deciphering their thermal, chemical and orbital evolution, with implications for the origin of water on the terrestrial planets. Analyses of the objects, in particular pristine samples returned from asteroid Ryugu, have provided detailed information on fluid-rock interactions within a few million years after parent-body formation.

Neuronal activity-dependent mechanisms of small cell lung cancer pathogenesis.

Neural activity is increasingly recognized as a crucial regulator of cancer growth. In the brain, neuronal activity robustly influences glioma growth through paracrine mechanisms and by electrochemical integration of malignant cells into neural circuitry via neuron-to-glioma synapses. Outside of the central nervous system, innervation of tumours such as prostate, head and neck, breast, pancreatic, and gastrointestinal cancers by peripheral nerves similarly regulates cancer progression.

Human gastroids to model regional patterning in early stomach development.

The human stomach features distinct, regionalized functionalities along the anterior-posterior axis. Historically, studies on stomach patterning have used animal models to identify the underlying principles. Recently, human pluripotent stem (hPS)-cell-based gastric organoids for modelling domain-specific development of the fundic and antral epithelium are emerging.

Observing differential spin currents by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering.

Controlling spin currents, that is, the flow of spin angular momentum, in small magnetic devices, is the principal objective of spin electronics, a main contender for future energy-efficient information technologies. A pure spin current has never been measured directly because the associated electric stray fields and/or shifts in the non-equilibrium spin-dependent distribution functions are too small for conventional experimental detection methods optimized for charge transport. Here we report that resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) can bridge this gap by measuring the spin current carried by magnons-the quanta of the spin wave excitations of the magnetic order-in the presence of temperature gradients across a magnetic insulator.

Energy deficiency selects crowded live epithelial cells for extrusion.

Epithelial cells work collectively to provide a protective barrier, yet they turn over rapidly through cell division and death. If the numbers of dividing and dying cells do not match, the barrier can vanish, or tumours can form. Mechanical forces through the stretch-activated ion channel Piezo1 link both of the processes; stretch promotes cell division, whereas crowding triggers live cells to extrude and then die.