Volume 574 Issue 7779, 24 October 2019

Quantum computing will suffer if supremacy is overhyped. Everyday quantum computers are still decades away.

Thriving new institutions can share lessons in building research and publishing capacity.

My country’s government is squeezing research and pushing the rainforest to the brink.

Physicists redesign an enormous and costly imaging device to make it smaller and cheaper.

The short-tailed 2I/Borisov is only the second known visitor to the Solar System from another star system.

A sphere of cells that blossoms from only one stem cell can implant in a mouse uterus and form multiple tissues.

Unprecedented snowfall stymied breeding for birds and other creatures in northern Greenland in 2018.

Bacteria discovered in a Mexican lake accumulate two radioactive isotopes in their cells.

A wooden chip imprinted with microscopic patterns serves as a grid of lenses.

World’s fastest ants zip along at 85 centimetres per second, at times with all 6 legs off the ground at once.

The latest science news, in brief.

The company says that its quantum computer is the first to perform a calculation that would be practically impossible for a classical machine.

A fleet of geophysical observatories would probe everything from the inner Earth to the upper atmosphere.

The system allows researchers more control over DNA changes, potentially opening up conditions that have challenged gene-editors.

Denis Rebrikov also told Nature that he does not plan to implant gene-edited embryos until he gets regulatory approval.

An explosion of fossil finds reveals that ancient mammals evolved a wide variety of adaptations allowing them to exploit the skies, rivers and underground lairs.

Robert Shiller’s new book probes how social behaviour trumps statistics in determining the fate of economies — Tim Jackson reviews.

A look at hormone studies dissects fact from fake and questions interpretations — Randi Hutter Epstein reviews.

The strange circumstances surrounding the invention of the world’s first PC are probed by a new book — Sharon Weinberger reviews.

From custom typeface to digital-friendly logo, follow the journey to the redesign. By creative director Kelly Krause.

Historian Paul Lucier traces the explosion and fragmentation of industrial research in the fifth essay in a series on how the past 150 years have shaped today’s science system, marking Nature’s anniversary.

Lynsey Bunnefeld and her spouse took advantage of shared parental leave following their son’s birth, and this is what it taught them.

Desiree Dickerson discusses learning to control the voice in her head that insisted she wasn’t good enough.

Gladys Ngetich spends time with a deafening experimental rig as part of her PhD to improve jet engine turbines.

A programmable quantum computer has been reported to outperform the most powerful conventional computers in a specific task — a milestone in computing comparable in importance to the Wright brothers’ first flights.

Microorganisms in the gut influence fear-related learning. The results of a study that reveals some of the mechanistic underpinnings of this phenomenon promise to boost our understanding of gut–brain communication.

The spectroscopic fingerprints of buckyballs have been observed in space, but questions remain about how these large molecules form. Laboratory experiments have revealed a possible mechanism.

The ability of structures called optical resonators to trap light is often limited by scattering of light off fabrication defects. A physical mechanism that suppresses this scattering has been reported that could lead to improved optical devices.

Cells regulate gene expression in part through the chemical labelling of histone proteins. Discovery of a label derived from lactate molecules reveals a way in which cells link gene expression to nutrient metabolism.

Fossil finds that can provide clues about how aquatic vertebrates evolved into land dwellers are elusive. But the ancient bones of a newly discovered species of tetrapod now provide some crucial missing evidence.

Reanalysis of the spectra associated with the merger of two neutron stars identifies strontium, spectroscopically establishing the origin of the heavy elements created by rapid neutron capture and proving that neutron stars comprise neutron-rich matter.

Bound states in the continuum are merged in momentum space by varying the periodicity of the photonic crystal lattice, giving high-quality-factor guided resonances that are robust to out-of-plane scattering.

Quantum supremacy is demonstrated using a programmable superconducting processor known as Sycamore, taking approximately 200 seconds to sample one instance of a quantum circuit a million times, which would take a state-of-the-art supercomputer around ten thousand years to compute.

The construction of a self-assembled nanocage composed of four metal ions and six antiaromatic walls is demonstrated, and the effect of antiaromaticity on the host–guest properties is investigated.

A Cu-bound nitrogen-centred radical is used to control site-specific and enantioselective allylic C–H cyanations of molecules with synthetic and medicinal relevance, such as tri- and tetrasubstituted alkenes.

A new catalogue of slow-slip events on the Cascadia megathrust shows that a cubic moment–duration scaling law is likely, with scaling properties strikingly similar to regular earthquakes.

Three-dimensionally preserved fossils of Parmastega aelidae, a newly described tetrapod from the earliest Famennian (Late Devonian) of Russia, provide detailed insights into the morphology and palaeobiology of the earliest tetrapods.

Genome sequencing of hundreds of normal colonic crypts from 42 individuals sheds light on mutational processes and driver mutations in normal colorectal epithelial cells.

Whole-genome sequencing of liver microdissections from five healthy individuals and nine with cirrhosis demonstrates the effects of liver disease on the genome, including increased rates of mutation, complex structural variation and different mutational signatures.

A diverse intestinal microbiota is required for mice to undergo extinction-related neuronal plasticity and normal fear extinction learning.

The biotic environment can fundamentally alter bacteria and phage interactions, and influence the evolution of resistance mechanisms.

Fibroblasts from old mice are heterogeneous, which affects the ability of these fibroblasts to reprogram into induced pluripotent stem cells in vitro and influences wound healing rate in vivo.

A pair of glucose-sensing neurons identified in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster regulates secretion of adipokinetic hormone and Drosophila insulin-like peptide 2, suggesting that these neurons have key roles in maintenance of glucose homeostasis.

V-domain immunoglobulin suppressor of T cell activation (VISTA) selectively engages P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) and suppresses T cells at acidic pH similar to those in tumour microenvironments, thereby mediating resistance to anti-tumour immune responses.

Super-resolution microscopy demonstrates how changes in the 3D organization of chromatin protect DNA against excessive degradation following damage.

The lactylation of lysine residues on histones in mammalian cells is stimulated by hypoxia and bacterial challenges, and increased histone lactylation induces genes involved in wound healing.

High-resolution crystal structures of the rat succinate receptor SUCNR1 in an inactive confirmation, and the humanized rat SUCNR1 bound to an antagonist, provide insights into the structure of these receptors and the species selectivity of antagonist binding.