Volume 579 Issue 7797, 5 March 2020

New analysis of carbon from tropical forests suggests the need for yet faster emissions reductions.

An end to narrow metrics-based evaluation is welcome — but China’s researchers must continue to publish with colleagues from around the world.

From preparing for pandemics to boosting crop yields, Nigerian scientists who work and train abroad are making the world safer. Now that’s under threat.

Furry coating hides moths from echolocating bats.

Cutting rodents’ caloric intake slows cellular changes that normally set in with time.

Insects showing adaptations to cavernous life scuttled the Earth 99 million years ago.

Dropping money at bricks-and-mortar shops can have a bigger carbon footprint than some forms of e-commerce.

Radio signals suggest a grouping of two large black holes and one small one.

A robot made from gel bends in response to light, allowing for a wide variety of motions.

Trial shows the safety of a treatment for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa.

The latest science news, in brief.

The incident raises important questions about how institutions handle accusations of harassment that occurred at different universities — particularly in the #MeToo era.

A planetary alignment provides a window to visit Uranus and Neptune — but time is tight.

New policy tackles perverse incentives that drive ‘publish or perish’ culture and might be encouraging questionable research practices.

Pangolins are a prime suspect, but a slew of genetic analyses has yet to find conclusive proof.

These stellar remnants are some of the Universe’s most enigmatic objects — and they are finally starting to give up their secrets.

Sixteen months become a springboard to a panoramic view of the twentieth century, thanks to Michael Gordin’s elegant prose. By Pedro Ferreira.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.

New synthesis shows what a wasted decade means for the climate pact made in Paris.

It’s never a dull day for those tasked with keeping biological research safe for all.

Repositories let researchers store, share and access life‑science images — and maybe even extract new findings.

NASA engineer Marleen Martinez Sundgaard tests landers and rovers before they launch for the red planet.

The longitudinal arch has long been considered a crucial structure that provides stiffness to the human foot. Now the transverse arch is stepping into the spotlight, with a proposed central role in the evolution of human foot stiffness.

An image-sensor array has been developed that acts as its own artificial neural network to capture and identify optical images simultaneously, processing the information rapidly without needing to convert it to a digital format.

A gene has been found that controls the conversion of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii into a form that chronically infects the human brain. The discovery could aid the design of therapies to eliminate this currently untreatable infection.

The first 3D structure of a full-length G-protein-coupled receptor whose natural activator is unknown has been determined, providing insights into an unusual mode of activation and a basis for discovering therapeutics.

Analysis of a unique global data set reveals how the species diversity of birds is affected by the properties of archipelagos and offers a way to test an influential theory. Has this improved our understanding of island biodiversity patterns?

A survey of tree establishment, growth and mortality shows that the rate at which Amazonian tropical forests take up carbon dioxide has slowed since the 1990s, whereas signs of a potential slowdown in Africa appeared only in 2010.

Single-particle spectroscopic techniques that provide insights into the fundamental photophysical properties of functional nanomaterials are reviewed.

The ferromagnet CeRh₆Ge₄ is found to exhibit strange-metal behaviour at a quantum critical point, suggesting that changes in the pattern of quantum entanglement, not antiferromagnetism, underlie the development of strange metals.

A topological Chern insulating state is reported to emerge from strong correlations in flat moiré bands in a graphene superlattice and by applying a vertical electric field the Chern number is switched.

A two-dimensional semiconductor photodiode array senses and processes optical images simultaneously without latency, and is trained to classify and encode images with high throughput, acting as an artificial neural network.

High-pressure diamond anvil cell experiments reveal that compression strengthening of nanocrystalline nickel increases as its grain sizes decrease to 3 nanometres, owing to dislocation hardening and suppression of grain boundary plasticity.

A method of growing crystals that does not require undisturbed solutions involves adding polyelectrolytes to the starter solution and shearing (that is, stirring).

Unlike Amazonian forests, African forests have maintained their carbon sink until recently but by 2030 the African carbon sink will have shrunk by 14 per cent and the Amazonian sink will reach almost zero.

The widespread intraplate volcanism in northeast China and the unusual ‘petit-spot’ volcanoes offshore Japan could have resulted from the interaction of the subducting Pacific slab with a hydrous mantle transition zone.

Using a global molecular phylogenetic dataset of birds on islands, the sensitivity of island-specific rates of colonization, speciation and extinction to island features (area and isolation) is estimated.

The transverse tarsal arch, acting through the inter-metatarsal tissues, is important for the longitudinal stiffness of the foot and its appearance is a key step in the evolution of human bipedalism.

Neuron-tracing and labelling experiments in Drosophila females reveal the neural circuitry that coordinates mating and egg laying, and the role of sex peptide from male seminal fluid in triggering these neurons.

Caveolae in arteriolar endothelial cells—but not those in neighbouring smooth muscle cells—have a key role in neurovascular coupling, an essential function for meeting acute brain energy demand.

Lipid starvation results in skeletal progenitors favouring commitment to chondrogenic over osteogenic fate, a process mediated by FOXO transcription factors and SOX9.

Two epigenetic regulators—identified in an RNA interference screen in Caenhorhabditis elegans, and conserved in mammals—diminish mitochondrial function and accelerate the age-related deterioration of behaviour.

Metabolomics data from germ-free and specific-pathogen-free mice reveal effects of the microbiome on host chemistry, identifying conjugations of bile acids that are also enriched in patients with inflammatory bowel disease or cystic fibrosis.

Tumour-infiltrating group 2 innate lymphoid cells prime CD8⁺ T cells and amplify the anti-tumour effects of PD-1 blockade in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

WDR5 and TBP recruit anaphase-promoting complex to specific transcription start sites in mitosis, initiating a ubiquitin-dependent mechanism that preserves cell identity by linking gene expression and cell division.

Cas1–Cas2 selects precursor prespacers from DNA fragments in a length- and PAM-sequence-dependent manner, and these precursors are trimmed by DnaQ exonucleases to enable integration into the CRISPR locus in the correct orientation.

The cryo-electron microscopy structure of a phycobilisome from the red alga Porphyridium purpureum reveals how aromatic interactions between the linker proteins and the chromophores drive a unidirectional transfer of energy.

Structures of the orphan G-protein-coupled receptor GPR52 in ligand-free, G-protein-coupled and ligand-bound states reveal that extracellular loop 2 occupies the orthosteric binding pocket and functions as a built-in agonist to activate the receptor.