Volume 591 Issue 7850, 18 March 2021

A proposal that weighs up options for meeting climate, conservation and food-provision goals deserves serious consideration.

Social-media platforms should reward users for reliable, accurate and trustworthy posts.

A small device churns out pairs of entangled photons with the help of an unusual material.

The creatures can form a new body in only three weeks, thanks to extreme regenerative powers.

The addition of hydrogen turns a highly reactive sheet of boron atoms into a stable material.

A compound helps oral bacteria to hook up into sticky, decay-causing dental plaque.

Astronomers map out the most benign environments for life in the Milky Way over the past 13 billion years.

The silver diadem and other bling interred with a woman some 3,700 years ago mark her high status.

Weed production in the United States puffs out heat-trapping emissions.

The latest science news, in brief.

Global tensions, limits on international collaboration and an emphasis on real-world applications drive the nation’s vision for research.

Nature retraction is a setback for Microsoft’s approach to quantum computing, as researchers continue to search for the exotic quantum states.

The National Institutes of Health will fund researchers to track people’s recovery, and will host a biospecimen bank.

Bimonthly injections of cabotegravir kept most people free of HIV, but in rare cases the drug hid infections and fuelled resistance, study finds.

Despite pandemic disruption, astronomers detected thousands of previously unknown near-Earth asteroids last year.

Targeted approach could lead to an opioid-free way of treating chronic pain.

Genomics studies are helping to reveal how bacteria and archaea influence one of Earth’s largest carbon stores as it begins to thaw.

A whirlwind geological journey in which the past meets the present and the future.

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

To limit warming, action plans from countries and companies must be fair, rigorous and transparent.

Remote working, research delays and childcare obligations are taking their toll on scientists, causing stress and anxiety.

PhD student James Ball maps tree trunks to better understand a crucial ecosystem and its response to climate change.

A specialized type of bone-cell progenitor has been identified in the bone marrow, and shown to support the generation of immune cells called lymphocytes in response to movement.

Damage to DNA in a cellular organelle called the mitochondrion triggers an immune response in the nucleus. Mechanistic insights into this process shed light on how organelles communicate.

A fully autonomous computer system has been developed that can take part in live debates with people. The findings hint at a future in which artificial intelligence can help humans to formulate and make sense of complex arguments.

Symbiotic interactions between organisms have aided major evolutionary transitions. The interaction between two microorganisms has parallels with the evolution of mitochondria — key organelles in eukaryotic cells.

Tectonic-plate material is generally thought to be neither created nor destroyed at plate boundaries called oceanic transform faults. An analysis of sea-floor topography suggests that this assumption is incorrect.

An artificial intelligence system that can engage in a competitive debate with humans is presented.

A simple but flexible technique based on a capillary-force-driven rolling-up process produces high-order van der Waals superlattices that are hard to produce with existing fabrication techniques.

Direct observations of 4.2 million wells across the USA indicate that many streams are potentially losing water to underlying aquifers.

The capacity to create an equitable and sustainable ‘blue economy’ from ocean resources will be determined by addressing social conditions, governance and infrastructure, not just resource availability, as shown by a fuzzy logic model incorporating multidisciplinary criteria.

Oceanic transform faults are systemically deeper than their associated fracture zones, owing to the plate boundary experiencing increasingly oblique shear at increasing depths below the seafloor.

Growth series of Palaeozoic stem lampreys do not include a filter-feeding larval phase seen in modern lampreys, which suggests that modern lamprey larvae are a poor model of vertebrate ancestry.

Genome-wide data from 166 East Asian individuals dating to between 6000 bc and ad 1000 and from 46 present-day groups provide insights into the histories of mixture and migration of human populations in East Asia.

Simultaneous mapping of activity across the cortex and dorsal striatum in mice shows that activity in each part of the striatum precisely mirrors that in topographically associated cortical regions, consistently across behavioural contexts.

A dopamine neuron that underpins transient forgetting in Drosophila is activated by the presentation of interfering stimuli immediately before memory retrieval, modulating this retrieval by stimulating a dopamine receptor in mushroom body neurons.

The identification of a lysosomal K⁺ channel complex—comprising AKT and the pore-forming TMEM175—provides insights into the mechanisms through which variants of the pore-forming protein affect the development of Parkinson’s disease.

A peri-arteriolar niche in the bone marrow for osteogenesis and lymphopoiesis is maintained by mechanical stimulation and is depleted during ageing.

‘Candidatus Azoamicus ciliaticola’ transfers energy to its ciliate host in the form of ATP and enables this host to breathe nitrate, demonstrating that eukaryotes with remnant mitochondria can secondarily acquire energy-providing endosymbionts.

Human and bat coronaviruses replicate efficiently in immunodeficient mice implanted with human lung tissue, and treatment or prophylaxis using EIDD-2801 in this model suggests that this oral antiviral agent may be effective in preventing COVID-19.

T follicular helper cells undergo antigen-dependent selection in germinal centres, with higher-affinity T cell receptors supporting stronger proliferation leading to their clonal dominance.

In patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer, robust and protective humoral responses are dominated by B-cell-derived polyclonal IgA that binds to polymeric IgA receptors that are universally expressed on ovarian cancer cells.

Depriving unicellular Dictyostelium discoideum of nutrients generates reactive oxygen species that sequester cysteine within glutathione, which maintains this amoeba in a nonproliferating state that promotes aggregation into a multicellular organism.

Breaks in mitochondrial DNA cause leakage of mitochondrial RNA into the cytoplasm, enhancing immune surveillance and synergizing with nuclear DNA damage to mount a robust type-I interferon immune response.

A modular de novo designed biosensor platform consisting of a cage and key molecule is developed, and used to create sensors for seven distinct proteins including the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 and anti-SARS antibodies.