Volume 596 Issue 7872, 19 August 2021

The Australian government must embrace UNESCO’s assessment to marshal the resources needed to protect the unique coral ecosystem.

Printing technique could help to produce minute power sources for use in lightweight sensors and wearable devices.

Planting forests outside the tropics can sequester carbon and counteract global warming.

The voracious Phillip Island centipede eats enough chicks and other large prey to play an important part in its home ecosystem.

A mint discovered in China was churning out 14-centimetre-long ‘spade coins’ more than 2,500 years ago.

The dusty disk around a black hole flashes on a characteristic schedule, offering a clue to its mass.

Substances made by gut microbes could account for a cognitive boost from faecal transplants.

Cheap, eco-friendly materials can be formed into vibrant 2D or 3D shapes.

The latest science news, in brief.

Data on the variant’s spread in India make researchers fearful for areas in developing nations that lack health care and vaccines.

Emerging data suggest that Delta could spread more readily than other coronavirus variants among people vaccinated against COVID-19. But key questions remain.

Analysis reveals that strange turns of phrase may indicate foul play in science.

Chemical analysis of an ice age woolly mammoth’s tusk reveals the huge distances it travelled during its lifetime more than 17,000 years ago.

Rare tetraquark is one of dozens of non-elementary particles discovered by the accelerator, and could help to test theories about strong nuclear force.

The health-policy specialist who grew up in the White House is using her training and connections to convince world leaders to help make vaccines accessible to all nations.

Researchers warn that plans to prevent the next global outbreak don’t consider the failures that have fuelled our current predicament.

Reducing the use of scarce metals — and recycling them — will be key to the world’s transition to electric vehicles.

The drive to net zero has changed the calculus of the Promethean dream.

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

Online communities forged last year sparked collaborations and conversations about diversity and equity in academic research.

Alessandro Rossi applies quantum physics to the study of measurements in a ‘mind-boggling’ marriage of disciplines.

A broad analysis has identified genetic variants that influence age at natural menopause. The results implicate mechanisms such as DNA-damage repair and give insights into the potential for predicting and treating early menopause.

To meet climate targets, technologies that remove atmospheric carbon dioxide will probably be needed. An analysis shows how their development and use could be accelerated if carbon emitters are obliged to remove their own CO₂.

Supersolids are exotic materials whose constituent particles can simultaneously form a crystal and flow without friction. The first 2D supersolid has been produced using ultracold gases of highly magnetic atoms.

A previously unknown subgroup of uterine fibroid tumours is driven by mutations that result in disruption of the DNA–protein complex chromatin. The findings could inform the management of this common condition.

Pollinators are under threat. A meta-analysis reveals that the combination of agrochemicals, parasites and malnutrition has a cumulative negative effect on bees, and that pesticide–pesticide interactions increase bee mortality.

The results of site testing at a local summit near Lenghu Town in Qinghai Province on the Tibetan Plateau indicate that the site is suitable as an astronomical observing site.

Two-dimensional supersolidity is demonstrated using highly magnetic, ultracold dysprosium atoms.

Hyperbolic phonon polaritons that exhibit long-distance, ray-like propagation and oblique wavefronts are described at the surface of an anisotropic bulk crystal.

Model patchy colloids with directional bonding are designed that assemble into icosahedral quasicrystals through the propagation of an icosahedral network of bonds and may be realized using DNA origami particles.

Surface enhancements in glass mobility are complicated in polymers by the interplay of the surface mobile layer thickness with a second length scale (the size of the polymer chains), giving rise to a transient rubbery surface even in polymers with short chains.

To enable net-negative CO₂ emissions, the repayment of previously accrued carbon debt by establishing the responsibility for the net removal of CO₂ by carbon-emitting parties through carbon removal obligations is necessary.

Modelling suggests that the Montreal Protocol may be mitigating climate change by protecting the land carbon sink, as well as by protecting the ozone layer and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A meta-analysis of studies in which bees were exposed to combinations of agrochemicals, nutritional stressors and/or parasites revealed evidence for synergistic effects on mortality when bees were exposed to multiple agrochemicals at field-realistic levels.

Hundreds of genetic loci associated with age at menopause, combined with experimental evidence in mice, highlight mechanisms of reproductive ageing across the lifespan.

Analyses of samples from 728 women with uterine leiomyomas (uterine fibroids), and public data, show that somatic and germline mutations in the SRCAP histone-loading complex genes are associated with the condition.

Recordings from the brains of freely flying bats show that grid cells that represent 3D space have multiple firing fields and are organized with local rather than global order.

Profiling the immune responses of 56 volunteers vaccinated with BNT162b2 reveals how this mRNA vaccine primes the innate immune system to mount a potent response to SARS-CoV-2 after booster immunization.

Individuals over eighty years of age are less likely to mount a good immune response against SARS-CoV-2 (measured by neutralization titres) after the first dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine, but achieve good neutralization after the second dose.

SARS-CoV-2 challenge of rhesus macaques demonstrates that the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine induces robust protection against both the WA1/2020 isolate and the B.1.351 variant of concern.

A new computational approach to in silico mutagenesis screening allow comprehensive mapping of cancer driver mutations.

A tandem BRCT-domain-associated ubiquitin-dependent recruitment motif in BARD1 recruits BRCA1 to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) to promote homologous recombination and antagonize the 53BP1 DSB repair pathway that mediates non-homologous end joining.

The authors elucidate the mechanisms for the ubiquitylation specificity and recruitment of the ubiquitin ligase complex BRCA1–BARD1 to damaged DNA within chromatin to facilitate homologous recombination.

The cryo-electron microscopy structure of mouse MFSD2A sheds light on the mechanism that underlies its lipid transport functions, which have a pivotal role in regulating the blood–brain barrier.