Research articles

Granular materials exhibit yielding behaviors rather different from glasses that can be elastic. Here, Yuan et al. show a cross-over from creep to diffusive dynamics in three-dimensional granular systems under cyclic shear and that the relaxation process depends on the roughness of the constituent particles.

Cortico-entorhinal interactions remain poorly understood. Here, the authors demonstrate that a model of interacting networks predicts spontaneous persistent activity and inactivity in the medial, but not lateral, entorhinal cortex in vivo.

A major barrier to climate mitigation is the political polarization of climate change. Here, the authors examine which of several interventions increase people’s climate policy support and climate action across ideological boundaries.

The gut microbiota and microglia play critical roles in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Here, the authors show that Bacteroides fragilis contributes to AD pathogenesis in mouse models by suppressing immune-mediated microglial clearance of amyloid beta.

The specific recognition of a proline-rich motif in the intrinsically disordered region of SF1 by the PRPF40A tandem WW domains is modulated by an intramolecular autoinhibition, suggesting a general mechanism to enhance WW binding selectivity.

Solving ill-posed inverse problems require regularisation based on prior knowledge, which is formulated mathematically or learned from data. Here, the authors demonstrated the concept of semantic regularisation based on large language model to circumvent the current limitation.

The micro-thermoelectric coolers face challenges in high-performance material preparation and high-density device integration. Here, the authors combine Bi₂Te₃-based film prepared by powder direct molding with micro-thermoelectric cooler integrated via phase-change batch transfer.

Low-dimensional ferroelectric systems are predicted to have topologically nontrivial polar structures, such as vortices or skyrmions. Here authors present atomic-scale 3D topological polar structures in BaTiO₃ nanoparticles using atomic electron tomography and revealed their size-dependent transitions.

Experimental characterization of the transition state in chemical reactions is challenging due to its transient nature. Here, Zhang et al. observe quantum states near the activated complex region of the F + NH₃ → HF + NH₂ reaction via a dipole-bound state of the FNH₃^- anion formed upon photodetachment, which allows probing regions of reactive potential energy surfaces out of the Franck-Condon-active areas.

Here, the authors report the observation of an interlayer plasmon polaron in heterostructures composed of graphene and monolayer WS₂. This is manifested in the ARPES spectra as a strong quasiparticle peak accompanied by several carrier density-dependent shake-off replicas around the WS₂ conduction band minimum.

For the carbonylation reactions to synthesize aldehyde, ester, amide, and other carbonyl derivatives, a transition metal-free and CO- free reaction was challenging but highly demanded. Here, the authors report a transition metal-free and CO- free method for deoxygenetive/denitrogenetive conversion of phenols and anilines to aldehydes and ketones.

Despite the established C − H deuteration of pyridine derivatives synthetic methods with good D-incorporation, under milder conditions with easy operation procedures is still on the way. Here, the authors develop a straightforward, metal-free, and acid-/base-free electrochemical C4-selective C − H deuteration of pyridine derivatives with high selectivity and excellent D-incorporation at room temperature, which use D2O as economic and convenient D-source.

A filtering reconfigurable intelligent surface is presented with sharp frequency-selecting and 2-bit phase-shifting properties, offering to advance the development of wireless communications with anti-interference and signal-manipulation abilities.

A mitochondrial actin wave fragments mitochondria. Here, the authors find that the wave produces force that is resisted by mitochondrial tethering, inducing fission, with subsequent fusion promoting mitochondrial content mixing and mitochondrial homeostasis.

The cluster miR-17~92 modulates the expression of genes networks and signalling pathways to ensure proper Sry expression timing and subsequent testis differentiation, an unexpected role for miRNAs in the early steps of mammalian sex determination.

FGFR inhibitors (FGFRi) benefit patients with FGFR2-fusion positive intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) but depth and duration of response is often limited. Here, the authors demonstrate that oncogenic FGFR2 signaling promotes a glycolytic phenotype, which is blocked by FGFRi, resulting in a targetable dependence on mitochondrial metabolism.

Ferritin, the cellular iron storage complex, binds NCOA4 and is trafficked to the lysosome for degradation and iron release. Here, authors present the cryo-EM structure of the NCOA4-Ferritin complex with biophysical and cellular characterization.

Aggregated forms of α-synuclein are characteristic of Parkinson’s disease. Here the authors show that the condensation-driven aggregation pathway of α-synuclein can be inhibited using small molecules: the aminosterol claramine stabilizes α-synuclein condensates and inhibits α-synuclein primary nucleation in the aggregation process.

The main protease, a key enzyme of SARS-CoV-2, can protect itself from oxidative damage. Here, Reinke, Schubert, and colleagues used XFEL radiation to image the enzyme, revealing the disulfide and NOS/SONOS bonds that form in response to oxygen.

The inclusion of base Z has the potential to heighten the binding affinity between complementary nucleic acids. Here, the authors integrated base Z into CRISRP-Cas12a crRNA to augment the interaction between the crRNA and the target DNA, resulting in a significant enhancement of editing efficiency.