Volume 588 Issue 7837, 10 December 2020

The European Commission is set to insist on steps that will make research design more inclusive.

Big moves to rebuild the scientific infrastructure are possible.

Mining ponds move the toxic element into the food web.

Water locked away in Martian sediments could be split into the gases needed by humans and their machines.

Self-assembling particles exhibit a mind-boggling array of structure and composition.

Sugars ‘write’ a signal that helps embryonic cells to transition to a vital new job.

The latest science news, in brief.

Google’s deep-learning program for determining the 3D shapes of proteins stands to transform biology, say scientists.

The Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine has passed safety and efficacy tests — but researchers still have many questions about how this and other vaccines will perform as they’re rolled out to millions of people.

Although he faces a split Congress, the US president-elect has levers he can pull in the government to advance clean energy and curb global warming.

Ten researchers with expertise in virology, public health and animals will seek to answer this key question.

‘Reprogramming’ approach seems to make old cells young again.

Londa Schiebinger explains why studies that ignore these factors are flawed.

Living things depend on water, but it breaks down DNA and other key molecules. So how did the earliest cells deal with the water paradox?

Andrew Robinson and Sara Abdulla review five of the week’s best science picks.

Annual footage offers tantalizing glimpses inside the European Commission’s troubled flagship neuroscience programme.

Climate extremes, poor management and lax laws are making this World Heritage Site prone to fierce fires. Researchers and governments must develop a plan to manage these risks together.

Early-career scientists who are members of minority ethnic groups or struggle financially explain how institutions and funders can provide support.

High-tech tools are increasingly being consolidated into specialized centres. Running these technological wonderlands takes a unique blend of skills.

Working on a research vessel means John Fulmer is one of the first to see intriguing discoveries.

The fossil record traces the origin of the modern bird skull as birds evolved from their dinosaurian ancestors. Now the discovery of a bizarre fossil reveals a surprising diversion during this process of facial transformation.

The nuclear forces that act on short-lived subatomic particles have been hard to study. This problem has now been solved by smashing high-energy protons together and measuring the momenta of the unstable particles produced.

The discovery that the receptor protein LDLRAD3 is essential for infection of human cells by Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus could inform strategies to combat this potentially lethal infection.

Computational models show that regionally varied prices for carbon emissions can greatly reduce the need for poor countries to receive financial assistance to tackle climate change, while still stabilizing global warming.

Observations from the eROSITA telescope reveal soft-X-ray-emitting bubbles extending above and below the Galactic plane, which arose from energy injected into the Galactic halo from past activity in the Galactic centre.

Correlations in momentum space between hadrons created by ultrarelativistic proton–proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider provide insights into the strong interaction, particularly the short-range dynamics of hyperons—baryons that contain strange quarks.

A strongly interacting gas of polar molecules is created by combining an electric field with two-dimensional optical confinement, enabling evaporative cooling and opening up the exploration of low-entropy many-body phases.

By using a stimulated Brillouin scattering laser in a strontium-ion optical clock instead of the usual bulk-cavity-stabilized laser, the need for vacuum is removed and resonator volume is substantially reduced.

In the tiniest of capillaries, barely larger than a water molecule, condensation is surprisingly predictable from the macroscopic Kelvin condensation equation, a coincidence partially owing to elastic deformation of the capillary walls.

Hydroamination with high enantio- and regioselectivity is achieved across a wide range of internal alkenes by using a cationic iridium complex that adds an ammonia surrogate containing a pyridine group.

An integrated assessment model analysis shows that a moderately differentiated carbon price could achieve as much climate mitigation as a uniform carbon tax, avoiding concerns regarding equity between participating countries or sovereignty.

In the geographically and taxonomically divided systems of vertebrates in the Living Planet Index, a small percentage of clusters showed extreme declines or increases, whereas most vertebrate populations across all systems showed no mean global trend.

A crow-sized stem bird, Falcatakely forsterae, possesses a long and deep rostrum—a beak morphology that was previously unknown among Mesozoic birds and is similar to that of some crown-group birds, such as toucans.

Comparison of multiple genome assemblies from wheat reveals extensive diversity that results from the complex breeding history of wheat and provides a basis for further potential improvements to this important food crop.

Chromosome-scale sequence assemblies of 20 diverse varieties of barley are used to construct a first-generation pan-genome, revealing previously hidden genetic variation that can be used by studies aimed at crop improvement

PIEZO2 is expressed in the bladder urothelium and sensory neurons innervating the lower urinary tract and is a key mechanosensor for the control of urination.

A cell-surface fragment complementation strategy is used to identify the proteome at the junction of astrocytes and synapses in vivo, and shows that NRCAM expressed in astrocytes has a key role in regulating inhibitory synapse function.

Influence of the gut microbiome on the human immune system is revealed by systems analysis of vast clinical data from decades of electronic health records paired with massive longitudinal microbiome sequencing.

LDLRAD3 is a receptor for infection with Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, and in mouse models deletion of Ldlrad3 or treatment with a soluble LDLRAD3 decoy molecule abrogates infection and disease caused by this virus.

Male patients with COVID-19 have higher plasma levels of innate immune cytokines and chemokines such as IL-8, IL-18 and CCL5 and more non-classical monocytes than female patients, whereas female patients mount robust T cell activation maintained even in older age.

Antibody selection and maturation within B cells found in gut-associated germinal centres is stimulated by the gut microbiota, to a degree that depends on the presence and composition of the microbes.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of consecutive binding events of ACE2 in complex with the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 reveal the mechanisms of receptor binding by the spike protein and activation for membrane fusion by the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2.

A method in which pooled barcoded human cancer cell lines are injected into a mouse xenograft model enables simultaneous mapping of the metastatic potential of multiple cell lines, and shows that breast cancer cells that metastasize to the brain have altered lipid metabolism.

A comprehensive map of transcriptomes, cis-regulatory elements, heterochromatin structure, the methylome and 3D genome organization in the zebrafish (Danio rerio) enables identification of species-specific and evolutionarily conserved regulatory features, and provides a foundation for modelling studies on human disease and development.

The structure of the catalytic half of LRRK2 and an atomic model of microtubule-associated LRRK2 suggest that the conformation of the kinase controls the association of LRRK2 with microtubules.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of the human proton-activated chloride channel (PAC) shed light on its pH-dependent gating mechanism and anion selectivity.