Volume 623 Issue 7985, 2 November 2023

Upholding human rights can ensure that environmental policy is driven by facts and evidence, not denialism, greed and profit.

Ongoing conflict has displaced students and destroyed institutions that were once among Africa’s best. Small projects show how a brighter future can be built

Natural compounds could help to protect maize and soya beans against pests that have evolved resistance to conventional insecticides.

Multitasking electrodes could enable 1,000 qubits to fit onto one device.

A material made from tiny algae and a natural polymer can be 3D printed into a variety of shapes.

Europe’s earliest Homo sapiens seemed to have vanished without a genetic legacy — but genomic studies now show otherwise.

Debate rages in scientific community over Michael Eisen’s removal from prominent open-access journal.

Despite a strong workforce, Japan’s research continues to slide down the indicators of quality.

A neural-network-based artificial intelligence outperforms ChatGPT at quickly folding new words into its lexicon, a key aspect of human intelligence.

IBM’s NorthPole processor sidesteps need to access external memory, boosting computing power and saving energy.

‘Human challenge’ results suggest that such trials could be used to test vaccines when Zika incidence is low.

Women feel driven out by problems with workplace culture more often than by lack of work–life balance.

Fresh investigations find that the red planet’s liquid-metal core is smaller than scientists thought.

Many questions remain about the formerly taboo chemicals that are being used to treat trauma and depression.

To understand where artificial intelligence might be heading, we must first understand what consciousness, the self and free will mean in ourselves.

Agricultural ecologist who promoted sustainable practices by engaging farmers worldwide.

Artificial-intelligence tools are transforming data-driven science — better ethical standards and more robust data curation are needed to fuel the boom and prevent a bust.

Four researchers offer tips for excelling in interdisciplinary training.

Richard Robertson monitors seismic activity across the Lesser Antilles islands in the Caribbean.

An analysis of convictions reveals that around one-fifth of China’s terrestrial vertebrate species were illegally hunted over a six-year period. Improved efforts to reduce such crimes are needed to control this threat to biodiversity.

In organisms with X and Y chromosomes, gene expression must be equalized between the sexes. A protein that causes upregulation of gene expression of the X chromosome in male mosquitoes has been discovered.

An unconventional route for modifying pharmaceutically relevant molecules swaps an atom of carbon for one of nitrogen. The resulting derivatives might open up avenues of research in medicinal-chemistry campaigns.

An electrically conductive hydrogel injected into an injured muscle can help the muscle to regenerate and reconnect with the nervous system. This effective soft prosthesis has enabled rats to walk soon after muscular injury.

A membrane-transport protein in sperm exchanges sodium and hydrogen ions. Its activations by voltage and by cyclic nucleotide molecules are usually only features of ion channels. Structural data shed light on this protein.

Orbital multiferroicity reported in pentalayer rhombohedral graphene features ferro-orbital-magnetism and ferro-valleytricity, both of which can be controlled by an electric field.

An all-analog chip combining electronic and light computing achieves systemic energy efficiency of more than three orders of magnitude and a computing speed of more than one order of magnitude compared with state-of-the-art computing processors.

An injectable hydrogel for use as a scaffold to aid tissue repair is described, the material of which is conductive so that it can be used both for electrophysiological measurement and electrostimulation in closed-loop robot-assisted rehabilitation.

The synthesis and isolation of a crystalline dication derived from a bis(imino)carbene through a two-electron oxidation/oxide-ion abstraction strategy is reported that bypasses the carbene radical cation, maintaining significant electrophilicity with two accessible vacant orbitals.

A quinone-mediated hydrogen anode design shows that hydrogen can be used as the electron source in non-aqueous reductive electrosynthesis, for a more sustainable way to make molecules at larger scale.

A new type of transformation converting a heteroaromatic carbon atom into a nitrogen atom, turning quinolines into quinazolines to enable manipulation of molecular properties, is reported.

We identify a seasonal advance of intense tropical cyclones that is closely related to the seasonal advance of rapid intensification events, favoured by the observed earlier onset of favourable oceanic conditions.

Olivines from Baffin Island lavas have the highest magmatic ³He/⁴He ratio measured so far in terrestrial igneous rocks, indicating that the helium in these lavas might derive from Earth’s core.

Computer simulations show that mantle material from Theia, a proto-planet theorized to have struck the proto-Earth in the Moon-forming giant impact, may be the source of Earth’s basal mantle anomalies.

Analysis of a database of convictions for illegal hunting in China reveals the scale of the threat to biodiversity posed by illegal hunting in China.

A normative digital atlas of fetal brain maturation produced using 1,059 optimal quality, three-dimensional ultrasound brain volumes from 899 fetuses presents a unique spatiotemporal benchmark from a large cohort with normative postnatal growth and neurodevelopment at 2 years of age.

The meta-learning for compositionality approach achieves the systematicity and flexibility needed for human-like generalization.

A subpopulation of cholinergic neurons triggers Ca²⁺ currents among enterocytes to promote return to homeostasis after injury, and disruption of this process leads to gut inflammation and hyperplasia in Drosophila.

Data from acute hospitals in England are used to quantify hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections, evaluate likely pathways of spread and factors associated with heightened transmission risk, and explore the impact on community transmission.

Individuals with long COVID show marked biological changes in cortisol and immune factors relative to convalescent populations.

Genetic exchange of Leishmania parasites in the sand fly host is mediated by natural IgM antibodies, providing insights that will help generate reproducible and increased recovery of backcrosses for research purposes.

Treatment with the oncolytic herpes virus CAN-3110 is associated with improved survival responses in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, particularly in individuals who are seropositive for HSV1.

A proteomics analysis demonstrates that, during nutrient stress, mammalian cells prioritize degradation by autophagy of membrane proteins and identifies receptors that mediate this process at the Golgi and also have a role in Golgi remodelling during neuronal differentiation.

A newly identified gene, sex chromosome activation (SOA), is a master regulator of dosage compensation in Anopheles gambiae.

After the production of double-stranded breaks in mammalian cells, ATM drives the formation of the D compartment, which regulates DNA damage-responsive genes, through the clustering of damaged topologically associating domains, with a mechanism that is consistent with polymer–polymer phase separation.

Upon hyperpolarization, the S4 voltage-sensing segment of sea urchin SLC9C1 moves down, removing inhibition caused by an intracellular helix and enabling Na⁺/H⁺ exchange, leading to pH-dependent activation of sAC and sperm chemotaxis.

This study proposes a molecular mechanism of voltage activation in SLC9C1, a transporter essential for male fertility.