Volume 643 Issue 8074, 31 July 2025

Science detectives are helping the research community to hold itself to account. All involved must find better ways to work together.

Science journalism is almost non-existent in Africa, even in the countries that are becoming crucial hubs for research. This gap must be addressed to help protect Africans from misinformation.

Mice with a version of osteoarthritis experienced symptom relief after expression of a protein targeting a stem-cell receptor was blocked.

The Tintina fault has triggered many more earthquakes than was thought — and a build-up of strain poses a hazard.

Modelling suggests that annihilation of this strange, invisible matter helps stars to retain that youthful glow.

Toothmarks on a fossilized bone tell a story of two mega-predators.

The journal Science retracts a headline-grabbing study, but the authors vigorously defend their data and say the retraction is unwarranted.

Paper output varies between disciplines, as does the trend after tenure is achieved.

With US investment in polar science under threat, scientists hope that China’s interest in the region will benefit research.

Study of nearly 1,000 people showed that brain ageing was not linked to infection status, but cognitive decline was.

Current procedures for reviving a heart for transplant are ethically fraught or expensive.

The Trump administration plans the departure for the end of 2026 and criticizes the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Insights from brain imaging could have implications for mental-health research.

Insights from human brains could inform how scientists search for awareness in all its possible forms.

First major attempt to chart researchers’ views finds interpretations in conflict.

From laboratory quirks to Earth-shattering weapons, a chain of discoveries reached a devastating conclusion.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

To be successful, policymakers need to consider diverse perspectives. Here’s how we’re reimagining policy process.

Strengthening regulations and domestic supply chains could be key to making nuclear power more economically viable.

Space agencies looking to set up long-term bases on the Moon need sustainable ways to feed astronauts. The approaches they are testing could also help to tackle challenges on Earth.

Country-wide cuts are difficult to determine, but a survey by the National Postdoctoral Association reveals mounting pressures.

Some European governments are rethinking the use of English in universities, exposing tensions between internationalization and national priorities.

Geographer Bhogtoram Mawroh works with Indigenous People in Meghalaya, India, to adapt agriculture to climate change.

Neutrinos are particles that are notoriously hard to detect, but observations of a process called coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering could enable physicists to develop better ways of studying them.

Although large, elongated protrusions on a 247-million-year-old reptile fossil have some similarities to feathers, they are not feathers.

A computational workflow designs proteins with catalytic efficiencies comparable to those of some natural enzymes — a landmark result for the field.

In 1955, a reproducible method for synthesizing diamonds launched a global industry — and pointed the way to applications ranging from X-ray lenses to nuclear fusion.

In yeast, the CDK and cyclin proteins that drive cell division activate first in the nucleus — a different location in the cell from where was previously thought.

Actionable research recommendations are outlined to improve the monitoring and modelling of forest resources and their carbon sink, and to better inform forest management decisions and the European Green Deal.

A strategy to improve the implementation of nature-based climate solutions in global forests for climate mitigation is described, comprising four key components to highlight notable science and policy considerations and providing solutions to improve rigour.

The LHCb experiment at CERN has observed significant asymmetries between the decay rates of the beauty baryon and its CP-conjugated antibaryon, thus demonstrating CP violation in baryon decays.

Direct observation of coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering is reported using the data from the CONUS+ experiment in which the antineutrinos with energy less than 10 MeV are produced in a nuclear reactor.

Quantum correlations of spontaneous two-photon emission emitted from a bright quantum dot device are revealed, facilitating the creation of entangled photons with near-unity fidelity.

A metalaser is described, in which light can have an arbitrarily shaped wavefront, enabling the metalaser emission to have any desired profile, such as focal spots, focal lines, vector beams, vortex beams and even holograms.

A dual interfacial hydrogen-bond passivation strategy and a hybrid copper–iodide are used to fabricate deep-blue light-emitting diodes with excellent external quantum efficiency and lifetime.

Using an electrolyte micro-emulsion strategy, a lithium anode and high-voltage cathode can be simultaneously stabilized by liquid–liquid interfacial tension to achieve high-energy-density lithium-metal batteries.

Climate-intensified supply–demand imbalances may raise hourly costs of wind and solar power systems, but well-designed climate-resilient strategies can provide help.

A remora-inspired mechanical underwater adhesive device adheres securely to a range of soft substrates and maintains performance under extreme pH and moisture conditions, with potential applications in biosensing and drug delivery.

A liquid-crystal-in-oil emulsion system exhibits bistable opacity or transparency, with rapid switching between the two, faster than, for example, electrochromics that can be found in smart windows.

Using a dynamic-kinetic-resolution strategy and chiral phosphate salts as supporting electrolytes, racemic trivalent phosphines can be oxidized to afford enantioenriched phosphine oxides.

A Middle Triassic diapsid is presented that has a distinctive crest consisting of integumentary appendages that are structurally distinct from avemetatarsalian feathers.

Analysis of ancient DNA, stable isotope data and archaeological evidence from the Fujia archaeological site in eastern China suggests it was populated by a matrilineal Neolithic community between 2750 and 2500 bc.

A detailed whole-body model of the fruit fly, developed using a physics-based simulation and deep reinforcement learning, accurately replicates real fly behaviour.

HARE5, a human accelerated region enhancer, modulates cortical development by influencing neural progenitor cell behaviour, leading to an enlarged neocortex with increased functional independence between cortical regions through amplified WNT signalling.

Dopaminergic action prediction error signals are used by mice as a value-free teaching signal to reinforce stable sound–action associations in the tail of the striatum.

Monkeypox virus genomic data from Nigeria and Cameroon, sampled between 2018 and 2023, indicate that the virus spread through repeated zoonoses in Cameroon, whereas in Nigeria, it spread mainly through human–human transmission, predominantly originating in Rivers State.

A bacterial reverse transcriptase synthesizes polydeoxyadenylate to provide population-level immunity against viral infection.

Certain RIFINs from Plasmodium falciparum can bind to both inhibitory (KIR2DL1) and activating (KIR2DS1) immune receptors on natural killer cells, demonstrating the potential role of activating killer immunoglobulin-like receptors in targeting pathogens and controlling malaria infection.

The antiviral protein SP140 negatively regulates Ifnb1 mRNA stability by directly repressing the expression of the immune regulator RESIST.

PCSK9 regulates low density lipoprotein-cholesterol import and determines organ preference of metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, with PCSK9-low cells metastasizing to the liver and PCSK9-high cells preferring the lung.

Experiments in fission yeast show that cyclin-dependent kinase is first activated in the nucleus, from which the mitotic signal is propagated from CDK at the centrosome to the cytoplasm.

Certain antimetabolites used to treat cancer are more neurotoxic than others, and it is now shown that this is due to their greater tendency to generate DNA double-stranded breaks, whereas less neurotoxic agents induce single-stranded breaks.

An RNA codon-expansion strategy enables incorporation of non-canonical amino acids into proteins of interest orthogonally to existing methods by inserting pseudouridine codons into specific mRNA transcripts and using an engineered decoder tRNA.

We present a computational approach to the design of high-efficiency enzymes with catalytic parameters comparable to natural enzymes, enabling programming of stable, high-efficiency, new-to-nature Kemp elimination enzymes through minimal experimental effort.

Structural, pharmacological and computational studies reveal how different classes of positive allosteric modulators bind to distinct allosteric sites and use noncanonical mechanisms to activate the free-fatty acid receptor FFA2.