1. Brain’s protective barrier stays leaky for years after playing contact sports

2. Botanical mystery solved: how plants make a crucial malaria drug

3. Daily briefing: China approves world-first brain–computer interface device

4. Thymus health is a predictor of lifelong well-being and immunotherapy effectiveness

5. An enzyme inside the bacterial-cell membrane chops up viral DNA on entry

6. CRISPR makes enhanced cancer-fighting immune cells inside mice

7. Our microbial ancestors were probably oxygen-tolerant

8. Mystery of how plants make a family of medicinal molecules has been solved

9. Quirky base pairing attracts rule-breaking enzymes to destroy microRNAs

10. Static electricity is a big mystery — a jolt of fresh research could help to solve it

11. A gene-editing method generates immunotherapeutic CAR T cells in the body

12. Leading the charge to explain static electricity

13. Hair-raising: how carbon contamination can drive static charging

14. Genome editing that avoids immune detection to integrate large DNA sequences

15. Climate snapshots trapped in ancient ice tell a surprising story

16. Catabolism of extracellular glutathione supplies cysteine to support tumours

17. A strong constraint on radiative forcing of well-mixed greenhouse gases

18. Climbing fibres recruit disinhibition to enhance Purkinje cell calcium signals

19. Adventitious carbon breaks symmetry in oxide contact electrification

20. The E3 ubiquitin ligase mechanism specifying targeted microRNA degradation

21. Integrated photonic neural network with on-chip backpropagation training

22. Biosynthesis of cinchona alkaloids

23. Proteasome-guided haem signalling axis contributes to T cell exhaustion

24. Contrasting thermophilization among forests, grasslands and alpine summits

25. Thymic health and immunotherapy outcomes in patients with cancer

26. Global ocean heat content over the past 3 million years

27. Observation of self-bound droplets of ultracold dipolar molecules

28. Bistable superlattice switching in a quantum spin Hall insulator

29. Local agricultural transition, crisis and migration in the Southern Andes

30. Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past 3 million years

31. Adaptive evolution of gene regulatory networks in mammalian neocortex

32. Thymic health consequences in adults

33. Observing the tidal pulse of rivers from wide-swath satellite altimetry

34. Synthetic circuits for cell ratio control

35. In vivo site-specific engineering to reprogram T cells

36. Magnetic resonance control of spin-correlated radical pair dynamics in vivo

37. Integrated memristor for mitigating reverse-bias in perovskite solar cells

38. Evolution

39. Publisher Correction: Atlas-guided discovery of transcription factors for T cell programming

40. AI set to map risks of future climate disasters

41. Affordable mobility for all: why we need smaller, cheaper electric vehicles

42. Author Correction: Autoimmune response to C9orf72 protein in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

43. Founders of quantum information win top prize in computer science

44. Knock knock, no one’s there. Study finds scientists’ jokes mostly fall flat

45. Can weight-loss pills replace injectables? What the science says

46. Triple-junction solar cells with improved carrier and photon management

47. Molecular basis of oocyte cytoplasmic lattice assembly

48. Planar Li deposition and dissolution enable practical anode-free pouch cells

49. Daily briefing: How labs are coping with ‘RAMmageddon’

50. Why the crisis in official statistics matters — and how it can be fixed

51. NIH pivots away from agency-directed science

52. When artificial lightning strikes

53. How I turned online misogyny about my PhD into momentum for my career

54. AI is programmed to hijack human empathy — we must resist that

55. Dopamine takes a hit: how neuroscience is rethinking the ‘feel-good’ chemical

56. AlphaFold hits ‘next level’: the AI tool now includes protein pairing

57. How wealthy tech entrepreneurs seek to shape politics, culture and the future — and why we must resist

58. Marine conservation cities: a model for ocean governance

59. How the Pokémon franchise has helped to shape neuroscience

60. Autism in older adults: the health system must recognize its effects

61. Rethinking AI’s role in survey research: from threat to collaboration

62. A single course of antibiotics can cause lingering changes in gut microbes

63. Data from smart watches reveal early signs of insulin resistance

64. PhDs are turning to side hustles to make ends meet, finds Nature poll

65. Insulin resistance prediction from wearables and routine blood biomarkers

66. Direct conversion from alkenes to alkynes

67. China approves brain chip to treat paralysis — a world first

68. AI and the PhD student: friend or foe?

69. Can AI models reliably forecast extreme weather events?

70. Daily briefing: Genomes shake up the shark family tree

71. The real story behind China’s technology triumph

72. Top brass in China reaffirm goal to be world leaders in tech, AI

73. ‘RAMmageddon’ hits labs: AI-driven memory shortage is impacting science

74. Daily briefing: Vaccine-carrying mosquitoes could inoculate bats against rabies

75. The problem with Canada’s plan to buy scientific prestige

76. Author Correction: SLAMF6 as a drug-targetable suppressor of T cell immunity against cancer

77. ‘Can it run Doom?’ — why scientists got brain cells and a satellite to play the classic game

78. Polymers with purpose: molecules can squirm free of the pack

79. How the classic computer game Doom became a tool for science

80. ‘Baked, not fried’: five highlights from nutrition research

81. Youthful antics predict lifespan — at least for these fish

82. Nervous networker or conference presenter? Just care less, says voice coach Susie Ashfield

83. ‘Einstein‘ bot sharpens debate over AI in the classroom

84. No such thing as a shark? Genomes shake up ocean predator’s family tree

85. Daily briefing: ‘Virtual cell’ simulates nearly every chemical reaction in the real thing

86. How bioRxiv changed the way biologists share ideas – in numbers

87. Reckoning with my ‘ghost years’: why a high publication rate doesn’t always reflect success

88. AI can ''same-ify'' human expression — can some brains resist its pull?

89. Using mosquitoes to vaccinate bats could curb the spread of deadly diseases

90. Child marriages plunged when girls stayed in school in Nigeria

91. Marriage of adolescent girls in Nigeria reduced by 80% by ‘big push’ intervention

92. Gut microbes affect cognition during ageing

93. A fellowship of the rings in plant defence

94. Universities have become property businesses. What does that mean for research?

95. Dynamics of circulating tumour DNA can guide treatment decisions for improved outcomes

96. A silicon chip that enables the creation of 4D cameras

97. Photonic ‘ski jump’ steers light beam from silicon chip

98. Quantum entanglement as a tool to image distant astronomical objects

99. How an all-female fish species defies evolutionary expectations

100. Ultra-bright supernova wobbles like a spinning top

101. Memory loss is fuelled by gut microbes in ageing mice

102. A mechanism to initiate emergency type 2 myelopoiesis

103. Gene conversion empowers natural selection in a clonal fish species

104. Risk-adaptive therapy guided by dynamic ctDNA in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

105. Ageing promotes metastasis via activation of the integrated stress response

106. Natural maternal immunity protects neonates from Escherichia coli sepsis

107. Immune evasive DNA donors and recombinases license kilobase-scale writing

108. A big-push community intervention reduced rates of child marriage by 80%

109. Nanophotonic waveguide chip-to-world beam scanning

110. B cell imprinting in children impairs antibodies to the haemagglutinin stalk

111. A sorghum pangenome reference improves global crop trait discovery

112. Assembly of helper NLR resistosome clusters upon activation of a coiled-coil NLR

113. Intestinal interoceptive dysfunction drives age-associated cognitive decline

114. Snapshots of the dynamic basis of NTSR1 G protein subtype promiscuity

115. Facile induction of immune tolerance by an interleukin-2–TGFβ surrogate agonist

116. Lense–Thirring precessing magnetar engine drives a superluminous supernova

117. Multimodal electron microscopy of halide perovskite interfacial dynamics

118. Structures of Marburgvirus glycoprotein and its complex with NPC1 receptor

119. Multidimensional profiling of heterogeneity in supratentorial ependymomas

120. Capturing dynamic phage–pathogen coevolution by clinical surveillance

121. A large-scale coherent 4D imaging sensor

122. The dynamic basis of G-protein recognition and activation by a GPCR

123. This fish shouldn’t exist — the weird genetics of clonal vertebrates

124. This supernova is too bright – now astronomers might know why

125. ‘Black rain’ in Tehran — what are the health effects?

126. What is the science behind ‘science-backed’ supplements?

127. First bot, singular

128. Scientists revive activity in frozen mouse brains for the first time

129. Author Correction: Gut stem cell necroptosis by genome instability triggers bowel inflammation

130. Daily briefing: A daily multivitamin slows the signs of biological ageing

131. National statistics are in crisis around the world — and the impacts will be severe

132. Daily briefing: Protein folding caught in real time

133. China pledges billion-dollar spending boost for science

134. Physics at risk: UK science leader on what''s wrong with the latest funding cuts

135. How ‘Pele’s hair’ sprouts from erupting lava

136. ‘Virtual cell’ captures most-basic process of life: bacterial division

137. Stop the use of AI in war until laws can be agreed

138. Live parrots were carried across the Andes before the Incas’ rise

139. Alcohol group migration by proximity-enhanced H atom abstraction

140. Maximizing carrier extraction in hybrid back-contact silicon solar cells

141. How data can help to guide NIH funding policy

142. Keep calm and be transparent: advice from scientists who retracted their papers

143. Could flies sniff out contraband chemicals?

144. From cancer to Alzheimer’s: could a renewed focus on energy transform biomedicine?

145. Privilege, power and vulnerability in science: precarious funding can prompt unethical ties

146. The ethical risks of open-access agreements being used for authorship leverage

147. Prevent pandemics through One Health commitments

148. Artificial general intelligence must be assessed in its scientific and societal context

149. Forget SkinTok: the real science of skincare and why it matters for your health

150. Daily multivitamin slows signs of biological ageing

151. How pollutants and poo paint a picture of past civilizations

152. My PhD student is stuck. How do I teach them perseverance and problem solving?

153. How fast does a protein fold? Real-time technique captures the moment

154. How Congress can restore the independence of US science

155. Eight common errors I see in PhD applications and interviews, and how to avoid them

156. Daily briefing: How koalas escaped a genetic bottleneck

157. The world’s salt lakes are drying up, but solutions are hard to come by

158. Monthly HIV-drug injections offer potent alternative to daily tablets

159. Celebrate women in research and the networks that sustain them

160. Peanut-processing microbes ward off dangerous allergic shock

161. Briefing chat: What Galileo’s scribbled margin notes reveal about his scientific journey

162. Daily briefing: How DNA testing can tell identical twins apart

163. Uncharted: Understanding women’s health across the body

164. The world is getting hotter faster — its pace nearly doubled in the past decade

165. The missing pieces of menopause science

166. Cracked, but still there: the glass ceiling persists for senior women in science

167. What a viral TikTok taught me about personal storytelling in science

168. Modelling the cosmos and imagining a future without meat: Books in brief

169. Electric-vehicle batteries toughen up to beat the heat

170. Genetically modified pig liver keeps man alive until human organ transplant

171. How these koalas bounced back from the brink of extinction

172. First ‘half Möbius’ carbon chain wows chemists

173. Author Correction: Programmable 200 GOPS Hopfield-inspired photonic Ising machine

174. How AI is being used in war — and what’s next

175. Mysterious brain cells clear proteins that contribute to Alzheimer’s disease

176. The first ‘AI societies’ are taking shape: how human-like are they?

177. Inside Mexico’s stem-cell industry

178. High-rise transistors can be used to build space-saving circuits

179. The Epstein scandal is a wake-up call — new rules are needed on links with rich donors

180. Daily briefing: The return of the snail — the month''s best science images

181. Women in science are not a ‘problem to be fixed’

182. Daily briefing: Galileo’s notes discovered in the margins of an ancient book

183. Identical twins on trial: can DNA testing tell them apart?

184. Do obesity drugs treat addiction? Huge study hints at their promise

185. Fresh claim of making elusive ‘hexagonal’ diamond is the strongest yet

186. Hunt for reactive metabolites uncovers unusual chemistry in a human pathogen

187. Radiology AI makes consistent diagnoses using 3D images from different health centres

188. Skin cells boost distant antibody responses

189. Do wet or dry soils trigger thunderstorms? It depends on how the wind blows

190. A genetic switch turns off parental behaviour and drives infanticide in male striped mice

191. Magnetic fluid offers better seal in heart-plugging medical procedure

192. AI can write genomes — how long until it creates synthetic life?

193. Stress-hormone signalling protects spreading cancer cells from immune system

194. Rising temperatures pose a threat to tropical insects

195. Precancerous niche remodelling dictates nascent tumour persistence

196. Largest Silurian fish illuminates the origin of osteichthyan characters

197. Wide-swath altimetry maps bank shapes and storage changes in global rivers

198. Exapted CRISPR–Cas12f homologues drive RNA-guided transcription

199. Homologous recombination deficiency and hemizygosity drive resistance in breast cancer

200. Structural basis of RNA-guided transcription by a dCas12f–σE–RNAP complex

201. Wind shear enhances soil moisture influence on rapid thunderstorm growth

202. Advancing operational global aerosol forecasting with machine learning

203. The molecular basis of force selectivity by PIEZO2

204. A glucocorticoid–FAS axis controls immune evasion during metastatic seeding

205. Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments

206. Bulk hexagonal diamond

207. The oldest articulated bony fish from the early Silurian period

208. Cell-free chromatin state tracing reveals disease origin and therapy responses

209. Mechanism of co-transcriptional cap snatching by influenza polymerase

210. Microbiota-mediated induction of beige adipocytes in response to dietary cues

211. Merlin: a computed tomography vision–language foundation model and dataset

212. Lipid metabolism drives dietary effects on T cell ferroptosis and immunity

213. Long-term thrombus-free left atrial appendage occlusion via magnetofluids

214. A metabolic alarmin from keratinocytes potentiates systemic humoral immunity

215. Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature

216. DICER cleavage fidelity is governed by 5′-end binding pockets

217. Genome modelling and design across all domains of life with Evo 2

218. Magnetic gel injected into the heart could stop strokes

219. Heart surgery with quick-setting magnetic fluid could prevent strokes

220. Shared neural substrates of prosocial and parenting behaviours

221. Under pressure: the reality of Mexico’s research system

222. How a mathematician is cracking open Mexico’s powerful drug cartels

223. All the world is staged

224. Funding from individual donors: lessons from the Epstein case

225. Climate change and geopolitics threaten water supplies — but disaster is not inevitable

226. Cancer blood tests are everywhere. Do they really work?

227. Jam-packed star system is most compact of its kind ever found

228. My relationship with my PhD supervisor has become toxic — what do I do?

229. Climate shocks, not just warming, threaten malaria control efforts in Africa

230. How can fast-evolving DNA retain a fundamental function in cell division?

231. Genetically encoded assembly recorder temporally resolves cellular history

232. Hey ChatGPT, write me a fictional paper: these LLMs are willing to commit academic fraud

233. See raining iguanas and coral from the inside out — February’s best science images

234. Going ‘beyond GDP’ should not mean sidelining the SDGs

235. From the first telephone to videoconferencing in 100 years

236. Author Correction: Healthy forests safeguard traditional wild meat food systems in Amazonia

237. US climate actions must continue, despite setbacks

238. Why ‘quantum proteins’ could be the next big thing in biology

239. How infighting led the Maya civilization to catastrophic collapse

240. Climate research is global — risks and responsibilities should also be distributed

241. South Korea’s AI framework act focuses on rights and safety

242. Releasing open-weight AI in steps would alleviate risks

243. Earth''s oldest crystals suggest an early start for plate tectonics

244. BCDX2–CX3 and DX2–CX3 complexes assemble and stabilize RAD51 filaments

245. Author Correction: Root microbiota drive direct integration of phosphate stress and immunity

246. Audio long read: Many people have no mental imagery. What’s going on in their brains?

247. ‘No one quite like her’: meet the female colleagues who inspire these award-winning women in science

248. AI agents are ‘aeroplanes for the mind’: five ways to ensure that scientists are responsible pilots

249. Daily briefing: This Utah family line might be evidence of ‘selfish genes’ in humans

250. The hidden lives behind China’s great Internet firewall

251. The squeal of peeling tape, explained

252. I will continue the fight for environmental justice in Black communities

253. Briefing chat: Pokémon turns 30 — how Pikachu and pals inspired generations of researchers

254. Editorial Expression of Concern: The gene product Murr1 restricts HIV-1 replication in resting CD4 lymphocytes

255. White House stalls release of approved US science budgets

256. Pokémon turns 30 — how the fictional pocket monsters shaped science

257. Daily briefing: Stem-cell treatment strengthens people with age-related frailty

258. Brain mysteries and Bronze Age diplomacy: Books in brief

259. Is a ‘selfish gene’ making a Utah family have twice as many boys as girls?

260. World-first stem-cell therapy shows promise for treating spina bifida in the womb

261. Neanderthal dad, human mum: study reveals ancient procreation pattern

262. Ultra-sensitive CAR T cells eliminate hard-to-treat tumours in mice

263. Author Correction: Myocardial reprogramming by HMGN1 underlies heart defects in trisomy 21

264. Why an industry career move is a taboo topic in academia

265. Daily briefing: The new alternatives to animal testing

266. AI impacts to be scrutinized by UN''s new scientific advisory panel

267. Health effects linger 20 generations after rats are exposed to fungicide

268. This compound enhances long-term memory of mice — but only in females

269. Scientists face fallout for past associations with Epstein

270. How an exercise-activated enzyme helps to keep the brain young

271. CLCC1 promotes hepatic neutral lipid flux and nuclear pore complex assembly

272. Brains of ‘super agers’ are still strong producers of new neurons

273. Lipid nanoparticles engineered to target therapeutic RNA to the pancreas

274. Sea-urchin spines generate electrical signals in flowing water

275. Light-confining device can control superconductivity — even in the dark

276. Protein engineering fixes a major crop trade-off

277. Amplified X-ray laser pulses achieved using mirror set-up

278. The secret of squeaky basketball shoes

279. Parkinson’s disease affects network of brain regions that controls whole-body action

280. Environmental exposure trains the immune system to dampen allergic responses

281. Flexible paths to multicellularity

282. The protein carriers of hundreds of lipids have been identified

283. We need a global assessment of avoidable climate-change risks

284. Stem cells provide a potent treatment for frailty

285. Entanglement-assisted non-local optical interferometry in a quantum network

286. Human hippocampal neurogenesis in adulthood, ageing and Alzheimer’s disease

287. Uncovering origins of heterogeneous superconductivity in La3Ni2O7

288. Functional dissection of complex trait variants at single-nucleotide resolution

289. CLCC1 governs ER bilayer equilibration to maintain lipid homeostasis

290. Coral microbiomes as reservoirs of unknown genomic and biosynthetic diversity

291. Argentine fossil rewrites evolutionary history of a baffling dinosaur clade

292. Hydrofluorocarbon electrolytes for energy-dense and low-temperature batteries

293. Field-free full switching of chiral antiferromagnetic order

294. Rewiring an E3 ligase enhances cold resilience and phosphate use in maize

295. A disease model resource reveals core principles of tissue-specific cancer evolution

296. OR7A10 GPCR engineering boosts CAR-NK therapy against solid tumours

297. Convergent MurJ flippase inhibition by phage lysis proteins

298. Clonal-aggregative multicellularity tuned by salinity in a choanoflagellate

299. Pivoting colloidal assemblies exhibit mechanical metamaterial behaviour

300. Squeaking at soft–rigid frictional interfaces