Move over graphene! Scientists forge bismuthene and host of atoms-thick metals
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00763-3
Tiny anvil squeezes metal atoms into super-thin sheets with strange properties.Immune molecule links COVID‑19 with severe inflammatory disorder in children
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00735-7
The immune molecule TGFβ has been found to weaken immune defences against latent viruses, triggering reactivation of the Epstein–Barr virus. This mechanism links TGFβ release in SARS-CoV-2 infection to multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, and could inform the development of therapies for managing this serious condition.Elisabeth Vrba obituary: palaeontologist who solved a problem that vexed Darwin
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00778-w
The biologist’s theories about how environments prompt rapid species evolution and extinction propelled her onto the world stage.The brain’s building blocks for understanding social interactions
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00738-4
The human brain not only remembers who other people are, it also uses basic mathematical functions called basis functions to store information about how people interact — for example, how they work together or compete. Each basis function specifies part of an interaction pattern, and combinations of them specify complex interactions.An operating system for networked quantum computers is a huge practical step forward
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00547-9
Quantum computers have gained the powerful abstractions that allow programmers of classical computers to design and integrate new apps and hardware, and connect devices into networks with ease.Ancient DNA shows Stone Age Europeans voyaged by sea to Africa
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00764-2
Roughly 8,000-year-old remains unearthed from present-day Tunisia held a surprise: European hunter-gatherer ancestry.Biodiversity declines across fragmented forests
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00672-5
A global analysis of species in fragmented-forest landscapes reveals species losses in fragments, and that the changes in species composition across fragments is not enough to benefit biodiversity over entire landscapes.Metals squeezed to thickness of just two atoms
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00548-8
Ultrathin metals have been prepared using a benchtop hydraulic press — allowing the fascinating properties of the resulting 2D materials to be observed.Fresh ‘quantum advantage’ claim made by computing firm D-Wave
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00765-1
The company says it has solved the first problem of scientific relevance with a quantum processor faster than it would be done with classical computers.Author Correction: Observation of Nagaoka polarons in a Fermi–Hubbard quantum simulator
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08819-0
Author Correction: Observation of Nagaoka polarons in a Fermi–Hubbard quantum simulatorRobotic fingers can tell objects apart by touch
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00706-y
Prosthetic appendage uses three layers of touch sensors to accurately differentiate between textures.Medical records from the Center for the Study of Temporal Disorders, Pediatric Department
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00626-x
The doctor will see you now (and then).Four ways COVID changed virology: lessons from the most sequenced virus of all time
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00730-y
After 150,000 articles and 17 million genome sequences, what has science taught us about SARS-Cov-2?Why are proponents of ‘smart cities’ neglecting research?
Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00727-7
Despite the buzz surrounding smart cities in urban-policy circles, studies are lacking on the evidence for what works, what doesn’t — and who benefits.Daily briefing: NASA begins mass firings of scientists
Nature, Published online: 11 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00774-0
NASA has become the first US agency to pre-emptively fire career employees as part of a radical downsizing of the federal government. Plus, the activity of a certain gene variant is linked to obesity in Labrador retrievers.Bad romance: male octopuses inject deadly venom into their mates
Nature, Published online: 11 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00708-w
The paralysing toxin deployed by the male blue-lined octopus might help to protect him from being eaten.Author Correction: Transforming a head direction signal into a goal-oriented steering command
Nature, Published online: 11 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08245-8
Author Correction: Transforming a head direction signal into a goal-oriented steering commandComplex water networks visualized by cryogenic electron microscopy of RNA
Nature, Published online: 11 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08855-w
Complex water networks visualized by cryogenic electron microscopy of RNAAuthor Correction: Classification with a disordered dopant atom network in silicon
Nature, Published online: 11 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08803-8
Author Correction: Classification with a disordered dopant atom network in siliconAn organ that stores red blood cells for emergencies
Nature, Published online: 11 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00732-w
A new ‘storehouse’ function ascribed to the spleen, and reducing laboratory waste by reusing vials, in our weekly dip into Nature’s archive.