RNA molecules fold into complex three-dimensional shapes that are difficult to determine experimentally or predict computationally. Understanding these structures may aid in the discovery of drugs for currently untreatable diseases. Townshend et al. introduced a machine-learning … | Continue reading
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted controversies and unknowns about how respiratory pathogens spread between hosts. Traditionally, it was thought that respiratory pathogens spread between people through large droplets produced in coughs and through contact with contaminated su … | Continue reading
Although first detected in December 2019, COVID-19 was inferred to be present in Hubei province, China, for about a month before ([ 1 ][1]). Where did this new human disease come from? To understand the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to go back to 2002. At that … | Continue reading
The serendipitous detection of the cosmic microwave background radiation in 1964 changed cosmology forever, settling a long-running debate about the origin of the Universe. The radio hiss hinted that the Universe had arisen from an instantaneous fiery beginning, a theory champion … | Continue reading
The accelerating pace of global change is driving a biodiversity extinction crisis ([ 1 ][1]) and is outstripping our ability to track, monitor, and understand ecosystems, which is traditionally the job of ecologists. Ecological research is an intensive, field-based enterprise th … | Continue reading
Inside host cells, the RNA genome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is translated into two polyproteins that are cleaved to yield the individual viral proteins. The main viral protease, known as Mpro or 3CLpro, plays a key role in these cleavages, ma … | Continue reading
Measurements of total and basal energy in a large cohort of subjects at ages spanning from before birth to old age document distinct changes that occur during a human lifetime. Pontzer et al. report that energy expenditure (adjusted for weight) in neonates was like that of adults … | Continue reading
Measurements of total and basal energy in a large cohort of subjects at ages spanning from before birth to old age document distinct changes that occur during a human lifetime. Pontzer et al. report that energy expenditure (adjusted for weight) in neonates was like that of adults … | Continue reading
Biological systems read all 64 triplet codons in DNA to encode the synthesis of proteins composed of 20 canonical amino acids. Robertson et al. created cells that do not read several codons and showed that this confers complete resistance to viruses, which normally rely on the ho … | Continue reading
One hallmark of cognitive complexity is the ability to manipulate objects with a specific goal in mind. Such “tool use” at one time was ascribed to humans alone, but then to primates, next to marine mammals, and later to birds. Now we recognize that many species have the capacity … | Continue reading
A novel variant of concern (VOC) named CAL.20C (B.1.427/B.1.429), originally detected in California, carries spike glycoprotein mutations S13I in the signal peptide, W152C in the N-terminal domain (NTD), and L452R in the receptor-binding domain (RBD). Plasma from individuals vacc … | Continue reading
Recent advances have enabled the generation of oocytes from pluripotent stem cells in vitro. However, these cells require a somatic environment to develop fully as reproductive cells. Yoshino et al. applied what is known about differentiation processes in vivo to determine a cult … | Continue reading
Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) algorithms are increasingly developed in health care for diagnosis and treatment of a variety of medical conditions ([ 1 ][1]). However, despite the technical prowess of such systems, their adoption has been challenging, and wh … | Continue reading
There is an urgent need for antiviral agents that treat SARS-CoV-2 infection. We screened a library of 1,900 clinically safe drugs against OC43, a human beta-coronavirus that causes the common cold and evaluated the top hits against SARS-CoV-2. Twenty drugs significantly inhibite … | Continue reading
DeepMind presented remarkably accurate predictions at the recent CASP14 protein structure prediction assessment conference. We explored network architectures incorporating related ideas and obtained the best performance with a three-track network in which information at the 1D se … | Continue reading
One well known characteristic of ice is that it fractures instead of bending when strained. This characteristic is caused by the inevitable defects introduced into the ice structure during solidification. Xu et al. show that very thin, carefully grown ice microfibers can bend a l … | Continue reading
Millions of people worldwide suffer from neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). By gradually destroying motor abilities, communication skills, memory, and clear thinking, these devastating diseases ro … | Continue reading
Plastic pollution accumulating in an area of the environment is considered “poorly reversible” if natural mineralization processes occurring there are slow and engineered remediation solutions are improbable. Should negative outcomes in these areas arise as a consequence of plast … | Continue reading
Science's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation The journal Vaccines on 2 July retracted a peer-reviewed article after the angry resignations of at least six editors. They were protesting the publication of a study 1 week earlier that had misused data i … | Continue reading
Almost 90 years ago, Japanese soldiers occupying northern China forced a Chinese man to help build a bridge across the Songhua River in Harbin. While his supervisors weren't looking, he found a treasure buried in the riverbank: a remarkably complete human skull. He wrapped up the … | Continue reading
The explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine 35 years ago forged a strong safety culture that underpins nuclear energy today. At a time when the world was divided profoundly by distrust, the accident prompted nations to collaborate and communicate as they became … | Continue reading
Even highly effective vaccines will not save us from the need to monitor severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) activity, perhaps for years to come. Public health institutions will need early warning of any uptick in cases to prepare and deploy interventions … | Continue reading
![Figure][1]ILLUSTRATION: SÉBASTIEN THIBAULTThe rise of fake news highlights the erosion of long-standing institutional bulwarks against misinformation in the internet age. Concern over the problem is global. However, much remains unknown regarding the vulnerabilities of individu … | Continue reading
Exoskeletons and exosuits are wearable devices designed to work alongside the musculoskeletal system and reduce the effort needed to walk or run. Exoskeletons can benefit users by reducing the mechanical power and metabolic energy that they need to move about on the factory floor … | Continue reading
The history of science includes numerous challenging problems, including the “hard problem” ([ 1 ][1]) of consciousness: Why does an assembly of neurons—no matter how complex, such as the human brain—give rise to perceptions and feelings that are consciously experienced, such as … | Continue reading
The first confirmed outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) in birds was documented in Scotland in 1959 with the influenza A H5N1 subtype, although there have been numerous suspected HPAIV outbreaks documented globally since 1878. H5N1 and its genetic reassort … | Continue reading
I walked into my adviser's office, overflowing with frustration and confusion about the advice I had received at a recent career development workshop. It reiterated what I had heard so many times before: I should follow my dream, and if I didn't yet know what that was, I should l … | Continue reading
In 1871, Charles Darwin tackled “the highest and most interesting problem for the naturalist…the descent of man.” Challenging the status quo, Darwin deployed natural and sexual selection, and his recently adopted “survival of the fittest,” producing scenarios for the emergence of … | Continue reading
Airborne transmission by droplets and aerosols is important for the spread of viruses. Face masks are a well-established preventive measure, but their effectiveness for mitigating SARS-CoV-2 transmission is still under debate. We show that variations in mask efficacy can be expla … | Continue reading
It remains unclear whether B cell repertoires against coronaviruses and other pathogens differ between adults and children and how important these distinctions are. Yang et al. analyzed blood samples from young children and adults, as well as tissues from deceased organ donors, c … | Continue reading
There is great disparity in the way we think about and address different sources of environmental infection. Governments have for decades promulgated a large amount of legislation and invested heavily in food safety, sanitation, and drinking water for public health purposes. By c … | Continue reading
As several countries now confront COVID-19 surges, Israel may be crossing over to other side of the pandemic. Whereas 5.5 million new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections were reported globally last week, Israel reported only 398 (compared with … | Continue reading
On 30 December 2019, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases notified the world about a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China ([ 1 ][1]). Since then, scientists have made remarkable progress in understanding the causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronav … | Continue reading
On 30 December 2019, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases notified the world about a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China ([ 1 ][1]). Since then, scientists have made remarkable progress in understanding the causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronav … | Continue reading
Quantum walks are the quantum mechanical analog of classical random walks and an extremely powerful tool in quantum simulations, quantum search algorithms, and even for universal quantum computing. In our work, we have designed and fabricated an 8x8 two-dimensional square superco … | Continue reading
Quantum entanglement occurs when two separate entities become strongly linked in a way that cannot be explained by classical physics; it is a powerful resource in quantum communication protocols and advanced technologies that aim to exploit the enhanced capabilities of quantum sy … | Continue reading
Water is scarce in dryland ecosystems. Some larger animals in these regions dig wells that may provide water to other species. This behavior may have been common among megafauna that are now extinct, especially in North and South America, where megafaunal extinctions were the mos … | Continue reading
Science 's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.For Eva Schrezenmeier, a nephrologist at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, the news was sobering: Among 40 patients with transplanted kidneys at her hospital who'd been vaccinated against COVID-19, o … | Continue reading
Cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Manaus, Brazil, resurged in late 2020, despite previously high levels of infection. Genome sequencing of viruses sampled in Manaus between November 2020 and January 2021 revealed the emergence and circulation of a novel SARS-CoV-2 variant of conce … | Continue reading
Talk about raining on your colleagues' parade. On 7 April, a collaboration of more than 200 experimenters announced to great fanfare that a particle called the muon is slightly more magnetic than predicted by physicists' standard model, a discrepancy that could signal new particl … | Continue reading
The origin of modern rainforests can be traced to the aftermath of the bolide impact at the end of the Cretaceous. Carvalho et al. used fossilized pollen and leaves to characterize the changes that took place in northern South American forests at this time (see the Perspective by … | Continue reading
Five years ago, researchers announced to great fanfare that they had engineered a stripped-down microbial cell able to survive with fewer genes than any known organism. But that “minimal cell” often divides abnormally. Now, by putting back only seven genes, a team has corrected t … | Continue reading
Since 2010, IceCube, a detector frozen in the ice beneath the South Pole, has snared neutrinos from deep space. The universe is awash with these fleeting, almost massless particles, but IceCube is after a rare subset. They are messengers from distant cosmic accelerators such as s … | Continue reading
Science 's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.In the global battle against COVID-19, the vaccine made by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca has been a source of great hope. It's easy to store—requiring only refrigeration, not a deep freeze—and the firm … | Continue reading
Viruses evolve as a result of mutation (misincorporations, insertions or deletions, and recombination) and natural selection for favorable traits such as more efficient viral replication, transmission, and evasion of host defenses. Newly selected traits may be linked in unpredict … | Continue reading
Understanding when SARS-CoV-2 emerged is critical to evaluating our current approach to monitoring novel zoonotic pathogens and understanding the failure of early containment and mitigation efforts for COVID-19. We employed a coalescent framework to combine retrospective molecula … | Continue reading