2026年10月9日

Demographic “doomsday” misses the mark

Javier A. Birchenall

A dire prediction published in Science in 1960 anticipated a population singularity in 2026—we are not even close

Golgi-derived vesicles containing PI(3,4)P 2 drive mitochondrial fusion

Sho Aki, Mayuko Segawa, Vincent Anton, Suvagata R. Chowdhury, Shun Nagashima, Isshin Shiiba, Dane M. Wolf, Ikuko Koyama-Honda, Ayumu Sugiura, Joe Ganellin, Mark Johnson, Sakie Katsumura, Maki Sugaya, Yasunori Fujita, Koki Nakamura, Kazuaki Yoshioka, Hisamichi Naito, Yoh Takuwa, Ikuroh Ohsawa, Yusuke Hirabayashi, Shigeru Yanagi, Masahiro Morita, Tsuyoshi Osawa, Julien Prudent

Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that remodel their shape to regulate cell fate. Mitochondrial division involves interactions with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), lysosomes, and trans-Golgi network–derived vesicles to facilitate membrane scission. How interorganelle contacts regulate mitochondrial membrane fusion remains largely unknown. Here, we identified a role for Golgi-derived vesicles enriched in phosphatidylinositol 3,4-bisphosphate [PI(3,4)P 2 ] in regulating mitochondrial fusion. We found that these vesicles were recruited to ER- and mitofusin-marked fusion sites. Accordingly, loss of class II PI3-kinase isoforms α and β (PI3K-C2α and PI3K-C2β), which generate PI(3,4)P 2 , led to mitochondrial fragmentation resulting from impaired fusion. Furthermore, cardiomyocyte-specific PI…

The human gut microbiome primes fever after vaccination

Kelsey E. Huus, µHEAT Study Group‡, Hirohito Abo, Yi Han Tan, Ezgi Atay, Héloïse Rytter, Ronald Keller, Silke Dauser, Dai Long Vu, Meghan B. Azad, Rob Knight, Alfred Ke, Larisa Lotoski, Marc-André Langlois, Rong Liu, Alexander V. Tyakht, Nicholas Youngblut, Sang-Moo Kang, Julie Parsonnet, Lisa Maier, Benoit Chassaing, Peter G. Kremsner, Andrew T. Gewirtz, Meral Esen, Ruth E. LeyJulian J. Gabor, Johanna M. Gaile, Wim A. Fleischmann, Alex S. Siebner, Geerten Smeenk, Judith Flügge, Roberta Allgayer De Moraes, Dennis Jakob, Alina Prokipchuk, Carolin Wilhelm

Fever is a common adverse reaction to vaccination, contributing to vaccine hesitancy and reduced uptake. To understand variation in fever risk, we longitudinally profiled fecal microbiota, oral temperature, and serological markers in 171 healthy adults receiving Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 mRNA vaccines. Fever risk correlated with low-grade intestinal inflammation, increased abundance of flagellated Lachnospiraceae bacteria, and increased flagellin expression prevaccine. Microbiomes from fever-high donors triggered stronger inflammation in human intestinal organoids and drove flagellin-dependent vaccine reactions in gnotobiotic mice. Moreover, microbiome flagellin phenotypes and murine vaccine reactions were modifiable by diet. Consistent with this, human fever risk wa…

Epigenetic aging and transposon dysregulation reflect size-related lifespan compression in dogs

Blaise L. Mariner, Brianah M. McCoy, Ashlee Greenier, Layla Brassington, Elizabeth Slikas, Christine Adjangba, Claire Cheng, Abbey Marye, Benjamin R. Harrison, Tal Bamberger, Yadid Algavi, Efrat Muller, Adam Harris, Emily Rout, Cindy Reichel, Vista Sohrab, The Dog Aging Project Consortium‡, Elinor Karlsson, Joshua M. Akey, Anne C. Avery, Elhanan Borenstein, Daniel E. L. Promislow, Noah Snyder-MacklerJoshua M. Akey, Rozalyn M. Anderson, Elhanan Borenstein, Marta G. Castelhano, Amanda E. Coleman, Kate E. Creevy, Matthew D. Dunbar, Virginia R. Fajt, Jessica M. Hoffman, Erica C. Jonlin, Matt Kaeberlein, Elinor K. Karlsson, Kathleen F. Kerr, Jing Ma, Evan L. MacLean, Stephanie McGrath, Natasha J. Olby, Daniel E.L. Promislow, May J. Reed, Audrey Ruple, Stephen M. Schwartz, Sandi Shrager, Noah Snyder-Mackler, M. Katherine Tolbert

The extraordinary lifespan variation in domestic dogs provides a natural experiment for testing how intrinsic rates of biological aging shape lifespan. Using 1640 methylomes from 894 dogs, we developed an epigenetic clock that predicted mortality and demonstrated that epigenetic aging is fastest early in life. At orthologs of human age-associated genes, dogs exhibited concordant age effects on promoter methylation, highlighting conserved remodeling of immune pathways. We found that larger and male dogs, which are shorter lived, exhibit accelerated molecular aging. Distinct epigenetic architectures mediated these effects: Sex-dependent methylation changes were concentrated on the X chromosome, whereas size-associated methylation was especially pronounced at transposable elements (TEs). The…

Volatile eutectics to tailor crystallization for perovskite optoelectronics

Jason J. Yoo, Connor J. Dolan, Seongsik Nam, Jinho Lee, Kyu Min Kang, Bong Joo Kang, Rushik Desai, Niranjana Mohan Kumar, Arkita Chakrabarti, Daesoo Kim, Jang Hee Cho, Donghyuk Chung, Jack R. Palmer, Kelly X. Vences, Zhewen J. D. Deng, Yanqi Luo, Barry Lai, Tao Zhou, Zhonghou Cai, Martin V. Holt, Andrew M. Kiss, In Sun Cho, Dong Hyun Kim, Jun Hong Noh, Mariana I. Bertoni, Arun Mannodi-Kanakkithodi, Dane W. deQuilettes, David P. Fenning, Seong Sik Shin

Improvements to the radiative efficiency of halide perovskite thin films are necessary to approach fundamental solar cell performance limits. We tailored perovskite crystallization by leveraging the eutectic interaction between zinc bromide and methylammonium chloride additives. The resulting films had high photoluminescence quantum yield and charge carrier decay times and low surface recombination velocity. Nanoprobe x-ray microscopy revealed local melting of the eutectic at grain boundaries during annealing that reduced intragranular structural defect density. Annealing also homogenized the halide distribution and caused zinc segregation to grain boundaries. Solar cells fabricated with the volatile eutectic reached 26.5% power conversion efficiency (PCE, certified 25.9%), and perovskite…

Message in a bottleneck: Nested founder effects from French Polynesia to Rapa Nui and Hawaiʻi

Cole Shanks, Edward C. Huang, Christophe Thomassin, Anne-Katrin Emde, Vahinetua Rodière, Mauricio Moraga, Karla Sandoval, Tony Merriman, Tristan Pascart, Andrés Moreno-Estrada, Stephane E. Castel, Keolu Fox, Alexander G. Ioannidis

Founder effects can lead to strong, population-specific allele frequency differentiation, including autosomal recessive conditions. Their characterization in European-descent groups, such as the Finnish and Amish, has resulted in actionable genetic tests for each. We show that Polynesians experienced order-of-magnitude stronger cumulative founder effects during their settlement of Eastern Polynesia. Using whole-genome sequences spanning Polynesia, we show that two of the most bottlenecked populations are Hawaiʻi and Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and that these two most closely genetically related yet geographically distant islands were likely settled by the same ultravoyagers with earlier ancestral roots in Mangareva. We identify clinical genetic variation generated by this sequence of success…

Insights from more than a year of ongoing episodic lava fountaining at Kīlauea

A. F. Flinders, N. I. Deligne, K. Hon, D. T. Downs, K. J. Lynn, P. A. Nadeau, K. Mulliken, J. C. Chang, P. J. Dotray, M. Bagnardi, I. A. Johanson, M. H. Zoeller, K. R. Anderson, M. R. Patrick, C. Kern, C. R. Sealing, M. P. Poland, D. Phillips, M. Cappos, L. DeSmither, A. P. Ellis, S. Fuke, P. Fukunaga, M. Hawk, T.-J. Hoomanawanui, J. Jamora, A. Kamakeʻeaina, K. Kamibayashi, S. Lowman, W. Tollett, K. Rubio, S. Swaney, S. M. Warren, H. Winslow, N. L. Bennington, A. Jolly, R. G. Adams, M. Decker, L. Forster, E. Gallant, C. Gansecki, R. Hazlett, B. F. Houghton, N. Kohagura, S. Lundblad, N. G. Pasqualon, K. Poepoe, H. Neuman, C. Cauley, K. Wilde

Episodic lava fountaining is rare globally, with only three occurrences from Kīlauea (Hawaii) since 1823. Beginning in December 2024, an eruption within the summit crater, Halemaʻumaʻu, has produced 54 fountaining episodes to date, each lasting typically for hours and separated by days to weeks. Although multiple mechanisms have been proposed, fundamental questions remain about how magma reservoir pressure, conduit permeability, and volatile exsolution control fountaining onset. We present a multiparameter record of episodic fountaining at Kīlauea using modern geochemical, geophysical, and geologic monitoring. These observations revealed systematic correlations between fountaining and summit inflation, enabling unprecedented quantitative forecasts. This eruption will provide new constrain…

Asymmetric enzymatic hydrophosphorylation through O 2 activation

Yi Zhou, Yifei Ge, Wesley Harrison, Huimin Zhao

Enzymatic carbon-phosphorus bond formation is extremely rare in nature, limiting biocatalytic access to phosphorus-containing compounds that are widely used in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Here, we report an asymmetric enzymatic hydrophosphorylation through oxygen activation using a repurposed flavin-dependent enzyme. Mechanistic studies revealed that reactive oxygen species are converted into productive phosphorus-centered radicals, followed by radical addition and enzymatic hydrogen atom transfer, achieving high enantioselectivity. The enzyme accommodates diverse phosphorus-hydrogen donors that pose challenges to chemical catalysis, enabling the biosynthesis of valuable phosphorus-containing scaffolds. This work expands the scope of biocatalysis to programmable carbon-phosphorus b…

Wafer-scale low-symmetry graphene moiré superlattice for integrated quantum rectifiers

Wenhao Tan, Jiuming Liu, Zhenhao Gong, Yunyu Hong, Hao Sheng, Haiyang Zhang, Zirui Wang, Shipeng Lu, Hao Wu, Shujie Tang, Pai Li, Haitao Jiang, Zhongying Xue, Miao Zhang, Paul K. Chu, Lin He, Pan He, Yongfeng Mei, Haizhou Lu, Xufeng Kou, Ziao Tian, Zengfeng Di

Low-symmetry materials unlock rich Berry curvature physics and anomalous transport phenomena that are forbidden in high-symmetry quantum systems through rigorous crystalline symmetry constraints. Current approaches rely on external fields or complex heterogeneous stacking to break crystalline symmetries, which hinders scalable device integration. In this work, we demonstrate surface premelting engineering to create wafer-scale low-symmetry graphene on germanium-110 [Ge(110)]. Controlled premelting forms striped germanium surface patterns that reduce graphene symmetry from D 6h to C 1v , producing a room-temperature nonlinear Hall conductivity of ~11 micrometers per volt per ohm. First-principles calculations attribute this to originating from overtilted massive Dirac cones of hybridized g…

High-fidelity entangling gates and nonlocal circuits with neutral atoms

Simon J. Evered, Muqing Xu, Sophie H. Li, Alexandra A. Geim, J. Pablo Bonilla Ataides, Marcin Kalinowski, Dolev Bluvstein, Nishad Maskara, Christian Kokail, Markus Greiner, Vladan Vuletić, Mikhail D. Lukin

The generation and manipulation of entanglement with low error are essential in quantum information systems. In practice, two-qubit entangling gates constitute a dominant error source, limiting circuit depths and performance in fault-tolerant architectures. Using a neutral-atom quantum processor, we realized entangling controlled- Z gates with a high-Rabi-frequency smooth-amplitude pulse, employing state-selective readout and qubit reuse for fast calibration, and achieved a fidelity of 99.854(4)%, which improved to 99.941(3)% upon loss postselection, with stable performance for 10 hours. We then used these low-error gates in quantum circuits with coherent atom rearrangement. Performance was benchmarked by creating and disentangling cluster states, and subsequently, we studied nonlocally e…

Advancing mathematics research with AI-driven formal proof search

George Tsoukalas, Anton Kovsharov, Sergey Shirobokov, Anja Surina, Moritz Firsching, Gergely Bérczi, Francisco J. R. Ruiz, Arun Suggala, Adam Zsolt Wagner, Eric Wieser, Lei Yu, Aja Huang, Miklós Z. Horváth, Andrew Ferraiuolo, Henryk Michalewski, Codrut Grosu, Edward Lockhart, Thomas Hubert, Matej Balog, Pushmeet Kohli, Swarat Chaudhuri,

Large language models (LLMs) increasingly excel at mathematics tasks, but their unreliability limits their utility in mathematics research. A mitigation is to use LLMs to generate formal proofs in languages such as Lean, in which the compiler verifies every proof step. We present the first demonstration of this method’s value in solving open problems at scale. We built an artificial intelligence agent for formal proof search that autonomously resolved nine of 353 open Erdős problems, proved 44/492 On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences conjectures, and is being deployed in combinatorics, optimization, graph theory, algebraic geometry, and quantum optics research. Even a basic agent alternating LLM-based generation with Lean-based verification replicated the Erdős successes. These findi…

The genetic basis for the production of toxic quinolizidine alkaloids in lupins

Davide Mancinotti, Hajar Golshadi Ghalehshahi, Isabella Kruse-Andersen, Louise Kjaerulff, Ting Yang, Dan Stærk, Fernando Geu-Flores

Lupins ( Lupinus spp.) are promising protein crops that accumulate bitter and toxic quinolizidine alkaloids (QAs). The effective removal of QAs through new breeding technologies is hampered by a poor understanding of their biosynthesis. In this study, we used pathway reconstruction and mutant analysis to elucidate the full QA pathway in L. angustifolius [narrow-leafed lupin (NLL)] comprising 15 enzymatic steps. Major latex protein–like proteins play a prominent role in the pathway by accelerating spontaneous chemical equilibria, and an oxidoreductase-like protein ensures stereoselectivity. We also engineered a new low-alkaloid NLL line and identified the causal mutation in an existing low-alkaloid line of L. albus. Our work reveals the genetic and biochemical basis of toxic QA production…

High-capacity associative memory in a quantum-optical spin glass

Brendan P. Marsh, David Atri Schuller, Yunpeng Ji, Henry S. Hunt, Surya Ganguli, Sarang Gopalakrishnan, Jonathan Keeling, Benjamin L. Lev

The Hopfield neural network stores memories using all-to-all-coupled spins and recalls those memories through equilibrium dynamics. Storing too many hampers recall because frustration causes an exponential number of spurious patterns to arise as the network becomes a spin glass. Despite this, we show that memory recall can be restored, and even enhanced, under quantum-optical nonequilibrium dynamics that convert spurious patterns into reliable memories. We experimentally observe associative memory with high storage capacity in a driven-dissipative spin glass made of atoms and photons. The capacity surpasses that of the Hopfield model under Hebbian learning by up to sevenfold in a 16-spin network. Atomic motion boosts capacity by dynamically modifying connectivity akin to short-term synapt…

Natural 15 N 15 N abundances constrain fixed nitrogen loss

Jiarui Liu, David L. Valentine, Annie Bourbonnais, Dale T. Andersen, Daniele Bianchi, Grace Brown, M. Bayani Cardenas, Daniel Fillion, Claudia Frey, Kelsey M. Gosselin, Aoshuang Ji, Franklin S. Kinnaman, Denis Lacelle, Moritz F. Lehmann, Katelyn McPaul, James Mullahoo, Victoria J. Orphan, André Pellerin, Elen Reji, Elizabeth D. Swanner, Tina Treude, Alan M. Seltzer, Edward D. Young

Nitrogen regulates primary productivity across much of the biosphere, yet fixed nitrogen loss remains poorly constrained because existing methods rely on indirect proxies or ex situ experiments. In this study, we show that natural abundances of the rare 15 N 15 N isotopologue of dinitrogen (N 2 ) provide a direct tracer of biological N 2 production across diverse aquatic environments. N 2 produced by denitrification and anammox has a near-stochastic 15 N 15 N distribution [0 per mil (‰)], whereas atmospheric N 2 carries a distinct 15 N 15 N excess (19‰), allowing the two sources to be quantitatively distinguished. Across aquifers, stratified lakes, coastal basins, oxygen minimum zones, and marine sediments, 15 N 15 N measurements reveal widespread nitrogen loss previously obscured by phys…

Marine snow viscosity regulates microbial degradation and the ocean carbon sink

Bryce G. Inman, Stuart Humphries, Farooq Azam

Bacterial degradation of marine snow aggregates is a major component of global carbon cycling. Whether aggregate carbon is released in the upper ocean or is sequestered at depth depends on its sinking speed and degradation rate. However, little is known about the physical constraints of bacterial colonization and degradation of individual aggregates. Using molecular rotors to measure the nanoscale viscosity field of natural aggregates, we show that aggregates are highly structured microhabitats with less-viscous regions that are accessible for colonization and more-viscous regions that correlate to a barrier to bacterial infiltration. By quantifying the viscosity degradation rate, we demonstrate that more viscous aggregates take longer to degrade, sink farther, and contribute more to carb…

Author Correction: Histone readers MLLT1 and MLLT3 concentrate AID to confer locus specificity

Javier M. Di Noia

Editorial Expression of Concern: Maternal gut bacteria promote neurodevelopmental abnormalities in mouse offspring

Jun R. Huh

Women are talking about menopause — health systems must listen

Hala Zahreddine Fahs

US proposes $100,000 charge for international students to do post-graduate work

Dan Garisto

How to build a mouse: embryo development captured in stunning detail

Ewen Callaway

Woody ‘blankets’ are being deployed on Arctic permafrost to reduce carbon emissions

James Dinneen

Plague scare: what scientists know — and what Russia won’t say

Max Kozlov

Big dogs age faster than little ones — rogue ‘jumping genes’ might be to blame

Heidi Ledford

UAE completes Arab world's first solo space probe – and sets course for an asteroid

Elizabeth Gibney

NASA releases trove of Moon data from historic Artemis II flight

Alexandra Witze

The science of superintelligence and why AI is still a useful word

Jenna Ahart

Daily briefing: Chemistry Nobel goes to mirror-molecule researchers

Flora Graham

Atomic-scale visualization of three-dimensional magnetization vectors with competing spin Hamiltonian interactions

Xiaoyan Zhong

Synergistic water and mineral harvesting from seawater

Faxue Li