Industry looks forward to looser rules, and agency scientists may face pressure.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to scrutinize proven vaccines and slash staff at research and regulatory agencies.

Highlights from the family of journals.

Canada should curtail research ties with China, lawmakers say.

Although cumulative culture is a hallmark of hominin evolution, its origins can be traced back to our common ancestor with chimpanzees. Here, we investigated the evolutionary origins of chimpanzee cumulative culture and why it remained incipient. To trace cultural transmission among the four chimpanzee subspecies, we compared population networks based on genetic markers of recent migration and shared cultural traits. We show that limited levels of group connectivity favored the emergence of a few instances of cumulative culture in chimpanzees. As in humans, cultural complexification likely happened in steps, with transmission between populations, incremental changes, and repurposing of technologies. We propose that divergence in social patterns led to increased mobility between groups in the genus , resulting in irreversible dependence on cultural exchange and complexification.

Macrophages deliver polarizing messages to promote immune suppression in tumors.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) contains a number of immune-suppressive cells such as T helper 1-polarized regulatory T cells (T1-T cells). However, little is known about the mechanism behind the abundant presence of T1-T cells in the TME. We demonstrate that selective depletion of arginase I (Arg1)-expressing tumor-associated macrophages (Arg1 TAMs) inhibits tumor growth and concurrently reduces the ratio of T1-T cells in the TME. Arg1 TAMs secrete the chemokine platelet factor 4 (PF4), which reinforces interferon-γ (IFN-γ)-induced T cell polarization into T1-T cells in a manner dependent on CXCR3 and the IFN-γ receptor. Both genetic PF4 inactivation and PF4 neutralization hinder T1-T cell accumulation in the TME and reduce tumor growth. Collectively, our study highlights the importance of Arg1 TAM-produced PF4 for high T1-T cell levels in the TME to suppress antitumor immunity.

Sleep improves cognitive performance, yet little is known about the neural mechanisms of this improvement. We performed multielectrode recording in macaque visual and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex while animals performed a visual discrimination task before and after non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Although sleep induces synchronized fluctuations in population activity across cortical areas, the post-sleep population activity became more desynchronized relative to the pre-sleep state. The changes after sleep were correlated with an increase in information encoded in population activity in each area and improved behavioral performance. Electrically stimulating visual cortex at 4 hertz emulated the beneficial effects of sleep on network and perceptual performance. A large-scale neural network model indicated that asymmetric depression of local intracortical synapses is consistent with the observed changes in neural activity after sleep.

A pair of books celebrate the discoveries made by two major space telescope programs.

Blue zones, supposed havens of longevity, have become a global brand. But skeptics think they rest on shaky science.

Web of Science index pulls metric because of the publisher's unusual peer-review model.

Editors' selections from the current scientific literature.

A decades-long drinking-water disinfection mystery ends with a potentially toxic surprise.

The metal-support interaction is one of the most important pillars in heterogeneous catalysis, but developing a fundamental theory has been challenging because of the intricate interfaces. Based on experimental ‎data, interpretable machine learning, theoretical derivation, and first-principles simulations, we established a ‎general theory of metal-oxide interactions grounded in ‎metal-metal and metal-oxygen interactions. The theory applies to metal nanoparticles and atoms on oxide supports and oxide films on metal supports. We found that for late-transition metal catalysts, metal-metal interactions dominated the oxide support effects and suboxide encapsulation over metal nanoparticles. A principle of strong metal-metal interactions for encapsulation occurrence is formulated and substantiated by extensive ‎experiments including 10 metals and 16 ‎oxides. The valuable insights revealed on (strong) metal-support interaction advance the interfacial design of supported metal catalysts.

Gender gaps in engineering and computer science narrow at math-selective schools and widen in others.

Surface passivation has driven the rapid increase in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, state-of-the-art surface passivation techniques rely on ammonium ligands that suffer deprotonation under light and thermal stress. We developed a library of amidinium ligands, of interest for their resonance effect-enhanced N-H bonds that may resist deprotonation, to increase the thermal stability of passivation layers on perovskite surfaces. This strategy resulted in a >10-fold reduction in the ligand deprotonation equilibrium constant and a twofold increase in the maintenance of photoluminescence quantum yield after aging at 85°C under illumination in air. Implementing this approach, we achieved a certified quasi-steady-state PCE of 26.3% for inverted PSCs; and we report retention of ≥90% PCE after 1100 hours of continuous 1-sun maximum power point operation at 85°C.

$1 billion SinoProbe II will map the depths with drill rigs and instrument arrays.

Predicting and mitigating the impacts of anthropogenic ocean noise on marine animals is hindered by a lack of information on hearing in these species. We established a catch-and-release program to temporarily hold adolescent minke whales () for hearing tests during their summer migration. In 2023, two minke whales provided measures of the auditory brainstem response and data on the frequency range of their hearing. Results show that minke whales are sensitive to sound frequencies as high as 45 to 90 kilohertz. These tests provide information on the types of anthropogenic noise that could affect minke whales and potentially, other related baleen whale species.

Migration provides evidence for cumulative cultural evolution in chimpanzees.