The human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, relies exclusively on Anopheles mosquitoes for transmission. Once ingested during blood feeding, most parasites die in the mosquito midgut lumen or during epithelium traversal1. How surviving ookinetes interact with midgut cells and form oocysts remains poorly understood, yet these steps are essential to initiate a remarkable growth process culminating in the production of thousands of infectious sporozoites2. Here, using single-cell RNA sequencing of both parasites and mosquito cells across different developmental stages and metabolic conditions, we unveil key transitions and mosquito-parasite interactions that occur in the midgut. Functional analyses uncover processes that regulate oocyst growth and identify the Plasmodium transcription factor PfSIP2 as essential for sporozoite infection of human hepatocytes. Combining shared mosquito-parasite barcode analysis with confocal microscopy, we reveal that parasites preferentially interact with midgut progenitor cells during epithelial crossing, potentially using their basal location as an exit landmark. Additionally, we show tight connections between extracellular late oocysts and surrounding muscle cells that may ensure parasite adherence to the midgut. We confirm our major findings in several mosquito-parasite combinations, including field-derived parasites. Our study provides fundamental insight into the molecular events that characterize previously inaccessible biological transitions and mosquito-parasite interactions, and identifies candidates for transmission-blocking strategies.

Native ion channels play key roles in biological systems, and engineered versions are widely used as chemogenetic tools and in sensing devices1,2. Protein design has been harnessed to generate pore-containing transmembrane proteins, but the design of selectivity filters with precise arrangements of amino acid side chains specific for a target ion, a crucial feature of native ion channels3, has been constrained by the lack of methods for placing the metal-coordinating residues with atomic-level precision. Here we describe a bottom-up RFdiffusion-based approach to construct Ca2+ channels from defined selectivity filter residue geometries, and use this approach to design symmetric oligomeric channels with Ca2+ selectivity filters having different coordination numbers and different geometries at the entrance of a wider pore buttressed by multiple transmembrane helices. The designed channel proteins assemble into homogeneous pore-containing particles and, for both tetrameric and hexameric ion-coordinating configurations, patch-clamp experiments show that the designed channels have higher conductances for Ca2+ than for Na+ and other divalent ions (Sr2+ and Mg2+) that are eliminated after mutation of selectivity filter residues. Cryogenic electron microscopy indicates that the design method has high accuracy: the structure of the hexameric Ca2+ channel is nearly identical to that of the design model. Our bottom-up design approach now enables the testing of hypotheses relating filter geometry to ion selectivity by direct construction, and provides a roadmap for creating selective ion channels for a wide range of applications.

Social behaviour is substantially shaped by internal physiological states. Although progress has been made in understanding how individual states such as hunger, stress or arousal modulate behaviour1-9, animals experience multiple states at any given time10. The neural mechanisms that integrate such orthogonal states-and how this integration affects behaviour-remain poorly understood. Here we report how hunger and oestrous state converge on neurons in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) to shape infant-directed behaviour. We find that hunger promotes pup-directed aggression in normally non-aggressive virgin female mice. This behavioural switch occurs through the inhibition of MPOA neurons, driven by the release of neuropeptide Y from Agouti-related peptide-expressing neurons in the arcuate nucleus (ArcAgRP neurons). The propensity for hunger-induced aggression is set by reproductive state, with MPOA neurons detecting changes in the progesterone to oestradiol ratio across the oestrous cycle. Hunger and oestrous state converge on hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels, which sets the baseline activity and excitability of MPOA neurons. Using microendoscopy imaging, we confirm these findings in vivo, revealing that MPOA neurons encode a state for pup-directed aggression. This work provides a mechanistic understanding of how multiple physiological states are integrated to flexibly control social behaviour.

The lithium-ion battery supply chain is critical for global decarbonization1,2, yet its geographically dispersed production stages pose substantial challenges for carbon management3,4. Here we developed a lithium cycle computable general equilibrium (LCCGE) model, integrating life-cycle thinking with global economic dynamics to systematically assess decarbonization pathways. Our analysis reveals a notable 'value-emission paradox' across the supply chain: downstream cathode production generates 42.56% of economic value from 34.82% of emissions, whereas upstream mining accounts for 38.52% of total emissions from only 18.78% of the value. A comprehensive scenario analysis shows that, although consumer-oriented recycling can reduce global emission intensity by 16.30% in 2060, it is far surpassed by integrated strategies. The highest global emission reduction (35.87%) is achieved by combining cross-regional cooperation on technology and trade with regionally tailored domestic circular economy policies. This synergistic approach proves highly effective in key manufacturing economies, yielding potential emission reductions of 39.14% in the USA, 37.28% in the European Union and 42.35% in China. By revealing the synergy of combining environmental, technological and trade levers through both global collaboration and local adaptation, our work provides a blueprint for decarbonizing complex global supply chains and establishes a framework for analysing their sustainability analysis.

As demand for immersive experiences grows, displays with smaller sizes and higher resolutions are being viewed increasingly closer to the human eye1. As the size of emitting pixels shrinks, the intensity and uniformity of their emission are degraded while colour cross-talk and fabrication complexity increase, making ultra-high-resolution imaging challenging2-4. By contrast, electronic paper, which uses ambient light for visibility, can maintain high optical contrast regardless of pixel size, but cannot achieve high resolution5,6. Here we demonstrate electronic paper with electrically tunable metapixels down to ~560 nm in size (>25,000 pixels per inch) consisting of WO3 nanodisks, which undergo a reversible insulator-to-metal transition on electrochemical reduction. This transition enables dynamic modulation of the refractive index and optical absorption, allowing precise control over reflectance and contrast at the nanoscale. By using this effect, the metapixels can achieve pixel densities approaching the visual resolution limit when the display size matches the pupil diameter, which we refer to as retina electronic paper. Our technology also demonstrates full-colour video capability (>25 Hz), high reflectance (~80%), strong optical contrast (~50%), low energy consumption (~0.5-1.7 mW cm-2) and support for anaglyph 3D display, highlighting its potential as a next-generation solution for immersive virtual reality systems.

Global climate change and its consequences for the symbiosis between corals and microalgae are impacting coral reefs worldwide-ecosystems that support more than one-quarter of marine species and sustain nearly one billion people1-3. Understanding how stony corals, the primary architects of both shallow and deep reef ecosystems, responded to past environmental challenges is key to predicting their future4. Here we describe a time-calibrated molecular phylogenetic analysis that includes hundreds of newly sequenced coral taxa, and sheds light on the deep-time evolution of scleractinian corals. We date the emergence of the most recent common ancestor of Scleractinia to about 460 million years ago and infer that it was probably a solitary, heterotrophic and free-living organism-or one that could reproduce through transverse division-thriving in both shallow and deep waters. Our analyses suggest that symbiosis with photosynthetic dinoflagellates was established around 300 million years ago and spurred coral diversification. However, only a few photosymbiotic lineages survived major environmental disruptions in the Mesozoic era. By contrast, solitary, heterotrophic corals with flexible depth and substrate preferences appear to have thrived in the deep sea despite these environmental disturbance events. Even though ongoing environmental changes are expected to severely affect shallow reefs5, our finding that stony corals have shown resilience throughout geological history offers hope for the persistence of some lineages in the face of climate and other environmental changes.

Antiferromagnetic states with a spin-split electronic structure give rise to spintronic, magnonic and electronic phenomena despite (near-)zero net magnetization1-7. The simplest odd-parity spin splitting-p wave-was originally proposed to emerge from a collective instability in interacting electron systems8-12. Recent theory has identified a distinct route to realize p-wave spin-split electronic bands without strong correlations13,14, termed p-wave magnetism. Here we demonstrate an experimental realization of a metallic p-wave magnet. The odd-parity spin splitting of delocalized conduction electrons arises from their coupling to an antiferromagnetic texture of localized magnetic moments: a coplanar spin helix whose magnetic period is an even multiple of the chemical unit cell, as revealed by X-ray scattering experiments. This texture breaks space-inversion symmetry but approximately preserves time-reversal symmetry up to a half-unit-cell translation-thereby fulfilling the symmetry conditions for p-wave magnetism. Consistent with theoretical predictions, our p-wave magnet shows a characteristic anisotropy in the electronic conductivity13-15. Relativistic spin-orbit coupling and a tiny spontaneous net magnetization further break time-reversal symmetry, resulting in a giant anomalous Hall effect (Hall conductivity >600 S cm-1, Hall angle >3%), for an antiferromagnet. Our model calculations show that the spin-nodal planes found in the electronic structure of p-wave magnets are readily gapped by a small perturbation to induce the anomalous Hall effect. We establish metallic p-wave magnets as an ideal platform to explore the functionality of spin-split electronic states in magnets, superconductors, and in spintronic devices.

The dynamics of quantum many-body systems is characterized by quantum observables that are reconstructed from correlation functions at separate points in space and time1-3. In dynamics with fast entanglement generation, however, quantum observables generally become insensitive to the details of the underlying dynamics at long times due to the effects of scrambling. To circumvent this limitation and enable access to relevant dynamics in experimental systems, repeated time-reversal protocols have been successfully implemented4. Here we experimentally measure the second-order out-of-time-order correlators (OTOC(2))5-18 on a superconducting quantum processor and find that they remain sensitive to the underlying dynamics at long timescales. Furthermore, OTOC(2) manifests quantum correlations in a highly entangled quantum many-body system that are inaccessible without time-reversal techniques. This is demonstrated through an experimental protocol that randomizes the phases of Pauli strings in the Heisenberg picture by inserting Pauli operators during quantum evolution. The measured values of OTOC(2) are substantially changed by the protocol, thereby revealing constructive interference between Pauli strings that form large loops in the configuration space. The observed interference mechanism also endows OTOC(2) with high degrees of classical simulation complexity. These results, combined with the capability of OTOC(2) in unravelling useful details of quantum dynamics, as shown through an example of Hamiltonian learning, indicate a viable path to practical quantum advantage.

The unification of gravity and quantum mechanics remains one of the most profound open questions in science. With recent advances in quantum technology, an experimental idea first proposed by Richard Feynman1 is now regarded as a promising route to testing this unification for the first time. The experiment involves placing a massive object in a quantum superposition of two locations and letting it gravitationally interact with another mass. If the two objects subsequently become entangled, this is considered unambiguous evidence that gravity obeys the laws of quantum mechanics. This conclusion derives from theorems that treat a classical gravitational interaction as a local interaction capable of transmitting only classical, not quantum, information2-8. Here we extend the description of matter used in these theorems to the full framework of quantum field theory, finding that theories with classical gravity can then transmit quantum information and, thus, generate entanglement through physical, local processes. The effect scales differently to that predicted by theories of quantum gravity, and so it gives information on the parameters and form of the experiment required to robustly provide evidence for the quantum nature of gravity.

The landmark discovery that neutrinos have mass and can change type (or flavour) as they propagate-a process called neutrino oscillation1-6-has opened up a rich array of theoretical and experimental questions being actively pursued today. Neutrino oscillation remains the most powerful experimental tool for addressing many of these questions, including whether neutrinos violate charge-parity (CP) symmetry, which has possible connections to the unexplained preponderance of matter over antimatter in the Universe7-11. Oscillation measurements also probe the mass-squared differences between the different neutrino mass states (Δm2), whether there are two light states and a heavier one (normal ordering) or vice versa (inverted ordering), and the structure of neutrino mass and flavour mixing12. Here we carry out the first joint analysis of datasets from NOvA13 and T2K14, the two currently operating long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments (hundreds of kilometres of neutrino travel distance), taking advantage of our complementary experimental designs and setting new constraints on several neutrino sector parameters. This analysis provides new precision on the Δm322 mass difference, finding 2.43-0.03+0.04×10-3eV2 in the normal ordering and -2.48-0.04+0.03×10-3eV2 in the inverted ordering, as well as a 3σ interval on δCP of [-1.38π, 0.30π] in the normal ordering and [-0.92π, -0.04π] in the inverted ordering. The data show no strong preference for either mass ordering, but notably, if inverted ordering were assumed true within the three-flavour mixing model, then our results would provide evidence of CP symmetry violation in the lepton sector.

Chip-scale optical frequency combs based on microresonators (microcombs) have provided access to optical combs with GHz-to-THz repetition rates, broad bandwidth, compact form factors and compatibility with wafer-scale manufacturing1. Si3N4 photonic integrated circuits emerged as a leading platform and have been used in nearly all system-level demonstrations so far, ranging from optical communications2, parallel lidar3, optical frequency synthesis4, low-noise microwave generation5 to parallel convolutional processing6. Yet, transitioning to real-world deployment outside laboratories has been compounded by the difficulty of deterministic soliton microcomb generation, primarily due to strong thermal instabilities. Although a variety of techniques have been developed to initiate soliton generation, including pulsed pumping, fast scanning and auxiliary-laser pumping7-11, these techniques do not eliminate thermal effects and often compromise microcomb performance, either by adding additional complexity or by reducing the accessible soliton existence range. Here we overcome thermal effects and demonstrate deterministic soliton generation in Si3N4 photonic integrated circuits. We trace thermal effects to unexpected copper impurities within the waveguides, which originate from residual contaminants in CMOS-grade Si wafers and are gettered into Si3N4 during fabrication. By developing copper removal techniques, we substantially reduce copper concentration and thereby mitigate thermal effects. We demonstrate successful dissipative Kerr soliton generation with arbitrary laser scanning profiles and slow laser scanning. Our techniques can be readily applied to front-end-of-line processing of Si3N4 devices in foundries, removing a key obstacle to the deployment of soliton microcomb technology.