We provide a detailed characterization of the planetary system orbiting HD 85426 (TOI-1774). This bright G-type star ( M∗: 0.99 M ; R∗: 1.13R ; age: 7.4 Gyr; V mag: 8.25) hosts a transiting sub-Neptune, HD 85426 b, with an orbital period of 16.71 d and a blackbody equilibrium temperature of 824+ 11 −11 K. By jointly analysing HARPS-N RVs, TESS , and CHEOPS photometric data and using two different stellar activity mitigation techniques, we constrain planet b’s mass to 6 . 0+ 1 . 5 −1 . 6 M ⊕and 8 . 5+ 1 . 3 −1 . 4 M ⊕, depending on the mitigation technique. We investigate the dependence of these results on the priors, data selection, and inclusion of other Keplerians in the modelling. Using this approach, we identify the presence of two non-transiting planetary companions with minimum masses near 10M ⊕and orbital periods of 35.7 and 89 d. Additionally, we reject the initial hypothesis that the 35.7-d periodic signal was due to stellar activity. We also determine HD 85426 b’s radius to be 2 . 78+ 0 . 05 −0 . 04 R ⊕and compute a transmission spectroscopy metric in the range of 82 to 115, making this planet a highly valuable target for atmospheric characterization.

The choices we make during the recording, preprocessing and analysis of event-related potentials (ERP) data can affect study outcomes. As such, it is critical that they are transparently reported to allow for reproducibility. Yet, systematic reviews of reporting practices in the field have shown that journal articles often do not meet this goal and that existing reporting guidelines have not resulted in a sufficient improvement in reporting transparency. An easier workflow for transparently documenting pipelines used in regular journal articles is needed. The ARTEM-IS (Agreed Reporting Template for EEG Methodology—International Standard) initiative is working towards addressing this issue by building dynamic, interactive web applications that support documenting information required by existing publication guidelines in the form of a standardized metadata template. Completing an ARTEM-IS form results in a human-reader-friendly PDF or DOCX and a machine-readable JSON summary of methodological information. This level of specificity surpasses conventional article methods sections, ensuring fewer omissions and ambiguities. These can be used as supplements to a publication, as a memory aid when writing a paper, or as records that allow easier metadata extraction. Here, we present the ARTEM-IS for ERP, which supports describing a typical ERP study, including most of its core methodological aspects (study description, experimental design, hardware, data acquisition, pre-processing, measurement, visualization, additional comments). We discuss the current functionalities of ARTEM-IS for ERP, its development via a grassroots collaborative initiative, and potential extensions (e.g., including complex designs or statistical analyses). In doing so, we highlight how widespread adoption of ARTEM-IS can benefit researchers, reviewers, and the broader scientific community by improving transparency, reducing reporting errors, and expediting rigorous replication efforts.

Denitrification, a major source of gaseous nitrogen emissions from agricultural soils, is influenced by management. Practices promoting belowground diversity are suggested to support sustainable agriculture, but how they modulate nitrogen losses via denitrification remains inconclusive. Here we sampled 106 cereal fields spanning a 3000 km North-South gradient across Europe and compiled 56 associated climatic, soil, microbial and management variables. We show that increased denitrification potential was associated with higher proportion of time with crop cover over the last ten years and was best predicted by microbial biomass and microbial functional guilds involved in nitrogen cycling, in particular denitrification. We also demonstrate that several diversification practices affect the variation in denitrification potential predictors, suggesting a trade-off between agricultural diversification and nitrogen losses via denitrification. However, increased crop diversity in rotations improved yield-scaled denitrification, highlighting the potential of this practice to minimize nitrogen losses while contributing to sustainable food production.

Aerosol composition, size, and deposition rate determine the impact these particles have on cryosphere environments. Mineralogical, biological, and geochemical characteristics of aerosols collected over two years from the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet indicate that aerosols delivered via dry deposition and in snow primarily consisted of silicate minerals, with mean particle diameters of 1.01 ± 1.58 μm (2016) and 0.76 ± 0.87 μm (2017) for dry deposition and 2.4 ± 3.2 μm for dust delivered in snow (2017). The rare earth element signature of the delivered dust was typical of nearby Greenlandic lithologies, and combining this with other geochemical results and airmass history modeling indicated that the airborne mineral dust collected on-ice was likely from local emission sources, namely nearby proglacial plains. Dust and snow deposition rates were used to estimate phosphorus delivery to the ice surface at a rate of 1.2 mg·m–2·year–1, which could fuel estimated pigmented glacier ice algal cell abundances of 8.6 × 103 cells·mL–1, a value consistent with glacier ice algal bloom cell densities documented in the region. The eukaryotic communities in air and snow samples were dominated by algae and fungi, respectively, with both sample types also hosting various bacteria. These results suggest that the airborne transfer of glacier ice and snow algae may be a method by which fresh cryosphere surfaces become inoculated with these pigmented organisms. Collectively, these findings highlight the biogeochemical links between aerosols and the ice sheet surface, which have impacts on glacier ice algal growth and the corresponding surface ice albedo and melting.

Background

Host-associated microbiomes play an important role in the ecology and fitness of organisms. Given their significance, it is much debated to what extent these associations are widespread and even obligatory. Such frequent associations are captured by the concept of the core microbiome. The cladoceran Daphnia is a pivotal genus in freshwater ecosystems occupying a central position in the food webs of standing waters. With its unique standing in pelagic waters, Daphnia serves as a key grazer, regulating algal populations and nutrient cycling, making its microbiome essential to understanding ecosystem function and stability. In recent years, Daphnia has become an increasingly popular study system for exploring host‒microbiota interactions. There is, however, limited knowledge on the baseline taxa that consistently inhabit this host and potentially contribute to its fitness. Identifying whether such a host-associated “core microbiome” exists for Daphnia and, if so, which microbial taxa it comprises is important both for enhancing our ecological understanding of this genus and its ecosystem function and for interpreting future experiments.

Results

We compiled a dataset on Daphnia magna microbiome based on 12 published studies, comprising gut and whole microbiome samples of both laboratory-cultured and field-grown animals across five countries spanning three continents. To identify core taxa, we employ quantification metrics based on prevalence and a combination of prevalence and relative abundance. Our analysis demonstrates that the D. magna microbiome is highly variable, yet, a consistent association with specific taxa, notably Limnohabitans planktonicus, is observed especially under laboratory conditions. However, this pattern is tempered by the observation that field-grown animals exhibit a more diverse microbiome with a weaker presence of L. planktonicus, challenging its status as a core member.

Conclusions

Our analysis suggests that the D. magna microbiome is defined by its high variability and few conserved associations, with L. planktonicus being the most stable taxon in laboratory settings but not necessarily a core member in natural environments. These findings underscore the need for caution when using laboratory results to interpret natural microbiome compositions and emphasize the need for further research on field-grown animals to better understand the structuring of microbial communities under natural settings.

This article reviews the emerging field of exo-geoscience, focusing on the geological and geophysical processes thought to influence the evolution and (eu)habitability of rocky exoplanets. We examine the possible roles of planetary interiors, tectonic regimes, continental coverage, volatile cycling, magnetic fields, and atmospheric composition and evolution in shaping long-term climate stability and biospheric potential. Comparisons with Earth and other planets in the Solar System highlight the diversity of planetary conditions and the rarity of conditions relevant to life. We also discuss contingency and convergence in planetary and biological evolution as they relate to the spread of life in the universe. The observational limits of current and planned missions are assessed, emphasizing the need for models that connect internal dynamics to detectable atmospheric and surface signatures as well as the need for laboratory measurements of planetary properties under a wide range of conditions. The large number of exoplanets promises opportunities for empirical and statistical studies of processes that may have occurred earlier in Earth’s history, as well as for the other pathways rocky planets and biospheres may take. Thus, exo-geoscience provides a framework for interpreting exoplanet diversity and refining strategies for detecting life beyond the Solar System.

Temporal variations of the M2 tidal parameters in gravity are observed at all superconducting gravimeter stations. We specifically investigate the annual variation of M2 tidal parameters. A similar variation is observed for the parameters from sea surface heights which is larger than expected from astronomical forcing alone. This leads to the hypothesis that the variations of the gravimetric tidal parameters are caused by the loading of the annual variation of M2 in the oceans. Only nonlinear, time-stepping ocean models are able to describe such variations. We use sea surface heights from three global and two regional models of this kind to calculate the loading. The loading time series is then added to synthetic body tides and analyzed by a moving window tidal analysis with ETERNA in the same way as the measured data. We compare the resulting variations of the M2 tidal parameters for synthetic gravity with those observed from measurements. Three of the five ocean models show an annual variation of a similar order of magnitude which supports our hypothesis. The other two ocean models produce smaller or no clear annual variation of the M2 tidal parameters. In the ocean the annual variation of M2 has large amplitudes in shelf areas and small amplitudes in the open ocean. Large areas with small amplitude might contribute to the gravity loading as much as small areas with large amplitudes do. We investigate this with the global Hycom model at three SG stations. The investigation shows that not only close shelf areas but also distant ocean regions, including open ocean areas, contribute significantly to the annual variation of the M2 tidal parameters at the superconducting gravimeter stations.

In nonrelativistic physics, the concepts of geometry and topology are usually applied to characterize spatial structures or structures in momentum space. We introduce the concept of temporal geometry, which encompasses the geometric and topological properties of temporal shapes, i.e., trajectories traced by the tip of a time-dependent vector. We apply it to electric field polarizations controlling ultrafast electron currents or induced polarization in chiral molecules. The central concepts of temporal geometry—Berry curvature and Berry connection—emerge as ubiquitous features of photoexcited, nonequilibrium, chiral electron dynamics. We demonstrate that the Berry curvature and Berry connection (1) rely on the polarization properties of light pulses, (2) can be introduced for multiphoton processes, and (3) control enantiosensitive geometric observables via nonequilibrium electronic dynamics excited by tailored laser fields. Our findings may open a way to ultrafast, topologically nontrivial, and enantiosensitive chemical dynamics.

We study the interplay between magic and entanglement in quantum many-body systems. We show that nonlocal magic, which is supported by the quantum correlations is lower bounded by the nonflatness of entanglement spectrum and upper bounded by the amount of entanglement in the system. We then argue that a smoothed version of nonlocal magic bounds the hardness of classical simulations for incompressible states. In conformal field theories (CFTs), we conjecture that the nonlocal magic should scale linearly with entanglement entropy but sublinearly when an approximation of the state is allowed. We support the conjectures using both analytical arguments based on unitary distillation and numerical data from an Ising CFT. If the CFT has a holographic dual, then we prove that the nonlocal magic vanishes if and only if there is no gravitational backreaction. Furthermore, we show that nonlocal magic is approximately equal to the rate of change of the minimal surface area in response to the change of cosmic brane tension in the bulk.

In all domains of life, tRNAs mediate the transfer of genetic information from mRNAs to proteins. As their depletion suppresses translation and, consequently, viral replication, tRNAs represent long-standing and increasingly recognized targets of innate immunity1,2,3,4,5. Here we report Cas12a3 effector nucleases from type V CRISPR–Cas adaptive immune systems in bacteria that preferentially cleave tRNAs after recognition of target RNA. Cas12a3 orthologues belong to one of two previously unreported nuclease clades that exhibit RNA-mediated cleavage of non-target RNA, and are distinct from all other known type V systems. Through cell-based and biochemical assays and direct RNA sequencing, we demonstrate that recognition of a complementary target RNA by the CRISPR RNA triggers Cas12a3 to cleave the conserved 5′-CCA-3′ tail of diverse tRNAs to drive growth arrest and anti-phage defence. Cryogenic electron microscopy structures further revealed a distinct tRNA-loading domain that positions the tRNA tail in the RuvC active site of the nuclease. By designing synthetic reporters that mimic the tRNA acceptor stem and tail, we expanded the capacity of current CRISPR-based diagnostics for multiplexed RNA detection. Overall, these findings reveal widespread tRNA inactivation as a previously unrecognized CRISPR-based immune strategy that broadens the application space of the existing CRISPR toolbox.

Desert pavements are a global phenomenon in arid environments, representing one of the most extensive geomorphological and geoecological features on Earth. To a large extent, they determine the interplay of key processes governing current and past landscape dynamics including landform evolution, surface runoff, soil water dynamics, weathering and soil formation, microbial processes, dust deposition and entrainment into the atmosphere. Hence, desert pavements and their future trajectories of change have a strong local to global impact on coupled Earth system components. However, knowledge of the comprehensive role that desert pavements play in the Earth surface–atmosphere system is still limited, and a profound interdisciplinary understanding of their evolution, spatial extent, microbiological processes, and inherent environmental feedback mechanisms is lacking. This article provides an overview of the current state of knowledge of desert pavements as an important Earth system component and offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the key processes interacting within desert pavements, which improves our understanding of the role and importance of desert pavements within the Earth system.

We study the tunneling density of states (TDOS) in one-dimensional (1D) Mott insulators at energies below the charge gap. By employing nonlinear Luttinger liquid theory and density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations, we predict that in the presence of a magnetic impurity at the boundary, characteristic Fermi-edge singularity features can appear at subgap energies in the TDOS near the boundary. In contrast to the Kondo effect in a metal, these resonances are strongly asymmetric and of power-law form. The power-law exponent is universal and determined by the spinon-Kondo effect.

Artificial light at night (ALAN), a growing environmental stressor in urban ecosystems, disrupts natural light–dark cycles and alters plant phenological events such as leaf-out and flowering. However, the extent to which ALAN influences airborne pollen season timing and exacerbates allergy-related health risks remains largely understudied. This study investigates how ALAN influences the timing and duration of the airborne pollen season across the Northeastern United States from 2012 to 2023 and the consequences of allergenic pollen exposure. Using daily pollen concentrations from the National Allergy Bureau, ALAN data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite product, and gridded Daymet climate data, we derived three key pollen season metrics: start of season, end of season, and season length, and examined their relationship with environmental conditions. We found that higher ALAN exposure was significantly associated with an earlier start of pollen season, a later end of season, and a longer pollen season length, after controlling for temperature and precipitation. ALAN’s impact on the end of the season is larger than on the start of the season. ALAN sites experienced more days and higher severity for allergenic pollen exposure, relative to sites with minimal or no ALAN exposure. These results underscore the potential of ALAN to exacerbate allergy-related disease burdens, calling for its integration into urban environmental public health and planning strategies.

This study investigates the role of anthraquinone (AQ) in decomposing coconut husk waste, specifically collected from Banten, to produce pure α-cellulose pulp. The process used sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 10%, 15%, and 20% concentrations, with 0.1 g of AQ added as a catalyst, and a waste-to-liquid ratio of 1:8 throughout. The goal is to accelerate lignin degradation while protecting cellulose in the material, thereby yielding higher-quality pulp. The Banten coconut husk analysis showed an α-cellulose content of 30.38%. Higher NaOH concentrations reduced pulp yield but increased lignin removal, indicated by lower kappa numbers. AQ addition enhanced lignin removal and preserved cellulose compared to the absence of AQ. The optimal outcome was achieved with 15% NaOH and 0.1 g AQ, balancing lignin removal and cellulose preservation. These findings indicate that anthraquinone can support sustainable pulp production from agricultural waste.

Located within the active continental collision between Eurasia and the Adriatic microplate, Albania is an earthquake prone country with one of the highest seismic hazard in Europe. This came into evidence when the MW=6.4 Durrës earthquake hit the country in 2019, causing 51 fatalities and widespread damage to infrastructure. Despite this stark reminder, the seismotectonics of Albania remains poorly researched, holding many unknowns regarding active seismogenic faults and 3D velocity structure. In an attempt to fill-in this knowledge gap, we conceived the project ANTICS (AlbaniaN TectonIcs of Continental Subduction) to install a temporary network of 382 seismic stations and densely monitor the abundant seismic activity in central Albania. In this paper we introduce the project goals and seismic deployment, assessing data quality and extracting valuable lessons from such a complex large-N deployment. Finally, we present some preliminary results on the detected seismicity and a receiver function profile and expand on an outlook of the project and possible next steps in the area.

The tremendous interest in the technology and underlying physics of all-optical switching of magnetization brings up the question of how fast the switching can occur and how high the frequency of writing the data with ultrafast laser pulses can be. To answer this question, we excited a GdFe ferrimagnetic alloy, the magnetization of which can be reversed by single laser pulses, a phenomenon known as toggle switching, by two pulses with a certain time delay in between. Using photoemission electron microscopy and Kerr microscopy for magnetic domain imaging, we explore the effects of varying fluences of the first and second pulse as well as the time delay between the two pulses. Our results show that when the fluence of the first pulse is adjusted just above the threshold of single-pulse switching, a second pulse with about 60% of the fluence of the first pulse, arriving only 3p⁢s later, switches the magnetization back. This reswitching persists up to about 40p⁢s pulse separation. We interpret the latter as the time required for the sample to cool down and remagnetize after the first pulse. For shorter time delays below about 2p⁢s , no reswitching occurs. However, the effect of the two pulses adds up, enabling switching for fluences of both pulses below the threshold for single-pulse switching. Atomistic spin dynamics simulations are used to model the experimental data, successfully confirming our results.

The global spread of multidrug-resistant hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (MDR-HvKp), among which carbapenem-resistant strains are of major concern, poses a severe threat to public health due to its high mortality rate and extremely limited treatment options. While human-derived HvKp strains are well-studied, animal-origin variants remain poorly characterized. Here, we isolated a HvKp strain KPB from a swine farm in China, exhibiting high mortality and extreme virulence (LD50 = 20 CFU). Phylogenomic analysis of 342 K. pneumoniae genomes revealed that the swine-derived KPB (sequence type 25 [ST25] lineage) clusters closely with clinical isolates, suggesting zoonotic transmission risks. Targeted mutagenesis identified wcaJ/wzc-mediated capsule synthesis as the critical virulence determinant, with capsule-deficient mutants showing 100% reduced lethality in mouse infection models. Building on this, we developed a phage therapy achieving 100% survival in infected mice at 101 PFU doses. These findings highlight the evolutionary convergence of animal and human HvKp strains and propose phage-based strategies as a promising countermeasure against infections due to HvKp. Our study underscores the urgency of One Health surveillance to mitigate zoonotic threats.