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Wood density is a key control on tree biomass, and understanding its spatial variation improves estimates of forest carbon stock. Sullivan et al. measure >900 forest plots to quantify wood density and produce high resolution maps of its variation across South American tropical forests.

Data from a variety of sources—including satellite, climate and soil data, as well as field-collected information on plant traits—are pooled and analysed to map the functional diversity of tropical forest canopies globally.

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

In this study, the authors report that post-vaccination neutralizing and binding antibody levels in the ENSEMBLE trial associate with Ad26.COV2.S vaccine efficacy (VE) against severe-critical COVID-19, with substantial VE even at unquantifiable neutralizing antibody titer.

An analysis of habitat fragmentation using a dataset of more than 4,000 species worldwide shows that fragmentation reduces biodiversity at all scales, and that increases in β diversity do not compensate for the loss of α diversity.

Using 13 functional traits we characterize the Amazonian trees and the communities they form. Amazonian tree communities are distributed along a fast-slow-spectrum. This results in clear differences in traits among these forests, as well as their biomass and biomass productivity.

In the homologous recombination repair-deficient population of TALAPRO-2, a placebo-controlled phase 3 trial, treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor talazoparib plus enzalutamide led to prolonged progression-free survival compared with placebo plus enzalutamide.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

Gold-standard evidence for correlates of protection is provided by analysis of a randomized phase 3 trial of Ad26.COV2.S for protection against moderate to severe-critical COVID-19 disease.

Previous studies suggest that rates of gorge formation are controlled by bedrock erodibility, erosion mechanism and hillslope processes. Here, the authors show evidence of rapid gorge formation in granite bedrock and report no relationship with flood size or bedload, attributing the rate to pre-existing jointing.

Wood density is an important plant trait. Data from 1.1 million forest inventory plots and 10,703 tree species show a latitudinal gradient in wood density, with temperature and soil moisture explaining variation at the global scale and disturbance also having a role at the local level.

Genetic and Structural analysis of COVID patients cohort reveals a correlation between mitochondrial haplogroup and SARS-CoV-2 severity.

This ancient and hostile ecosystem hosts a surprising variety of microbial organisms.

Estimates from the Global Dietary Database indicated that 2.2 million new type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cardiovascular disease cases were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages worldwide in 2020, with the highest burdens in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Here, the authors present results of the ZiBRA-2 project (https://www.zibra2project.org) which is an arbovirus surveillance project, across the Midwest of Brazil using a mobile genomics laboratory, combined with a genomic surveillance training program that targeted post-graduate students, laboratory technicians, and health practitioners in universities and laboratories.

The genome sequence of segmental allotetraploid peanut suggests that diversity generated by genetic deletions and homeologous recombination helped to favor the domestication of Arachis hypogaea over its diploid relatives.

A global multi-taxon extinction risk assessment of freshwater fauna for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species finds one-quarter of species to be at high risk of extinction.

Entanglement was observed in top–antitop quark events by the ATLAS experiment produced at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN using a proton–proton collision dataset with a centre-of-mass energy of √s  = 13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 fb⁻¹.

Mapping and quantifying degree of forest modification is critical to conserve and manage forests. Here the authors propose a new quantitative metric for landscape integrity and apply it to a global forest map, showing that less than half of the world’s forest cover has high integrity, most of which is outside nationally designed protected areas.

Alternative stable states in forests have implications for the biosphere. Here, the authors combine forest biodiversity observations and simulations revealing that leaf types across temperate regions of the NH follow a bimodal distribution suggesting signatures of alternative forest states.

Analysis of 20 chemical and morphological plant traits at diverse sites across 6 continents shows that the transition from semi-arid to arid zones is associated with an unexpected 88% increase in trait diversity.

Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are tissue-resident immune cells recognizing lipid antigens. Here the authors find that liver, but not lung nor spleen, iNKT cells alter their transcriptome upon systemic treatment of lipid nanoparticles for the induction of regulatory B cells and suppression of liver and pancreas autoimmunity in mouse models.

The long non-coding RNA locus Maenli controls mouse limb development by regulating En1 activity, and the absence of the homolgous MAENLI locus is associated with severe congenital limb defects in humans.

The most up-to-date combination of results on the properties of the Higgs boson is reported, which indicate that its properties are consistent with the standard model predictions, within the precision achieved to date.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

Authors have previously reported on the efficacy and safety of the recombinant spike protein nanoparticle vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, in healthy adults. In this work, they assess anti-spike binding IgG, anti-RBD binding IgG and neutralising antibody titer as correlates of risk and protection against COVID-19.

Here, the authors characterize the neutralization capacity of post-Sputnik V vaccination sera against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern B.1.1.7 (alpha) and B.1.351 (beta), showing the latter to exhibit resistance to neutralization in vitro.

Analysing >1,700 inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network, the authors show that the majority of Amazon tree species can occupy floodplains and that patterns of species turnover are closely linked to regional flood patterns.

The CMS Collaboration reports evidence for off-shell Higgs boson contributions in the production of Z boson pairs, and measures the width of the Higgs boson, which is inversely related to its lifetime.

The CMS Collaboration reports the study of three simultaneous hard interactions between quarks and gluons in proton–proton collisions. This manifests through the concurrent production of three J/ψ mesons, which consist of a charm-quark–antiquark pair.

Analysis of HbA1c and FPG levels across 117 population-based studies demonstrates regional variation in prevalence of previously undiagnosed screen-detected diabetes using one or both measures and suggests that use of elevated FPG alone could underestimate diabetes prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.

MRI data from more than 100 studies have been aggregated to yield new insights about brain development and ageing, and create an interactive open resource for comparison of brain structures throughout the human lifespan, including those associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders.