Volume 590 Issue 7845, 11 February 2021

Data sharing was a core principle that led to the success of the Human Genome Project 20 years ago. Now scientists are struggling to keep information free.

Capture the full scope of variation to improve health care, equity and medical research globally.

A new analysis traces the story of the draft genome’s impact on genomics since 2001, linking its effects on publications, drug approvals and understanding of disease.

Since the human genome was published in 2001, many of the gaps in the original sequence have been filled in, offering a more detailed understanding of genome regulation, structure and function.

Mendelian diseases are caused by mutations in a single gene. The first draft of the human genome, published in 2001, had broad implications for how these diseases are diagnosed, managed and prevented.

In the 20 years since the first drafts of the human genome were made public, an explosion in genome sequencing has revealed how our evolutionary history and health can be understood by analysing the diversity in our genomes.

The new science-funding agency will allow many thousands of university researchers to develop their talents. Its architects must work with the government to ensure it is truly autonomous.

Studies to promote uptake are as essential as research to develop vaccines.

The unique carapace was probably designed to support the deceased person’s bid for immortality.

A long-winged bat uses rising air currents to become a high flyer.

Scientists document the telltale traits of key players called myeloid cells in 15 types of cancer.

In the United States, ride-share services lure passengers away from public transit instead of luring drivers into giving up their private vehicles.

Charged particles wafting from Earth might help to keep the Moon hydrated.

A lanky species of wild rice turns compact and docile in a jiffy.

Gel discs launch themselves upwards again and again, with no external power source needed.

The latest science news, in brief.

Deaths linked to the B.1.1.7 variant are rising, but questions remain about what is causing them.

By taking fringe ideas mainstream, the former US president taught new and dangerous lessons about manipulating social and mass media.

Researchers are using huge data sets to link changes in mental health to coronavirus-response measures.

Other researchers say that restrictions at the largest SARS-CoV-2 genome platform encourage fast sharing while protecting data providers’ rights.

Algorithm named after mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan suggests interesting formulae, some of which are difficult to prove true.

The country is the first to see a direct effect of vaccines working in such a large group of people.

Scientists still debate whether millions of cheap, fast diagnostic kits will help control the pandemic. Here’s why.

In her latest book, Elizabeth Kolbert asks: could some environmental fixes be worse than the problems?

Engaging in a creative pursuit can stimulate creativity and foster boldness and tenacity in the lab and beyond.

Elena Rodriguez-Falcon is breaking the mould with a hands-on institution designed to meet Britain’s growing demand for engineering graduates.

Insulin is produced by pancreatic β-cells. The identification of a regulator of insulin signalling in these cells cements the long-standing idea that this pathway has a key role in β-cell biology.

The inability to maintain blood pressure is a debilitating consequence of spinal cord injury. This problem has now been circumvented, by artificially recreating a reflex essential for blood-pressure stability.

Newly discovered fossil evidence has led to a re-evaluation of one of the fundamental transitions in mammalian evolution: the transformation of bones of the lower jaw into those of the middle ear.

Hypothetical particles called axions could constitute dark matter — the unseen component of the Universe. An experiment shows how quantum-manipulation technology can improve the sensitivity of axion detectors.

A Review describes the three key phases that define the origins of modern human ancestry, and highlights the importance of analysing both palaeoanthropological and genomic records to further improve our understanding of our evolutionary history.

A quantum enhanced search for dark matter that uses vacuum squeezing to overcome the quantum noise limit finds no evidence of dark matter axions in a well motivated mass range.

A logical qubit encoded in multi-photon states of a superconducting cavity is protected with autonomous correction of certain quantum errors by tailoring the dissipation it is exposed to.

Highly tunable moiré superconductivity is observed in magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene, and observations suggest that this superconductor can be tuned close to the crossover to a two-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate.

A compact, high-performance silicon photonics-based light detection and ranging system for three-dimensional imaging is developed that should be amenable to low-cost mass manufacturing

Bulk ultrafine-grained steel is prepared by an approach that involves the rapid production of coherent, disordered nanoprecipitates, which restrict grain growth but do not interfere with twinning or dislocation motion, resulting in high strength and ductility.

Dispersion of colloidal disks in a nematic liquid crystal reveals several low-symmetry phases, including monoclinic colloidal nematic order, with interchange between them achieved through variations in temperature, concentration and surface charge.

Frank–Kasper phases are observed in small organic molecules from the crystallization of fampridine hydrochloride into two distinct structures, indicating that complex self-assembled structures can arise from simple organic salts.

A fossil of the Middle Jurassic haramiyidan Vilevolodon diplomylos with a well-preserved malleus, incus and ectotympanic sheds light on the evolutionary transition from a dual to a single function for the ossicles in mammals.

A chromosome-quality genome of the lungfish Neoceratodus fosteri sheds light on the development of obligate air-breathing and the gain of limb-like gene expression in lobed fins, providing insights into the water-to-land transition in vertebrate evolution.

The goals, resources and design of the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) programme are described, and analyses of rare variants detected in the first 53,831 samples provide insights into mutational processes and recent human evolutionary history.

The authors present EpiMap, a compendium that comprises 10,000 epigenomic maps across more than 800 biosamples for the annotation of genome-wide association study circuitry.

An epidural spinal cord stimulation system regulates blood pressure in the acute and chronic phases of spinal cord injury.

The antidepressant-like effects of ketamine in mice depend on the expression of specific eIF4E-binding proteins in excitatory and inhibitory neurons.

A candidate vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 that uses the yellow fever 17D live-virus vector is highly efficacious and displays a favourable safety profile in Syrian hamster, mouse and cynomolgus macaque models.

The insulin inhibitory receptor (inceptor) is identified as a negative regulator of insulin and IGF1 signalling that could be targeted for β-cell regeneration in treatments for diabetes.

Tryptophan depletion in melanoma cells after prolonged treatment with interferon-γ (IFNγ) results in ribosomal frameshifting and the production of aberrant peptides that can be presented to T cells and induce an immune response.

Long-distance V(D)J recombination is facilitated by contraction of the Igh locus and linear RAG scanning along chromatin, both driven by cohesin-mediated loop extrusion, which allows recombination of widely separated gene segments to occur.

Multiplexed imaging of 3,660 chromosomal loci in individual mouse embryonic stem cells by DNA seqFISH+ with immunofluorescence of 17 chromatin marks and subnuclear structures reveals invariant organization of loci within individual cells, and heterogeneous and long-lived distinct combinatorial chromatin states in cellular subpopulations.