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Oct 11, 2024 | 
pubs.usgs.gov | Stephanie Hampton |Stephen Powers |Hilary A. Dugan |Lesley B. Knoll
More than half a billion people live near lakes that freeze over in the winter. However, lakes are rapidly losing winter ice cover in response to warming, and the rate of loss has accelerated over the past 25 years. Hampton et al. reviewed the state of seasonal ice cover on lakes and discuss some of the consequences of its disappearance. Ice loss will affect culture, economy, water quality, fisheries, and biodiversity, as well as weather and climate. —Jesse Smith
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
science.org | Dimitri Fabrèges |Stephanie Hampton |Ravindra Krushnaji Raut |Satoshi Matsutani
Editor’s summaryOver the past half-century, organic chemists have devised numerous catalysts that deliver just one of two possible mirror-image (enantiomeric) products. For the most part, these catalysts rely on binding sites with oxygen or nitrogen atoms; pure hydrocarbons lacking such sites are much harder to bias spatially as the reaction ensues. Raut et al.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
science.org | Dimitri Fabrèges |Stephanie Hampton |Sarah Cobey |Jonathan Levine
Editor’s summaryMultiple strains of respiratory syncytial virus co-circulate, whereas severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 strains tend to replace each other. To try to explain such heterogeneities, Park et al. developed a method to quantify immunological niches and fitness differences among competing pathogens in humans. This theory formalizes the phenomenon that during an epidemic, susceptible individuals become so rare that another strain cannot immediately invade.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
science.org | Dimitri Fabrèges |Stephanie Hampton |Chi Shing Tsang |Xiaodong Zheng
Editor’s summaryObservations of electric fields in twisted molybdenum disulfide bilayers have revealed in-plane chiral vortex domains that depend on the twist angle. Tsang et al. used four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and first-principles calculations to determine local polar domain structures, which may arise from twist stacking-induced charge redistribution and small in-plane ionic displacements. Mosaic chiral vortex patterns were seen for large twist angles.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
science.org | Dimitri Fabrèges |Stephanie Hampton |Sara Mendes |Jens Mogens Olesen
Editor’s summaryPlants rely on seed dispersal, often by animals, for individual movement and population spread. Habitat loss and environmental change are known to threaten many plant and animal species, but the effects of population declines on the potential for seed dispersal are largely unknown. To address this knowledge gap, Mendes et al.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
science.org | Dimitri Fabrèges |Stephanie Hampton |Eduardo A Maury |Attila Jones
Editor’s summarySomatic mutations during brain development have been associated with several neurological disorders. Maury et al. performed deep whole-genome sequencing in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex tissue from donors with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (SZ), identifying somatic mutations inferred to have occurred before the end of neurogenesis (see the Perspective by An and Kim).
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
science.org | Dimitri Fabrèges |Stephanie Hampton |Xi Chen |Zeyu Chen
Editor’s summaryThe ability to mutate regions of the human genome can help us understand the effects of individual genetic variants on gene function. Chen et al. present a new tool for long-range mutagenesis that can be targeted to any genomic locus. Helicase-assisted continuous editing (HACE) uses a nickase–Cas9–single-guide RNA (sgRNA) to recruit a helicase-deaminase fusion enzyme, which then travels more than 1000 base pairs, incurring mutations across the region.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
science.org | Dimitri Fabrèges |Stephanie Hampton |Xin Lan |Tian Mi
Editor’s summaryT cell immunotherapies have been successful in treating some intractable cancers, but there are limitations caused by the inability of T cells to persist after prolonged stimulation. Kang et al. undertook a reverse-translation approach to investigate the molecular mechanisms regulating the durability of T cell responsiveness to checkpoint blockade immunotherapy (see the Perspective by Tsui and Kallies).
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
science.org | Dimitri Fabrèges |Stephanie Hampton |Stephen Powers |Hilary A. Dugan
Editor’s summaryMore than half a billion people live near lakes that freeze over in the winter. However, lakes are rapidly losing winter ice cover in response to warming, and the rate of loss has accelerated over the past 25 years. Hampton et al. reviewed the state of seasonal ice cover on lakes and discuss some of the consequences of its disappearance. Ice loss will affect culture, economy, water quality, fisheries, and biodiversity, as well as weather and climate.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
science.org | Dimitri Fabrèges |Stephanie Hampton |Bernat Corominas-Murtra |Prachiti Moghe
Editor’s summaryEarly mammalian embryos exhibit variability in gene expression, mechanical properties, and timing of cell divisions. Despite the inherent stochastic dynamics, the embryos achieve robust forms and functions. Fabrèges et al. explored how temporal variability and cell mechanics influence the robustness of embryonic development in mouse, rabbit, and monkey embryos.
