Getting out of the World Health Organization might not be as easy as Trump thinks p.459

There is no process for member countries to withdraw. The United States should stay and help to reform the agency from within.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01847-y

How diplomacy helped to end the race to sequence the human genome p.460

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01849-w

How deadly is the coronavirus? Scientists are close to an answer p.467

Public-health researchers use the infection fatality rate to gauge how to respond to a new disease, but it’s tricky to calculate.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01738-2

Coronavirus breakthrough: dexamethasone is first drug shown to save lives p.469

In a large trial, a cheap and widely available steroid cut deaths by one-third among patients critically ill with COVID-19.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01824-5

Latin American scientists join the coronavirus vaccine race: ‘No one’s coming to rescue us’ p.470

Researchers fear that breakthroughs from abroad will be too slow or inequitably shared to benefit the global south.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01756-0

Pluto probe offers eye-popping view of neighbouring star Proxima Centauri p.472

NASA’s New Horizons mission measures the distances of two stars from the outer reaches of the Solar System.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01699-6

Hundreds of Israel’s archaeological sites are vanishing under concrete p.474

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01811-w

Method to combat Parkinson’s disease by astrocyte-to-neuron conversion p.489

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01817-4

Large-scale early Maya sites in Mexico revealed by lidar mapping technology p.490

Archaeology is transforming our view of how ancient Maya societies developed. Use of lidar technology has now led to the discovery that large, monumental structures that aid naked-eye astronomy were built unexpectedly early.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01570-8

Tumour metabolites hinder DNA repair p.492

Altered metabolism and genome instability are hallmarks of cancer. A mechanism now explains how three small molecules that accumulate in tumours connect abnormal metabolism to genomic problems by hindering DNA repair.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01569-1

A step closer to secure global communication p.494

Quantum key distribution is a cryptographic method that can guarantee secure communication. A satellite-based experiment has shown that this technique can be applied over long distances without the need for trusted relays.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01779-7

Model system might reveal how coral cells take up and evict algae p.495

Global warming is threatening the survival of coral reefs. A laboratory model system has now been developed that should aid efforts to understand reef biology and the processes that underlie harmful bleaching events.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01715-9

A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii p.497

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2400-z

Entanglement-based secure quantum cryptography over 1,120 kilometres p.501

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2401-y

Optical Fourier surfaces p.506

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2390-x

Ultralow-dielectric-constant amorphous boron nitride p.511

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2375-9

High-strength Damascus steel by additive manufacturing p.515

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2409-3

Mapping the emergence of molecular vibrations mediating bond formation p.520

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2417-3

Variable water input controls evolution of the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc p.525

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2407-5

Monumental architecture at Aguada Fénix and the rise of Maya civilization p.530

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2343-4

Lineage dynamics of the endosymbiotic cell type in the soft coral Xenia p.534

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2385-7

Hidden neural states underlie canary song syntax p.539

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2397-3

Feedback generates a second receptive field in neurons of the visual cortex p.545

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2319-4

Reversing a model of Parkinson’s disease with in situ converted nigral neurons p.550

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2388-4

Aerodynamic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in two Wuhan hospitals p.557

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2271-3

Rapid reconstruction of SARS-CoV-2 using a synthetic genomics platform p.561

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2294-9

A metabolic pathway for bile acid dehydroxylation by the gut microbiome p.566

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2396-4

Deciphering human macrophage development at single-cell resolution p.571

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2316-7

Complement genes contribute sex-biased vulnerability in diverse disorders p.577

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2277-x

Cellular locomotion using environmental topography p.582

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2283-z

Oncometabolites suppress DNA repair by disrupting local chromatin signalling p.586

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2363-0

The proteome landscape of the kingdoms of life p.592

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2402-x