Egalité: France’s research reforms must balance competitiveness with well-being p.7

France must take a harder look at the risks and rewards of its competitiveness agenda.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-02853-w

Get Africa’s Great Green Wall back on track p.8

A plan to green 7,000 kilometres of Africa’s drylands is struggling to take off. Researchers must help.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03080-z

New polio vaccine poised to get emergency WHO approval p.15

The vaccine, designed to prevent harmful mutations, is seen as key to eradicating polio.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03045-2

Why schools probably aren’t COVID hotspots p.17

Young children are unlikely to spread the virus — but older kids are more at risk, say researchers.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-02973-3

The race to make COVID antibody therapies cheaper and more potent p.18

Injections of antibodies might prevent mild COVID-19 from becoming severe, but the treatments are expensive and difficult to make.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-02965-3

How France overcame the odds to build a research mega-campus p.19

The huge Paris–Saclay University has earned a top international ranking — but researchers say it’s too soon to judge whether the model is a success.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03004-x

Ancient dog DNA reveals 11,000 years of canine evolution p.20

Genomes trace how the animals moved around the world — often with humans by their side.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03053-2

Wealthy funder pays reparations for use of HeLa cells p.20

Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s six-figure donation is a step towards addressing racial injustice in the sciences.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03042-5

The next-generation bots interfering with the US election p.21

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03034-5

Are infections seeding some cases of Alzheimer’s disease? p.22

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03084-9

The false promise of herd immunity for COVID-19 p.26

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-02948-4

Cryo-electron microscopy reaches atomic resolution p.39

A structural-biology technique called cryo-electron microscopy has attained the ability to locate individual atoms within a protein. What are the implications of this advance?

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-02924-y

Competition at nuclear extremes explains why neutrons drip off nuclei p.40

The neutron drip line refers to the maximum number of neutrons that can be packed into the atomic nuclei of each chemical element. A mechanism has been proposed that could explain the long-debated origin of this drip line.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03016-7

Satellites could soon map every tree on Earth p.42

An analysis of satellite images has pinpointed individual tree canopies over a large area of West Africa. The data suggest that it will soon be possible, with certain limitations, to map the location and size of every tree worldwide.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-02830-3

A fast radio burst in our own Galaxy p.43

The origins of millisecond-long bursts of radio emissions, known as fast radio bursts, from beyond our Galaxy have been enigmatic. The detection of one such burst from a Galactic source helps to constrain the theories.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03018-5

The physical mechanisms of fast radio bursts p.45

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2828-1

A bright millisecond-duration radio burst from a Galactic magnetar p.54

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2863-y

A fast radio burst associated with a Galactic magnetar p.59

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2872-x

No pulsed radio emission during a bursting phase of a Galactic magnetar p.63

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2839-y

The impact of nuclear shape on the emergence of the neutron dripline p.66

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2848-x

Logic-in-memory based on an atomically thin semiconductor p.72

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2861-0

An unexpectedly large count of trees in the West African Sahara and Sahel p.78

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2824-5

150 million years of sustained increase in pterosaur flight efficiency p.83

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2858-8

Memory failure predicted by attention lapsing and media multitasking p.87

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2870-z

Quinone perception in plants via leucine-rich-repeat receptor-like kinases p.92

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2655-4

snRNA-seq reveals a subpopulation of adipocytes that regulates thermogenesis p.98

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2856-x

A single bacterial genus maintains root growth in a complex microbiome p.103

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2778-7

Cytoplasmic control of intranuclear polarity by human cytomegalovirus p.109

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2714-x

TGF-β suppresses type 2 immunity to cancer p.115

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2836-1

Cancer immunotherapy via targeted TGF-β signalling blockade in TH cells p.121

4T-Trap, a bispecific molecule designed to recognize CD4 and bind TGF-β, blocks TGF-β signalling in T helper cells, causing interleukin-4-dependent vascular reorganization and cancer cell death in a mouse model of breast cancer.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2850-3

Pervasive chromosomal instability and karyotype order in tumour evolution p.126

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2698-6

Modulating TRADD to restore cellular homeostasis and inhibit apoptosis p.133

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2757-z

The landscape of RNA Pol II binding reveals a stepwise transition during ZGA p.139

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2847-y

A protein assembly mediates Xist localization and gene silencing p.145

A protein condensate formed by multivalent interactions between the long non-coding RNA Xist and specific RNA-binding proteins drives the compartmentalization required to perpetuate gene silencing on the inactive X chromosome.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2703-0

Single-particle cryo-EM at atomic resolution p.152

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2829-0

Atomic-resolution protein structure determination by cryo-EM p.157

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2833-4