World leaders are waking up to the ocean’s role in a healthy planet p.7

Fourteen nations have made an unprecedented and welcome commitment to use marine ecosystems sustainably. It is equally important to establish a system to hold them to account.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03301-5

Postdocs need urgent financial support amid COVID conditions p.8

Most funders have no plans to provide postdoctoral researchers with additional pandemic funding. Society will pay a high price if this neglect continues.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03377-z

Coronaviruses closely related to the pandemic virus discovered in Japan and Cambodia p.15

The viruses, both found in bats stored in laboratory freezers, are the first SARS-CoV-2 relatives to be found outside China.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03217-0

Why Oxford’s positive COVID vaccine results are puzzling scientists p.16

Preliminary data suggest that the immunization was more effective in trial participants who received a lower dose.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03326-w

Why emergency COVID-vaccine approvals pose a dilemma for scientists p.18

Immunizations are speeding towards approval before clinical trials end, but scientists say this could complicate efforts to study long-term effects.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03219-y

Nature journals reveal terms of landmark open-access option p.19

The journals will charge authors up to €9,500 to make research papers free to read, in a long-awaited alternative to subscription-only publishing.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03324-y

Hints of twisted light offer clues to dark energy’s nature p.21

Cosmologists suggest that an exotic substance called quintessence could be accelerating the Universe’s expansion — but the evidence is still tentative.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03201-8

Could COVID delirium bring on dementia? p.22

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03360-8

Autonomous balloons take flight with artificial intelligence p.33

An artificially intelligent controller can station a stratospheric balloon for weeks at a time without full knowledge of surrounding winds, opening up the prospect of unsupervised environmental monitoring.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03313-1

Sight restored by turning back the epigenetic clock p.34

Neurons progressively deteriorate with age and lose resilience to injury. It emerges that treatment with three transcription factors can re-endow neurons in the mature eye with youthful characteristics and the capacity to regenerate.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03119-1

Building a chemical blueprint for human blood p.36

What determines the chemical make-up of human blood? Measurement of the contributions of factors ranging from genetics to lifestyle has now identified diet and gut microbes as key predictors of blood’s molecular composition.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03122-6

Standard model of particle physics tested by the fine-structure constant p.37

A highly precise measurement of a physical constant known as the fine-structure constant provides a stringent test of the standard model of particle physics, and sets strong limits on the existence of speculative particles.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03314-0

Inference in artificial intelligence with deep optics and photonics p.39

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2973-6

Organized crime in the fisheries sector threatens a sustainable ocean economy p.48

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2913-5

Enhanced triple-α reaction reduces proton-rich nucleosynthesis in supernovae p.57

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2948-7

Determination of the fine-structure constant with an accuracy of 81 parts per trillion p.61

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2964-7

Electrical switching of magnetic order in an orbital Chern insulator p.66

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2963-8

Unconventional ferroelectricity in moiré heterostructures p.71

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2970-9

Autonomous navigation of stratospheric balloons using reinforcement learning p.77

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2939-8

Computational planning of the synthesis of complex natural products p.83

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2855-y

Thermochemical lithosphere differentiation and the origin of cratonic mantle p.89

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2976-3

The future of food from the sea p.95

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2616-y

An early Cambrian euarthropod with radiodont-like raptorial appendages p.101

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2883-7

Contrasting signatures of genomic divergence during sympatric speciation p.106

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2845-0

The cellular basis of distinct thirst modalities p.112

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2821-8

A measure of smell enables the creation of olfactory metamers p.118

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2891-7

Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision p.124

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2975-4

Tension heterogeneity directs form and fate to pattern the myocardial wall p.130

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2946-9

A reference map of potential determinants for the human serum metabolome p.135

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2896-2

Widespread endogenization of giant viruses shapes genomes of green algae p.141

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2924-2

Association of COVID-19 inflammation with activation of the C5a–C5aR1 axis p.146

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2600-6

Inhibition of LTβR signalling activates WNT-induced regeneration in lung p.151

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2882-8

Splicing factor YBX1 mediates persistence of JAK2-mutated neoplasms p.157

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2968-3

Small-molecule-induced polymerization triggers degradation of BCL6 p.164

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2925-1

Epigenetic therapy induces transcription of inverted SINEs and ADAR1 dependency p.169

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2844-1

SLC25A51 is a mammalian mitochondrial NAD+ transporter p.174

SLC25A51 is identified as a transporter of intact NAD+ into mammalian mitochondria and is required to maintain the mitochondrial NAD+ pool and respiratory function.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2741-7