The answer to the biodiversity crisis is not more debt p.539

Funding pledges from China and other countries need to be given in grants — which must include research grants — and not as a reward for taking out loans.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02891-y

The COVID pandemic must lead to tuberculosis vaccines p.540

The coronavirus crisis has halted decades of progress on TB. But the speed of COVID vaccines shows there can still be hope for advances against neglected diseases.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02892-x

Attempt to charge Mexican scientists with ‘organized crime’ prompts international outcry p.547

The Mexican government has accused 31 scientists and officials of organized crime and money laundering — allegations that they deny and that many claim are politically motivated.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02816-9

Physicists make most precise measurement ever of neutron’s lifetime p.549

But decades-long mystery of how long the particles live persists.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02812-z

Ancient DNA points to origins of modern domestic horses p.550

Genetic analysis shows that the ancestors of all modern horses lived in the Western Eurasian steppes more than 4,000 years ago.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02858-z

Climate change: Nature readers say their fears are growing p.551

Poll shows that 80% of respondents are more concerned in the run-up to the COP26 climate meeting than they were ahead of the Paris conference 6 years ago.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02862-3

COVID vaccine makers brace for a variant worse than Delta p.552

Companies are updating vaccines and testing them on people to prepare for whatever comes next in the pandemic.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02854-3

‘Politicians shouldn’t meddle’: new chief of Europe’s major research funder shares priorities p.553

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02885-w

The shifting sands of ‘gain-of-function’ research p.554

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02903-x

The secret lives of cells — as never seen before p.558

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02904-w

Machine learning enables global solar-panel detection p.567

An inventory of the world’s solar-panel installations has been produced with the help of machine learning, revealing many more than had previously been recorded. The results will inform efforts to meet global targets for solar-energy use.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02875-y

Opioid peptide signal in the brain makes mice hungrier for reward p.568

Release of opioid peptide in the brain leads food-deprived mice to eat more sugar than do mice that are well fed. This opioid signalling mechanism fine-tunes the reward value of food according to the animal’s state.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02723-z

Bacteria recycle tumour waste to fuel immune cells p.570

Key nutrients that are needed by immune cells are scarce in tumours. Engineered cancer-invading bacteria can recycle tumour waste into metabolic fuel to boost anticancer immune responses in mice.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02639-8

A compact device sustains a fluid of bosons p.571

A device that generates exotic fluids of particles at equilibrium conditions and high temperatures could have applications ranging from low-loss electrical cables to memory storage.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02876-x

Electroacupuncture activates neurons to switch off inflammation p.573

Neurons that express a specific molecular marker are activated by ‘electroacupuncture’ stimulation. They can then mediate the treatment’s anti-inflammatory effects in a mouse model of the inflammatory condition sepsis.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02714-0

Call for a framework for reporting evidence for life beyond Earth p.575

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03804-9

A solar C/O and sub-solar metallicity in a hot Jupiter atmosphere p.580

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03912-6

Strongly correlated excitonic insulator in atomic double layers p.585

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03947-9

Copper-coordinated cellulose ion conductors for solid-state batteries p.590

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03885-6

Multicomponent alkene azidoarylation by anion-mediated dual catalysis p.597

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03980-8

A global inventory of photovoltaic solar energy generating units p.604

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03957-7

Global potential for harvesting drinking water from air using solar energy p.611

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03900-w

Indo-Pacific Walker circulation drove Pleistocene African aridification p.618

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03896-3

Spatiotemporal origin of soil water taken up by vegetation p.624

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03958-6

Dairying enabled Early Bronze Age Yamnaya steppe expansions p.629

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03798-4

The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes p.634

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04018-9

A neuroanatomical basis for electroacupuncture to drive the vagal–adrenal axis p.641

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04001-4

An endogenous opioid circuit determines state-dependent reward consumption p.646

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04013-0

Leprosy in wild chimpanzees p.652

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03968-4

Parallelism of intestinal secretory IgA shapes functional microbial fitness p.657

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03973-7

Metabolic modulation of tumours with engineered bacteria for immunotherapy p.662

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04003-2

The cellular environment shapes the nuclear pore complex architecture p.667

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03985-3

Structure of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus in complex with the LDLRAD3 receptor p.672

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03963-9

Structure of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus with its receptor LDLRAD3 p.677

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03909-1

KDM5B promotes immune evasion by recruiting SETDB1 to silence retroelements p.682

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03994-2

Structures of full-length glycoprotein hormone receptor signalling complexes p.688

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03924-2