How researchers can help fight climate change in 2022 and beyond p.7

COP26 energized the global effort to halt global warming. Research is now crucial to monitoring progress and creating solutions.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03817-4

Afghanistan’s academics despair months after Taliban takeover p.11

Research has stalled, funds have evaporated and many scientists are still struggling to get out.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03774-y

Webb telescope blasts off successfully — launching a new era in astronomy p.12

Hundreds of engineering steps must now take place as the observatory unfurls and travels to its new home.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03655-4

Journals adopt AI to spot duplicated images in manuscripts p.14

A few publishers are using automated software to catch flaws in submitted papers.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03807-6

The science events to watch for in 2022 p.16

Omicron, Moon missions and particle physics are among the themes set to shape research in the coming year.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03772-0

Is precision public health the future — or a contradiction? p.18

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03819-2

Earth’s eccentric orbit paced the evolution of marine phytoplankton p.27

Analysis of plankton fossils has revealed pulses of size diversity that are inextricably linked to the degree of circularity of Earth’s orbits. Could this orbital variability provide a beat that dictates the rhythm of evolution?

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03549-5

Aggregates of TDP-43 protein spiral into view p.29

In some neurodegenerative diseases, a protein called TDP-43 forms aggregates in the brain, resulting in neuronal cell death. The structure of these aggregates and their properties have been unveiled.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03605-0

A heritable, non-genetic road to cancer evolution p.31

Treatment for leukaemia can fail for reasons that are not fully clear. Tracking the progress of individual cellular lineages for this type of cancer offers a way to investigate this phenomenon.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03606-z

Mirror symmetry validated for proton and its antimatter twin p.32

A comparison of the charge-to-mass ratio for the proton and the antiproton has been performed with record-breaking precision — the best such test yet for a mirror-like symmetry that relates matter and antimatter.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-03798-4

Iron pnictides and chalcogenides: a new paradigm for superconductivity p.35

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04073-2

A stellar stream remnant of a globular cluster below the metallicity floor p.45

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04162-2

An early transition to magnetic supercriticality in star formation p.49

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04159-x

A 16-parts-per-trillion measurement of the antiproton-to-proton charge–mass ratio p.53

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04203-w

Crystallization of bosonic quantum Hall states in a rotating quantum gas p.58

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04170-2

Drop-in fuels from sunlight and air p.63

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04174-y

Depressed 660-km discontinuity caused by akimotoite–bridgmanite transition p.69

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04157-z

Experimental evidence for recovery of mercury-contaminated fish populations p.74

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04222-7

Cyclic evolution of phytoplankton forced by changes in tropical seasonality p.79

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04195-7

Spatial genomics enables multi-modal study of clonal heterogeneity in tissues p.85

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04217-4

Building an allocentric travelling direction signal via vector computation p.92

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04067-0

Transforming representations of movement from body- to world-centric space p.98

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04191-x

Local circuit amplification of spatial selectivity in the hippocampus p.105

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04169-9

Pre-existing polymerase-specific T cells expand in abortive seronegative SARS-CoV-2 p.110

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04186-8

Anatomically distinct fibroblast subsets determine skin autoimmune patterns p.118

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04221-8

Non-genetic determinants of malignant clonal fitness at single-cell resolution p.125

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04206-7

ER proteins decipher the tubulin code to regulate organelle distribution p.132

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04204-9

Structure of pathological TDP-43 filaments from ALS with FTLD p.139

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04199-3

Time-resolved structural analysis of an RNA-cleaving DNA catalyst p.144

doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04225-4