World leaders must step up to put biodiversity deal on path to success p.189

Ahead of the COP15 biodiversity meeting, few disagree that we must do more to protect nature — but money, underwritten by top-level support, is needed to make it happen.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04329-5

To get serious on the circular economy, upend how global business works p.190

Reducing our waste’s impact on the planet requires new technology and materials — and, more importantly, a complete rethink of how we incentivize the production and use of resources.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04330-y

Heralded Alzheimer’s drug works — but safety concerns loom p.197

Eisai and Biogen share clinical trial data confirming that lecanemab slows mental decline, amid reports of potentially related deaths.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04240-z

‘An attack on the future of science’: why UK researchers are striking p.198

Nature spoke to three scientists seeking better pay and working conditions in the largest-ever higher-education strike.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04146-w

Ancient skull uncovered in China could be million-year-old Homo erectus p.200

Fieldwork is under way to excavate a rare, well-preserved specimen in central China.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04142-0

Did physicists create a wormhole in a quantum computer? p.201

An unusual teleportation experiment uses ordinary quantum physics, but was inspired by tunnels in an exotic ‘toy universe’.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04201-6

Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders p.202

Study is one of the few to show the behavioural effects of Toxoplasma gondii in wild animals.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-03836-9

Can China avoid a wave of deaths if it lifts strict zero COVID policy? p.203

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04235-w

How a dangerous stew of air pollution is choking the United States p.204

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04333-9

Strange flashes linked to stars merging rather than dying p.213

Long bursts of γ-rays usually signal the death of massive stars, but an emission detected last year suggests that a long burst with peculiar properties originated from the merger of stars in a compact binary system.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04165-7

Plastics can be a carbon sink but only under stringent conditions p.214

Modelling reveals that the carbon emissions associated with plastics could be negative by 2100 under a strict set of technological and socio-economic conditions — including increased recycling and plant-derived production.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04164-8

Speed of learning depends on turning p.216

The neurotransmitter dopamine has been shown to serve as a signal for learning in the fly’s navigation centre. The rate at which the fly learns depends on turning, so only useful visual information is used to update the fly’s mental map.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-03681-w

Driven quantum bits push computational limit p.217

An exercise in benchmarking a quantum computer reveals that the processor can go beyond the ‘integrability’ limit, at which dynamical systems no longer have explicit solutions, and standard mathematical techniques struggle.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-04168-4

Swollen axons impair neuronal circuits in Alzheimer’s disease p.218

Abnormal protein aggregates are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. It emerges that these plaques cause swellings in neuronal projections called axons that prevent proper circuit function.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-03800-7

A viral cocktail calms gut inflammation p.220

Abnormalities in gut bacteria can contribute to hard-to-treat illnesses, such as inflammatory bowel diseases. Efforts to harness bacterium-targeting viruses reveal a promising way to tackle these conditions.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-03703-7

A kilonova following a long-duration gamma-ray burst at 350 Mpc p.223

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05390-w

A nearby long gamma-ray burst from a merger of compact objects p.228

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05327-3

A long-duration gamma-ray burst with a peculiar origin p.232

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05403-8

Gigaelectronvolt emission from a compact binary merger p.236

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05404-7

Formation of robust bound states of interacting microwave photons p.240

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05348-y

Spin–orbit microlaser emitting in a four-dimensional Hilbert space p.246

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05339-z

Integrated femtosecond pulse generator on thin-film lithium niobate p.252

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05345-1

Chiral assemblies of pinwheel superlattices on substrates p.259

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05384-8

Perovskite solar cells based on screen-printed thin films p.266

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05346-0

Plastic futures and their CO₂ emissions p.272

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05422-5

Hydroclimatic vulnerability of peat carbon in the central Congo Basin p.277

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05389-3

A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA p.283

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y

THP9 enhances seed protein content and nitrogen-use efficiency in maize p.292

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05441-2

Common and rare variant associations with clonal haematopoiesis phenotypes p.301

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05448-9

The encoding of touch by somatotopically aligned dorsal column subdivisions p.310

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05470-x

Dopamine promotes head direction plasticity during orienting movements p.316

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05485-4

Filopodia are a structural substrate for silent synapses in adult neocortex p.323

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05483-6

PLD3 affects axonal spheroids and network defects in Alzheimer’s disease p.328

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05491-6

Ferroptosis of tumour neutrophils causes immune suppression in cancer p.338

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05443-0

Colon tumour cell death causes mTOR dependence by paracrine P2X4 stimulation p.347

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05426-1

Molecular basis for selective activation of DREADD-based chemogenetics p.354

doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05489-0