Nature,自然周论 18 December 2025,Volume 648,Issue 8094
《自然》2025年12月18日，第648卷，出版8094期
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行星科学
Planetary? Science
Experiments reveal extreme water generation during planet formation
实验揭示行星形成过程中产生大量水
▲ 作者：F. Miozzi,文导闻科WhatsApp%E3%80%90+86%2015855158769%E3%80%9140%20crane%20ave%20east%20longmeadow A. Shahar, E. D. Young, J. Wang, A. Steele, S. Borensztajn, S. M. Vitale, E. S. Bullock, N. Wehr & J. Badro?
The most abundant type of planet discovered in the Galaxy has no analogue in our Solar System and is believed to consist of a rocky interior with an overlying thick H2-dominated envelope. Models have predicted that the reaction between the atmospheric hydrogen and the underlying magma ocean can lead to the production of notable amounts of water. However, the models suffer from the current lack of experimental data on the reaction between hydrogen and silicate melt at high pressures and temperatures. Here we present new experimental results designed to investigate this interaction. Laser heating diamond anvil cell experiments were conducted between 16 GPa and 60 GPa at temperatures above 4,000 K. We find that copious amounts of hydrogen dissolve into the silicate melt with a large dependence on temperature rather than pressure. We also find that the reduction of iron oxide leads to the production of marked amounts of water along with the formation of iron-enriched blebs. Altogether, the results indicate that the typical processes attending planet formation will result in substantial water production with repercussions for the chemistry and structure of the planetary interior as well as the atmosphere.
Titan’s strong tidal dissipation precludes a subsurface ocean
土卫六强烈潮汐耗散排除了存在地下海洋的可能性
▲ 作者：Flavio Petricca, Steven D. Vance, Marzia Parisi, Dustin Buccino, Gael Cascioli, Julie Castillo-Rogez, Brynna G. Downey, Francis Nimmo, Gabriel Tobie, Baptiste Journaux, Andrea Magnanini, Ula Jones, Mark Panning, Amirhossein Bagheri, Antonio Genova & Jonathan I. Lunine?
The Cassini mission provided unprecedented insights into Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, from its atmosphere to the deep interior1. The moon’s large measured response to the tides exerted by Saturn was interpreted as evidence of the existence of a subsurface ocean2,3. This response, twice the value predicted in pre-Cassini studies, has escaped complete explanation. Here we show that the signature of tidal dissipation in Titan’s gravity field is not consistent with the presence of an ocean. Our results arise from the detection of this signature through a reanalysis of the radiometric data acquired by Cassini with improved techniques. We found that substantial energy is being dissipated in the interior (approximately 3–4TW, corresponding to a tidal quality factor Q≈5), consistent with recent studies of Titan’s rotational state4. Because the presence of a liquid layer reduces the tidal dissipation generated below it5, these new measurements preclude the existence of a subsurface ocean on Titan and are explained by a model in which dissipation is concentrated in a high-pressure ice layer close to its melting point. This model also reproduces Titan’s observed rotational state and static gravity field self-consistently, reconciling all available geophysical measurements. Efficient ice shell convection can prevent widespread melting and ocean formation, but a slushy high-pressure ice layer is consistent with expectations6, indicating that it probably hosts liquid water pockets. The forthcoming Dragonfly mission to Titan will provide a further test of whether a subsurface ocean exists.
物理学
Physics
An 11-qubit atom processor in silicon
硅中的11量子比特原子处理器
▲ 作者：Hermann Edlbauer, Junliang Wang, A. M. Saffat-Ee Huq, Ian Thorvaldson, Michael T. Jones, Saiful Haque Misha, William J. Pappas, Christian M. Moehle, Yu-Ling Hsueh, Henric Bornemann, Samuel K. Gorman, Yousun Chung, Joris G. Keizer, Ludwik Kranz & Michelle Y. Simmons?
Phosphorus atoms in silicon represent a promising platform for quantum computing, as their nuclear spins exhibit coherence times over seconds1,2 with high-fidelity readout and single-qubit control3. By placing several phosphorus atoms within a radius of a few nanometres, they couple by means of the hyperfine interaction to a single, shared electron. Such a nuclear spin register enables high-fidelity multi-qubit control4 and the execution of small-scale quantum algorithms5. An important requirement for scaling up is the ability to extend high-fidelity entanglement non-locally across several spin registers. Here we address this challenge with an 11-qubit atom processor composed of two multi-nuclear spin registers that are linked by means of electron exchange interaction. Through the advancement of calibration and control protocols, we achieve single-qubit and multi-qubit gates with all fidelities ranging from 99.10% to 99.99%. By entangling all combinations of local and non-local nuclear-spin pairs, we map out the performance of the processor and achieve state-of-the-art Bell-state fidelities of up to 99.5%. We then generate Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) states with an increasing number of qubits and show entanglement of up to eight nuclear spins. By establishing high-fidelity operation across interconnected nuclear spin registers, we realize a key milestone towards fault-tolerant quantum computation with atom processors.
Laser spectroscopy and CP-violation sensitivity of actinium monofluoride
激光光谱学与氟化锕分子的联合变换破坏敏感性
▲ 作者：M. Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis, M. Au, A. Kyuberis, C. Zülch, K. Gaul, H. Wibowo, L. Skripnikov, L. Lalanne, J. R. Reilly, á. Koszorús, S. Bara, J. Ballof, R. Berger, C. Bernerd, A. Borschevsky, A. A. Breier, K. Chrysalidis, T. E. Cocolios, R. P. de Groote, A. Dorne, J. Dobaczewski, C. M. Fajardo Zambrano, K. T. Flanagan, S. Franchoo, …X. F. Yang Show authors
The apparent invariance of the strong nuclear force under combined charge conjugation and parity (CP) remains an open question in modern physics1,2. Precision experiments with heavy atoms and molecules can provide stringent constraints on CP violation via searches for effects due to permanent electric dipole moments and other CP-odd properties in leptons, hadrons and nuclei3. Radioactive molecules have been proposed as highly sensitive probes for such searches4, but experiments with most such molecules have so far been beyond technical reach. Here we report the production and spectroscopic study of a gas-phase actinium molecule, 227AcF. We observe the predicted strongest electronic transition from the ground state, which is necessary for efficient readout in searches of symmetry-violating interactions. Furthermore, we perform electronic- and nuclear-structure calculations for 227AcF to determine its sensitivity to various CP-violating parameters, and find that a realistic, near-term experiment with a precision of 1 mHz would improve current constraints on the CP-violating parameter hyperspace by 3 orders of magnitude. Our results thus highlight the potential of 227AcF for exceptionally sensitive searches of CP violation.
生命科学
Life Science
Evidence for improved DNA repair in the long-lived bowhead whale
长寿弓头鲸DNA修复能力增强的证据
▲ 作者：Denis Firsanov, Max Zacher, Xiao Tian, Todd L. Sformo, Yang Zhao, Gregory Tombline, J. Yuyang Lu, Zhizhong Zheng, Luigi Perelli, Enrico Gurreri, Li Zhang, Jing Guo, Anatoly Korotkov, Valentin Volobaev, Seyed Ali Biashad, Zhihui Zhang, Johanna Heid, Alexander Y. Maslov, Shixiang Sun, Zhuoer Wu, Jonathan Gigas, Eric C. Hillpot, John C. Martinez, Minseon Lee, …Vera Gorbunova Show authors
At more than 200 years, the maximum lifespan of the bowhead whale exceeds that of all other mammals. The bowhead is also the second-largest animal on Earth1, reaching over 80,000 kg. Despite its very large number of cells and long lifespan, the bowhead is not highly cancer-prone, an incongruity termed Peto’s paradox2. Here, to understand the mechanisms that underlie the cancer resistance of the bowhead whale, we examined the number of oncogenic hits required for malignant transformation of whale primary fibroblasts. Unexpectedly, bowhead whale fibroblasts required fewer oncogenic hits to undergo malignant transformation than human fibroblasts. However, bowhead whale cells exhibited enhanced DNA double-strand break repair capacity and fidelity, and lower mutation rates than cells of other mammals. We found the cold-inducible RNA-binding protein CIRBP to be highly expressed in bowhead fibroblasts and tissues. Bowhead whale CIRBP enhanced both non-homologous end joining and homologous recombination repair in human cells, reduced micronuclei formation, promoted DNA end protection, and stimulated end joining in vitro. CIRBP overexpression in Drosophila extended lifespan and improved resistance to irradiation. These findings provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that, rather than relying on additional tumour suppressor genes to prevent oncogenesis3,4,5, the bowhead whale maintains genome integrity through enhanced DNA repair. This strategy, which does not eliminate damaged cells but faithfully repairs them, may be contributing to the exceptional longevity and low cancer incidence in the bowhead whale.
Multi-omic profiling reveals age-related immune dynamics in healthy adults
多组学分析揭示健康成年人体内与年龄相关的免疫动态
▲ 作者：Qiuyu Gong, Mehul Sharma, Marla C. Glass, Emma L. Kuan, Aishwarya Chander, Mansi Singh, Lucas T. Graybuck, Zachary J. Thomson, Christian M. LaFrance, Samir Rachid Zaim, Tao Peng, Lauren Y. Okada, Palak C. Genge, Katherine E. Henderson, Elisabeth M. Dornisch, Erik D. Layton, Peter J. Wittig, Alexander T. Heubeck, Nelson M. Mukuka, Julian Reading, Garrett Strawn, Teminijesu Titus-Adewunmi, Kathleen Abadie, Charles R. Roll, …Claire E. Gustafson Show authors
The generation and maintenance of immunity is a dynamic process that is dependent on age. Here, to better understand its progression, we profiled peripheral immunity in more than 300 healthy adults (25 to 90 years of age) using single-cell RNA sequencing, proteomics and flow cytometry, following 96 adults longitudinally across 2 years with seasonal influenza vaccination. The resulting resource generated a single-cell RNA-sequencing dataset of more than 16 million peripheral blood mononuclear cells with 71 immune cell subsets from our Human Immune Health Atlas and enabled us to interrogate how immune cell composition and states shift with age, chronic viral infection and vaccination. From these data, we demonstrate robust, non-linear transcriptional reprogramming in T cell subsets with age that is not driven by systemic inflammation or chronic cytomegalovirus infection. This age-related reprogramming led to a functional T helper 2 (TH2) cell bias in memory T cells that is linked to dysregulated B cell responses against highly boosted antigens in influenza vaccines. Collectively, this study reveals unique features of the immune ageing process that occur prior to advanced age and provides novel targets for age-related immune modulation.?
