Scientists from Auburn University and international collaborators have uncovered the strongest protein-protein bond ever recorded in nature. Their discovery explains why Staphylococcus aureus, a leading cause of skin infections, clings so stubbornly to human skin — and points to new ways of fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Research led by University of Utah and Stanford analyzed thallium isotopes to show oxygen was slow to reach Earth’s ocean depths during the Paleozoic. O2 levels rose and fell at the ocean floor long after marine animals appeared and diversified half billion years ago, according to study of ancient marine sediments exposed by river cuts in Canada's Yukon.

African easterly waves, which directly impact communities in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, are shown to intensify during La Niña, advancing our understanding of how these weather systems influence storm activity.

Mice turning tiny steering wheels to move shapes on a screen have helped scientists produce the first brain-wide map of decision-making at single-cell resolution in a mammal. In two Nature papers published Sept. 3, an international team of 22 groups, co-led by three Princeton University neuroscience labs, charted the activity of more than 600,000 neurons as mice performed a decision-making task. The resulting dataset offers an unprecedented view of how distributed neural networks work together across the brain to guide behavior.