You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. Katherine Bourzac is a freelance journalist in San Francisco, California. It can take less than a microsecond for proteins (artist's impression) to fold into their 3D shapes.Credit: Christoph Burgstedt/Science Photo Library The results were surprising: they found no relationship between a protein's sequence or size and how long it takes to fold into its 3D shape. And proteins seem to fold more efficiently than do other biomolecules, such as DNA — despite proteins having a more complex set of ingredients. ‘Dark proteins' hiding in our cells could hold clues to cancer and other diseases ‘Dark proteins' hiding in our cells could hold clues to cancer and other diseases But no matter how intricate its ultimate design, a protein starts out as a string of amino acids, “like a long spaghetti noodle” that can fold in any number of ways, says Hoi Sung Chung, a co-author of the paper and biophysicist at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. Improperly or incompletely folded proteins can lead to dysfunction, disease or toxicity, so scientists want to understand the details of the folding process. Identical protein molecules floating in a beaker will all reach their final 3D structure at different times, each making many unsuccessful attempts along the way. Scientists know how much time the overall process of folding, including those unsuccessful attempts, generally takes. This transition period is very brief and must be studied in individual molecules. Using this technique, scientists can assess the dynamics of dye-labelled molecules by measuring their fluorescence. This allowed them to observe the fleeting moment of folding for eight proteins. ‘Dark proteins' hiding in our cells could hold clues to cancer and other diseases Why ‘quantum proteins' could be the next big thing in biology Whistle while you whinny: researchers identify two sounds straight from the horse's mouth Laser writing in glass for dense, fast and efficient archival data storage UMass Chan Medical School (FBGao Lab) Post Doc Position to study pathogenic mechanisms of Frontotemporal Dementia using patient iPSC-derived neurons ‘Dark proteins' hiding in our cells could hold clues to cancer and other diseases An essential round-up of science news, opinion and analysis, delivered to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Mental math shortcuts suggest future STEM performance—and gender is a significant predictor Recent studies show that the less likely someone is to use procedural solutions, the better they tend to be at more abstract problem-solving—and gender is a significant predictor. And those who rarely used a procedural algorithm were significantly more likely to succeed on problem-solving questions. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. They are “the most interesting findings of my career,” she adds. And that was before Lubienski and one of her co-authors realized that another group had reached almost identical conclusions in a similar study with 810 U.S. adults. The researchers decided to team up for a two-study paper. “Together we felt like it made a pretty compelling argument that we need to pay more attention to how people are approaching computation from a young age,” Lubienski says. This tendency could factor into a long-standing paradox in math education: girls often have better math grades than boys, and girls and boys perform similarly on state assessments, but girls lag behind on high-stakes testing such as the SAT and beyond, especially with tasks that involve solving problems they've never seen before. The same studiousness that helps girls get ahead in school may be holding them back later on. The researchers also found that creative problem-solving was correlated with stronger spatial skills, specifically, with being able to rotate objects in one's mind—an ability that Lubienski says can be learned. “What I find exciting is that [the paper] points to potentially malleable mechanisms—not just ‘girls do X, boys do Y' but why those differences might emerge,” says education researcher Joseph Cimpian of New York University, who was not involved in either study. “The issue may be not ability but rather the interaction of instruction, classroom norms, anxiety and what students believe is expected of them.” Even if you're no longer in high school, it's never too late to improve your problem-solving skills and practice thinking outside the box, Lubienski says. “Try to solve math puzzles in Scientific American,” she suggests. Emma R. Hasson is Scientific American's Games ace and a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics at the City University of New York Graduate Center with expertise in math education and communication. Hasson was also a 2025 AAAS Mass Media Fellow at Scientific American. If you enjoyed this article, I'd like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history. If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized. In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Nature Materials (2026)Cite this article Realizing two-dimensional multiferroics with robust magnetoelectric coupling for electric-field-controlled magnetism at room temperature poses substantial challenges, as ferroelectricity and magnetism inherently conflict. Here we report air-stable bilayer CrTe2 that exhibits intrinsic room-temperature multiferroicity. Structural and magnetic characterization reveals an alternating ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic bilayer architecture, driven by interlayer charge transfer that spontaneously breaks inversion symmetry and generates a switchable out-of-plane ferroelectric polarization. Scanning probe microscopy confirms the non-volatile control of magnetization states with an electric field, enabling electrical writing and magnetic reading functionalities. This mechanism, rooted in interlayer charge transfer, rather than conventional spin-orbit coupling, provides a foundation for engineering multiferroics with layered systems. The demonstration of a two-dimensional multiferroic material with magnetoelectric coupling under ambient conditions provides opportunities for energy-efficient memory devices and quantum sensing technologies. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription cancel any time Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access only $21.58 per issue Buy this article Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Relevant data that support the key findings of this study are available within the Article and its Supplementary Information. All raw data generated during the current study are available from the corresponding authors upon request. The computer code used for numerical calculations and data processing is available from the corresponding authors upon request. Lu, C., Wu, M., Lin, L. & Liu, J.-M. Single-phase multiferroics: new materials, phenomena, and physics. Natl Sci. Schmid, H. Multi-ferroic magnetoelectrics. Fiebig, M., Lottermoser, T., Meier, D. & Trassin, M. The evolution of multiferroics. Spaldin, N. A. & Ramesh, R. Advances in magnetoelectric multiferroics. Eerenstein, W., Mathur, N. D. & Scott, J. F. Multiferroic and magnetoelectric materials. Wang, J. et al. Epitaxial BiFeO3 multiferroic thin film heterostructures. Kimura, T. et al. Magnetic control of ferroelectric polarization. Tomczyk, M., Mahajan, A., Tkach, A. & Vilarinho, P. M. Interface-based reduced coercivity and leakage currents of BiFeO3 thin films: a comparative study. Shin, H. W. & Son, J. Y. Leakage current characteristics of polycrystalline BiFeO3 thin films affected by thickness-dependent domain wall currents. Yang, H., Wang, Y. Q., Wang, H. & Jia, Q. X. Oxygen concentration and its effect on the leakage current in BiFeO3 thin films. Sun, Z. et al. Evidence for multiferroicity in single-layer CuCrSe2. Wang, X. et al. Electrical and magnetic anisotropies in van der Waals multiferroic CuCrP2S6. Hu, Q. et al. Ferrielectricity controlled widely-tunable magnetoelectric coupling in van der Waals multiferroics. Molinari, A. et al. Hybrid supercapacitors for reversible control of magnetism. Wang, Y. et al. Exploitable magnetic anisotropy and half-metallicity controls in multiferroic van der Waals heterostructure. npj Comput. Zhang, T. et al. Tunable Schottky barriers and magnetoelectric coupling driven by ferroelectric polarization reversal of MnI3/In2Se3 multiferroic heterostructures. npj Comput. Amini, M. et al. Atomic-scale visualization of multiferroicity in monolayer NiI2. Song, Q. et al. Evidence for a single-layer van der Waals multiferroic. Gao, F. Y. et al. Giant chiral magnetoelectric oscillations in a van der Waals multiferroic. Gou, J. et al. Two-dimensional ferroelectricity in a single-element bismuth monolayer. Li, W. et al. Emergence of ferroelectricity in a nonferroelectric monolayer. Gibertini, M., Koperski, M., Morpurgo, A. F. & Novoselov, K. S. Magnetic 2D materials and heterostructures. Mak, K. F., Shan, J. & Ralph, D. C. Probing and controlling magnetic states in 2D layered magnetic materials. Gong, C. & Zhang, X. Two-dimensional magnetic crystals and emergent heterostructure devices. Ma, J., Hu, J., Li, Z. Recent progress in multiferroic magnetoelectric composites: from bulk to thin films. Miao, G. et al. Tuning the magnetism in ultrathin CrxTey films by lattice dimensionality. et al. Spin mapping of intralayer antiferromagnetism and field-induced spin reorientation in monolayer CrTe2. Yao, J. et al. Ultrathin van der Waals antiferromagnet CrTe3 for fabrication of in-plane CrTe3/CrTe2 monolayer magnetic heterostructures. Li, R. et al. Planar heterojunction of ultrathin CrTe3 and CrTe2 van der Waals magnet. Meng, L. et al. Anomalous thickness dependence of Curie temperature in air-stable two-dimensional ferromagnetic 1T-CrTe2 grown by chemical vapor deposition. Liu, J. et al. Si-CMOS cmpatible synthesis of wafer-scale 1T-CrTe2 with step-like magnetic transition. Gruverman, A., Alexe, M. & Meier, D. Piezoresponse force microscopy and nanoferroic phenomena. Zhou, Y. et al. Out-of-plane piezoelectricity and ferroelectricity in layered α-In2Se3 nanoflakes. Bao, Y. et al. Gate-tunable in-plane ferroelectricity in few-layer SnS. Li, L. & Wu, M. Binary compound bilayer and multilayer with vertical polarizations: two-dimensional ferroelectrics, multiferroics, and nanogenerators. Li, X. et al. Sliding ferroelectric memories and synapses based on rhombohedral-stacked bilayer MoS2. Sui, F. et al. Sliding ferroelectricity in van der Waals layered γ-InSe semiconductor. Meng, P. et al. Sliding induced multiple polarization states in two-dimensional ferroelectrics. Chen, X., Ding, X., Gou, G. & Zeng, X. C. Strong sliding ferroelectricity and interlayer sliding controllable spintronic effect in two-dimensional HgI2 layers. Kim, S. K. et al. Directional dependent piezoelectric effect in CVD grown monolayer MoS2 for flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators. Rogée, L. et al. Ferroelectricity in untwisted heterobilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides. Xue, F. et al. Multidirection piezoelectricity in mono- and multilayered hexagonal α-In2Se3. Esfahani, E. N., Li, T., Huang, B., Xu, X. & Li, J. Piezoelectricity of atomically thin WSe2 via laterally excited scanning probe microscopy. Blöchl, P. E. Projector augmented-wave method. Kresse, G. & Joubert, D. From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method. Kresse, G. & Furthmüller, J. Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set. Perdew, J. P., Burke, K. & Ernzerhof, M. Generalized gradient approximation made simple. & Pack, J. D. Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations. Dion, M., Rydberg, H., Schröder, E., Langreth, D. C. & Lundqvist, B. I. Van der Waals density functional for general geometries. Lee, K., Murray, É. D., Kong, L., Lundqvist, B. I. & Langreth, D. C. Higher-accuracy van der Waals density functional. Treating electron over-delocalization with the DFT+U method. & Marzari, N. Systematic study of first-row transition-metal diatomic molecules: a self-consistent DFT+U approach. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. T2325028 and 12274016) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China (grant nos. L. Chen acknowledges support from the CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (grant no. acknowledges the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LRG25A040001 and LDT23F04014F01). acknowledges the Beijing High Innovation Plan (grant no. 202504841020) and the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Project (grant no. The authors acknowledge Quantum Scale Co., Ltd. for technical support in atomic force microscope experiments. These authors contributed equally: Dacheng Tian, Shulin Zhong, Jianyu Dong. Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Dacheng Tian, Jianyu Dong, Song Zhou, Yu Wang, Peng Cheng, Yiqi Zhang, Baojie Feng & Lan Chen School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China Shulin Zhong & Yunhao Lu School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Dacheng Tian, Jianyu Dong, Song Zhou, Peng Cheng, Yiqi Zhang, Baojie Feng & Lan Chen Oxford Instruments Technology China, Beijing, China National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China Kai Chen & Wenhua Zhang Anhui Key Laboratory of Low Energy Quantum Materials and Devices, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, HFIPS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, China Xiaoyue He, Xiu Li & Tengyu Guo School of Physics, Beihang University, Beijing, China Kunrong Du, Haifeng Feng & Yi Du Tsientang Institute for Advanced Study, Zhejiang, China Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, China Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar L. Chen proposed and conceived this project. D.T., J.D., S. Zhou and Z.L. contributed to the experiments under the supervision of L. Chen and Y.D. The theoretical model was provided by Y.L., and S. Zhong performed calculations under the supervision of Y.L. Help with data analysis was provided by K.C., W.Z., L. Cao, X.H., T.G., K.D., H.F., Y.W., K.W., P.C., S.W. The manuscript was written by D.T., S. Zhong, Y.L. and L. Chen, with input and comments from all co-authors. Correspondence to Yi Du, Yunhao Lu or Lan Chen. The authors declare no competing interests. Nature Materials thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. 1–16, Discussion and Table 1. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. Reprints and permissions Tian, D., Zhong, S., Dong, J. et al. Room-temperature two-dimensional multiferroic metal with voltage-controllable magnetic order. Version of record: 09 March 2026 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative © 2026 Springer Nature Limited Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Archaeologists investigating burial sites at Gomolava in northern Serbia discovered a grave holding the remains of more than 77 people. Their injuries, which included blunt force trauma and stab wounds, show they died violently in what researchers believe was a deliberate and organized act of large scale violence. "When we encounter mass graves from prehistory with this kind of demographic, we might expect they were families from a village that was attacked," said co-lead and ERC grantee Associate Professor Barry Molloy, UCD School of Archaeology. "Gomolava genuinely took us by surprise when our genetic analysis showed the majority of people studied were not only unrelated, not even their great-great-grandparents were. This was highly unusual for a prehistoric mass grave and not what we expect to find if they had all lived together in a village." Researchers say this pattern suggests the event was more than a sudden raid. Younger people were often captured during attacks in ancient times and taken as slaves. The findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, provide new insight into violence during the Iron Age and reveal how mass killings could be used to demonstrate power and dominance in prehistoric Europe. The burial itself was unusual compared with other prehistoric mass graves. Evidence suggests the site was prepared with care, and the victims were interred with personal belongings such as bronze jewellery and ceramic drinking vessels. "It is typical in prehistoric mass graves for victims to be hastily buried together in a pit, maybe by survivors or even their killers. The victims at Gomolava were hastily buried in a disused semi-subterranean house, but uniquely, not only had the bodies not been looted of their valuables, offerings were made in what must have been a respectful ritual," said Associate Professor Molloy. Animal remains were also placed in the grave, including a butchered calf. Researchers also found broken grain grinding stones and burnt seeds covering the burial. DNA analysis showed the victims were not closely related to one another. At the same time, isotopic data from their teeth and bones revealed differences in childhood diets. These findings suggest the women and children likely came from multiple settlements and may have been captured or forcibly displaced before they were killed. The construction of these fortifications likely created new claims over surrounding land. According to the researchers, this may have triggered conflict with neighboring groups that disputed territorial boundaries or with mobile pastoralists who relied on seasonal access to the same land. "Our team has been tracing the Bronze Age collapse and its aftermath in Europe. What we found at Gomolava tells us that as things recovered in this area moving into the Iron Age, reasserting control over landscapes could include widespread and extremely violent episodes between competing groups," added Associate Professor Molloy. These Tiny Teeth Could Change What We Know About Human Origins Nearly Half of Americans Don't Know This Popular Food Increases Colon Cancer Risk Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments.

For many years, the main approaches have focused on encouraging healthy eating and regular physical activity. A research team led by Yale psychologist Rajita Sinha found evidence that lowering parental stress may help reduce the risk of obesity in young children. "We already knew that stress can be a big contributor in the development of childhood obesity. Researchers have also suspected that parental stress may be another hidden contributor to obesity in early childhood. Previous work has shown that stressed parents are more likely to depend on fast food and less healthy eating habits. These choices can influence children's behavior and food preferences. When parents feel overwhelmed, family routines can break down, unhealthy food choices may become more common, and positive parenting behaviors can decline. Still, most current childhood obesity prevention programs focus mainly on nutrition education and physical activity. Sinha is the Foundations Fund Professor in Psychiatry and a professor in neuroscience and child study at Yale School of Medicine. To explore the role of parental stress, researchers conducted a 12 week randomized prevention trial involving 114 parents from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. All participants had children between two and five years old who were overweight or obese. One group participated in a stress focused program called Parenting Mindfully for Health (PMH). Both groups met once a week for sessions lasting up to two hours. Children's weight was also measured three months after the program ended. Their children gained significantly more weight and were six times more likely to move into the overweight or obesity risk category at the three month follow up. Researchers also observed that the link between high parent stress, weaker parenting behaviors, and lower healthy food intake in children remained in the control group after three months. "The combination of mindfulness with behavioral self-regulation to manage stress, integrated with healthy nutrition and physical activity, seemed to protect the young children from some of the negative effects of stress on weight gain," Sinha said. This work builds on ongoing research at the Yale Stress Center. The center is an interdisciplinary consortium created with support from a 2007 National Institutes of Health Common Fund initiative that studies the biology of stress, health behaviors, and their effects on chronic mental and physical illness. "Childhood obesity is such a major issue right now, and the results of this study are highly relevant to the current administration's priority of reducing childhood chronic diseases," said Sinha. "When people start moving up the weight scale, their risk of obesity-related illnesses, even in children, is increased." The findings suggest that long term studies of Parenting Mindfully for Health could provide further insight into reducing childhood obesity risk. According to Sinha, results from a larger group of families followed for two years are expected in the future. Additional authors came from the Yale School of Medicine departments of pediatrics and neuroscience and the Yale Child Study Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. These Tiny Teeth Could Change What We Know About Human Origins Hormone Therapy May Supercharge Popular Weight-Loss Drugs After Menopause Nearly Half of Americans Don't Know This Popular Food Increases Colon Cancer Risk Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments.