Over the coming decades, reef-building corals will face ever hotter ocean temperatures, yet it remains unknown if their thermal tolerance can keep up with the pace of warming. A new study reveals that coral thermal tolerance in Palau has likely risen by 0.1 °C/decade since the late 1980s. Despite this ecological resilience, strong action on climate change remains a priority to protect coral reefs.

Based on a fossil specimen discovered in deposits from Peru, Perucetus colossus, a new early whale species, is described and characterized by surprisingly heavy bones. Combining this massive skeleton with a body length of about 20 meters results in record-breaking body weight estimates. It makes this slow-swimming coastal giant a contender to the title of the heaviest animal ever.

The collapse of rapidly rotating massive stars is known to launch collimated jets of material moving at nearly the speed of light. These phenomena produce high energy gamma-ray light that astronomers detect using space satellites and refer to them as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The recent GRB 221009A is the most extreme gamma-ray burst detected in 50 years of observations.

Retroviruses like HIV-1 enter the nucleus of immune cells to infect people, but it has been unclear how a relatively large virus can pass through the nuclear envelope or its small nuclear pores. We found a previously unknown pathway of entry, in which a virus-containing package causes invaginations to form in the nuclear envelope. Our work reveals new drug targets for limiting viral infections.

Sound fields exert forces on particles suspended in liquids - seemingly without contact. Control over the sound pressure in 3D lets us create force landscapes, where microparticles can be remotely pushed to form larger objects in a single step. We developed the acoustic hologram, a technology that enables such control over ultrasound fields and which shows promise for a new type of biofabrication.

The SARS-Cov-2 Spike protein has been attributed to many peculiar symptoms of COVID-19, like blood clotting and tissue damage. Using the cutting-edge cryo-electron tomographic technique, we directly observed SARS-Cov2 Spike proteins acting on the platelet surface. Our finding explains why SARS-Cov-2 can significantly jeopardize blood clotting compared to other coronaviruses.