Air pollution is associated with the development of lung cancer. Analysis of clinical samples and mouse cancer models suggests that inflammation and a tumour-promotion process induced by polluted air are the major culprits.

Observations from five telescopes have revealed a pair of supermassive black holes in coalescing galaxies, farther from Earth than any such pair detected previously. This feat offers key insight into how galaxies form.

Influenza viruses that infect the same host can interfere with each other’s replication. This behaviour seems to result in spatial structuring of infected groups of cells in tissue, with implications for viral evolution.

Intracellular machines called ribosomes use messenger-RNA sequences to synthesize proteins. Investigations using single-molecule imaging and cryo-electron microscopy techniques reveal structural and kinetic differences in how human ribosomes function compared with those of bacteria. These differences explain why ribosomes in cell-nucleus-bearing species are slower and more accurate than their bacterial counterparts.