Sodium transition metal oxides with layered structures are attractive cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries due to their large theoretical specific capacities. However, these layered oxides suffer from poor cyclability and low rate performance because of structural instability and sluggish electrode kinetics. In the present work, we show the sodiation reaction of Mn₃O₄ to yield crystal water free NaMnO_2-y-δ(OH)_2y, a monoclinic polymorph of sodium birnessite bearing Na/Mn(OH)₈ hexahedra and Na/MnO₆ octahedra. With the new polymorph, NaMnO_2-y-δ(OH)_2y exhibits an enlarged interlayer distance of about 7 Å, which is in favor of fast sodium ion migration and good structural stability. In combination of the favorable nanosheet morphology, NaMn_2-y-δ(OH)_2y cathode delivers large specific capacity up to 211.9 mAh g^-1, excellent cycle performance (94.6% capacity retention after 1000 cycles), and outstanding rate capability (156.0 mAh g^-1 at 50 C). This study demonstrates an effective approach in tailoring the structural and electrochemical properties of birnessite towards superior cathode performance in sodium-ion batteries.

The emergence of numerous variants of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, has presented new challenges to the global efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we obtain two cross-neutralizing antibodies (7D6 and 6D6) that target Sarbecoviruses' receptor-binding domain (RBD) with sub-picomolar affinities and potently neutralize authentic SARS-CoV-2. Crystal structures show that both antibodies bind a cryptic site different from that recognized by existing antibodies and highly conserved across Sarbecovirus isolates. Binding of these two antibodies to the RBD clashes with the adjacent N-terminal domain and disrupts the viral spike. Both antibodies confer good resistance to mutations in the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants. Thus, our results have direct relevance to public health as options for passive antibody therapeutics and even active prophylactics. They can also inform the design of pan-sarbecovirus vaccines.

Soil viral ecology is a growing research field; however, the state of knowledge still lags behind that of aquatic systems. Therefore, to facilitate progress, the first Soil Viral Workshop was held to encourage international scientific discussion and collaboration, suggest guidelines for future research, and establish soil viral research as a concrete research area. The workshop took place at Søminestationen, Denmark, between 15 and 17th of June 2022. The meeting was primarily held in person, but the sessions were also streamed online. The workshop was attended by 23 researchers from ten different countries and from a wide range of subfields and career stages. Eleven talks were presented, followed by discussions revolving around three major topics: viral genomics, virus-host interactions, and viruses in the soil food web. The main take-home messages and suggestions from the discussions are summarized in this report.

The BIG Data Center at Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences provides a suite of database resources in support of worldwide research activities in both academia and industry. With the vast amounts of multi-omics data generated at unprecedented scales and rates, the BIG Data Center is continually expanding, updating and enriching its core database resources through big data integration and value-added curation. Resources with significant updates in the past year include BioProject (a biological project library), BioSample (a biological sample library), Genome Sequence Archive (GSA, a data repository for archiving raw sequence reads), Genome Warehouse (GWH, a centralized resource housing genome-scale data), Genome Variation Map (GVM, a public repository of genome variations), Science Wikis (a catalog of biological knowledge wikis for community annotations) and IC4R (Information Commons for Rice). Newly released resources include EWAS Atlas (a knowledgebase of epigenome-wide association studies), iDog (an integrated omics data resource for dog) and RNA editing resources (for editome-disease associations and plant RNA editosome, respectively). To promote biodiversity and health big data sharing around the world, the Open Biodiversity and Health Big Data (BHBD) initiative is introduced. All of these resources are publicly accessible at http://bigd.big.ac.cn.