Nature, Published online: 05 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10865-1

An ‘encapsulation epitaxy’ mechanism is used to grow air-stable, two-dimensional superconducting films at the interface of a 2D–3D hybrid substrate, holding promise for use in fabrication of superconducting quantum circuitry.

Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10839-3

Perpendicular switching of the polarization state in the layered ferroelectric Bi4Ti3O12 is demonstrated by means of trilinear coupling, allowing manipulation of the in-plane polarization component with an out-of-plane electric field.

Nature, Published online: 15 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10804-0

Elastic instabilities in mechanical metamaterials can be harnessed to programme fracture behaviour, transforming instability from a failure mechanism into a design principle that increases fracture energy by up to tenfold.

Nature, Published online: 17 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10660-y

A spatially resolved map of the human proteome across a variety of healthy tissues and cancers provides wide-ranging insights in developmental biology and oncology, and could aid the identification of therapeutic targets and development of treatments for cancer.