Compound drought-heat wave hazards are concentrated in US regions with multiple social vulnerabilities and agricultural dependence.

October 6, 2026| Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Compound drought and heat wave (CDHW) events are becoming more frequent and intense across the contiguous United States, increasing risks to human health, ecosystems, agriculture, and energy production systems. However, their distribution across socioeconomically vulnerable communities remains largely unexplored at the national scale. In this study, we develop a CDHW metric by integrating weekly US Drought Monitor classifications with daily temperature extremes from 2000-2021, allowing consistent mapping of CDHW occurrences along county-level socioeconomic conditions. Our analysis reveals significant regional differences, with elevated CDHW occurrences concentrated in the South, Southeast, and western United States. Regions facing greater socioeconomic challenges, including poverty, high agricultural employment, and health-related vulnerabilities, experience notably higher CDHW risks. Greater spatial concentration of CDHW occurrences, as indicated by higher Gini coefficient values, occurs where multiple socioeconomic vulnerabilities intersect, such as in counties with large poor populations and older housing. These findings indicate that CDHW events are unevenly distributed across socially vulnerable communities, underscoring the need for targeted adaptation strategies to reduce climate risks for the most vulnerable communities.

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Observation of prethermal dynamical phase transitions and resonant melting.

The dynamics of isolated quantum systems following a sudden quench has a central role in many areas of material science, high-energy physics and quantum chemistry 1-4 . Such far-from-equilibrium quantum dynamics-which features complex phenomena with implications for thermalization, non-equilibrium phase transitions and Floquet phase engineering 5-8 -is challenging to study numerically, in particular, in high-dimensional systems 9,10 . Here we use a programmable neutral-atom quantum simulator 11

EnvironmentNovember 4, 2026

A conserved flowering-time module underlies double-season cropping.

Adapting crops to intensive cultivation systems under climate change requires varieties that combine yield potential with optimized flowering and maturation 1,2 . In central and eastern China, barley has long been cultivated in a double-season cropping system, in which early flowering and maturation are critical for escaping presummer terminal heat stress and enabling flexible rotation with summer crops 3,4 . Here we trace the genomic footprints of 80 years of modern breeding in China usi

EnvironmentNovember 3, 2026

Widespread plasma jets in the Martian magnetosheath revealed by dual-spacecraft observations.

Plasma jets in planetary magnetosheaths are transient, high dynamic pressure structures capable of strongly perturbing downstream magnetospheres and modulating solar wind energy transfer. Although recently identified at Mars, their formation mechanisms and global occurrence remain poorly constrained. Using dual-spacecraft observations from Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN and Tianwen-1, we show that magnetosheath jets occur throughout the Martian magnetosheath, in striking contrast to Eart

EnvironmentNovember 3, 2026

Defining and measuring proximity to criticality based on univariate time series.

Diverse social, engineered, and biological systems are made up of multiple interacting dynamical components; to work properly, certain components must be carefully regulated so that their dynamics avoid instability. However, many desirable properties, like optimized computation and control, emerge close to the tipping point between stability and instability, i.e., near criticality. Claims that such dynamical systems operate near criticality have been controversial because it is difficult to asse

EnvironmentNovember 3, 2026

Orexin and pupillary modulation for hunger control.

Fasting-based interventions improve metabolic health and are also explored as adjuncts in other clinical settings, but hunger remains a barrier to adherence. Fasting activates AgRP/NPY neurons (ANs), a hunger-promoting population whose inhibition reduces eating in hungry animals. Here we identify hypocretin/orexin neurons (HONs), classically associated with arousal, as rapid suppressors of AN activity. HON ablation increased AN population activity, whereas HON optostimulation rapidly suppressed