All animals and plants likely require interactions with microbes, often in strong, persistent symbiotic associations. While the recognition of this phenomenon has been slow in coming, it will impact most, if not all, subdisciplines of biology.

At a rapid pace, biologists are learning the many ways in which resident microbes influence, and sometimes even control, their hosts to shape both health and disease. Understanding the biochemistry behind these interactions promises to reveal completely novel and targeted ways of counteracting disease processes. However, in our protocols and publications, we continue to describe these new results using a language that originated in a completely different context. This language developed when microbial interactions with hosts were perceived to be primarily pathogenic, as threats that had to be vanquished. Biomedicine had one dominating thought: winning this war against microorganisms. Today, we know that beyond their defensive roles, host tissues, especially epithelia, are vital to ensuring association with the normal microbiota, the communities of microbes that persistently live with the host. Thus, we need to adopt a language that better encompasses the newly appreciated importance of host-microbiota associations. We also need a language that frames the onset and progression of pathogenic conditions within the context of the normal microbiota. Such a reimagined lexicon should make it clear, from the very nature of its words, that microorganisms are primarily vital to our health, and only more rarely the cause of disease.This article is part of the theme issue 'Sculpting the microbiome: how host factors determine and respond to microbial colonization'.

We present deep Hubble Space Telescope photometry of 10 targets from Treasury Program GO-14734, including six confirmed ultrafaint dwarf (UFD) galaxies, three UFD candidates, and one likely globular cluster. Six of these targets are satellites of, or have interacted with, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We determine their structural parameters using a maximum-likelihood technique. Using our newly derived half-light radius (r h ) and V-band magnitude (M V ) values in addition to literature values for other UFDs, we find that UFDs associated with the LMC do not show any systematic differences from Milky Way UFDs in the magnitude-size plane. Additionally, we convert simulated UFD properties from the literature into the M V -r h observational space to examine the abilities of current dark matter (DM) and baryonic simulations to reproduce observed UFDs. Some of these simulations adopt alternative DM models, thus allowing us to also explore whether the M V -r h plane could be used to constrain the nature of DM. We find no differences in the magnitude-size plane between UFDs simulated with cold, warm, and self-interacting DM, but note that the sample of UFDs simulated with alternative DM models is quite limited at present. As more deep, wide-field survey data become available, we will have further opportunities to discover and characterize these ultrafaint stellar systems and the greater low surface-brightness universe.

With the advent of toroidal and double-stage diamond anvil cells (DACs), pressures between 4 and 10 Mbar can be achieved under static compression, however, the ability to explore diverse sample assemblies is limited on these micron-scale anvils. Adapting the toroidal DAC to support larger sample volumes offers expanded capabilities in physics, chemistry, and planetary science: including, characterizing materials in soft pressure media to multi-megabar pressures, synthesizing novel phases, and probing planetary assemblages at the interior pressures and temperatures of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. Here we have continued the exploration of larger toroidal DAC profiles by iteratively testing various torus and shoulder depths with central culet diameters in the 30-50 mu m range. We present a 30 mu m culet profile that reached a maximum pressure of 414(1) GPa based on a Pt scale. The 300 K equations of state fit to our P-V data collected on gold and rhenium are compatible with extrapolated hydrostatic equations of state within 1% up to 4 Mbar. This work validates the performance of these large-culet toroidal anvils to > 4 Mbar and provides a promising foundation to develop toroidal DACs for diverse sample loading and laser heating.

Partitioning experiments and the chemistry of iron meteorites indicate that the light element nitrogen could be sequestered into the metallic core of rocky planets during core-mantle differentiation. The thermal conductivity and the mineralogy of the Fe-N system under core conditions could therefore influence the planetary cooling, core crystallization, and evolution of the intrinsic magnetic field of rocky planets. Limited experiments have been conducted to study the thermal properties and phase relations of Fe-N components under planetary core conditions, such as those found in the Moon, Mercury, and Ganymede. In this study, we report results from high-pressure experiments involving electrical resistivity measurements of Fe-N phases at a pressure of 5 GPa and temperatures up to 1400 K. Four Fe-N compositions, including Fe-10%N, Fe-6.4%N, Fe-2%N, and Fe-1%N (by weight percent), were prepared and subjected to recovery experiments at 5 GPa and 1273 K. These experiments show that Fe-10%N and Fe-6.4%N form a single hexagonal close-packed phase (epsilon-nitrides), while Fe-2%N and Fe-1%N exhibit a face-centered cubic structure (gamma-Fe). In separate experiments, the resistivity data were collected during the cooling after compressing the starting materials to 5 GPa and heating to similar to 1400 K. The resistivity of all compositions, similar to the pure gamma-Fe, exhibits weak temperature dependence. We found that N has a strong effect on the resistivity of metallic Fe under rocky planetary core conditions compared to other potential light elements such as Si. The temperature-dependence of the resistivity also revealed high-pressure phase transition points in the Fe-N system. A congruent reaction, epsilon reversible arrow gamma', occurs at similar to 673 K in Fe-6.4%N, which is similar to 280 K lower than that at ambient pressure. Furthermore, the resistivity data provided constraints on the high-pressure phase boundary of the polymorphic transition, gamma reversible arrow alpha, and an eutectoid equilibrium of gamma' reversible arrow alpha + epsilon. The data, along with the recently reported phase equilibrium experiments at high pressures, enable construction of a phase diagram of the Fe-N binary system at 5 GPa.

We present a method of extrapolating the spectroscopic behavior of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength regime up to 2.30 mu m using optical spectroscopy. Such a process is useful for accurately estimating K-corrections and other photometric quantities of SNe Ia in the NIR. A principal component analysis is performed on data consisting of Carnegie Supernova Project I & II optical and NIR FIRE spectra to produce models capable of making these extrapolations. This method differs from previous spectral template methods by not parameterizing models strictly by photometric light-curve properties of SNe Ia, allowing for more flexibility of the resulting extrapolated NIR flux. A difference of around -3.1% to -2.7% in the total integrated NIR flux between these extrapolations and the observations is seen here for most test cases including Branch core-normal and shallow-silicon subtypes. However, larger deviations from the observation are found for other tests, likely due to the limited high-velocity and broad-line SNe Ia in the training sample. Maximum-light principal components are shown to allow for spectroscopic predictions of the color-stretch light-curve parameter, s BV, within approximately +/- 0.1 units of the value measured with photometry. We also show these results compare well with NIR templates, although in most cases the templates are marginally more fitting to observations, illustrating a need for more concurrent optical+NIR spectroscopic observations to truly understand the diversity of SNe Ia in the NIR.

We present the second and final release of optical spectroscopy of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) obtained during the first and second phases of the Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP-I and CSP-II). The newly released data consist of 148 spectra of 30 SNe Ia observed in the course of CSP-I and 234 spectra of 127 SNe Ia obtained during CSP-II. We also present 216 optical spectra of 46 historical SNe Ia, including 53 spectra of 30 SNe Ia observed by the Cal & aacute;n/Tololo Supernova Survey. We combine these observations with previously published CSP data and publicly available spectra to compile a large sample of measurements of spectroscopic parameters at maximum light, consisting of pseudo-equivalent widths and expansion velocities of selected features for 232 CSP and historical SNe Ia (including more than 1000 spectra). Finally, we review some of the strongest correlations between spectroscopic and photometric properties of SNe Ia. Specifically, we define two samples: one consisting of SNe Ia discovered by targeted searches (most of them CSP-I objects) and the other composed of SNe Ia discovered by untargeted searches, which includes most of the CSP-II objects. The analyzed correlations are similar for both samples. We find a larger incidence of SNe Ia belonging to the cool and broad-line Branch subtypes among the events discovered by targeted searches, shallow-silicon SNe Ia are present with similar frequencies in both samples, while core normal SNe Ia are more frequent in untargeted searches.

We present near-infrared JHK photometry for the resolved stellar populations in 13 nearby galaxies: NGC 6822, IC 1613, NGC 3109, Sextans B, Sextans A, NGC 300, NGC 55, NGC 7793, NGC 247, NGC 5253, Cen A, NGC 1313, and M83, acquired from the 6.5 m Baade-Magellan telescope. We measure distances to each galaxy using the J-region asymptotic giant branch (JAGB) method, a new standard candle that leverages the constant luminosities of color-selected, carbon-rich AGB stars. While only single-epoch, random-phase photometry is necessary to derive JAGB distances, our photometry is time-averaged over multiple epochs, thereby decreasing the contribution of the JAGB stars' intrinsic variability to the measured dispersions in their observed luminosity functions. To cross-validate these distances, we also measure near-infrared tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) distances to these galaxies. The residuals obtained from subtracting the distance moduli from the two methods yield an rms scatter of sigma JAGB-TRGB = +/- 0.07 mag. Therefore, all systematics in the JAGB method and TRGB method (e.g., crowding, differential reddening, star formation histories) must be contained within these +/- 0.07 mag bounds for this sample of galaxies because the JAGB and TRGB distance indicators are drawn from entirely distinct stellar populations and are thus affected by these systematics independently. Finally, the composite JAGB star luminosity function formed from this diverse sample of galaxies is well described by a Gaussian function with a modal value of M J = -6.20 +/- 0.003 mag (stat), indicating that the underlying JAGB star luminosity function of a well-sampled full star formation history is highly symmetric and Gaussian based on over 6700 JAGB stars in the composite sample.

Micrometeorites are estimated to represent the main part of the present flux of extraterrestrial matter found on the Earth's surface and provide valuable samples to probe the interplanetary medium. Here, we describe large and representative collections of micrometeorites currently available to the scientific community. These include Antarctic collections from surface ice and snow, as well as glacial sediments from the eroded top of nunataks-summits outcropping from the icesheet-and moraines. Collections extracted from deep-sea sediments (DSS) produced a large number of micrometeorites, in particular, iron-rich cosmic spherules that are rarer in other collections. Collections from the old and stable surface of the Atacama Desert show that finding large numbers of micrometeorites is not restricted to polar regions or DSS. The advent of rooftop collections marks an important step into involving citizen science in the study of micrometeorites, as well as providing potential sampling locations over all latitudes to explore the modern flux. We explore their strengths of the collections to address specific scientific questions and their potential weaknesses. The future of micrometeorite research will involve the finding of large fossil micrometeorite collections and benefit from recent advances in sampling cosmic dust directly from the air.This article is part of the theme issue 'Dust in the Solar System and beyond'.