Analysis of observations on six continents reveals a global preference for afternoon rain to fall on locally drier soils—contrary to the predictions of large-scale climate models, and suggesting that such models may exaggerate the occurrence of droughts.

Volatile scents of moss Ceratodon purpureus show sex-specific differences and are similar in chemical diversity to those of plant–insect pollination mutualisms; and moss-dwelling microarthropods, whose presence increases C. purpureus fertilization rates, prefer scents of reproductive female C. purpureus to reproductive males, indicating a scent-based ‘plant–pollinator-like’ relationship between mosses and microarthropods.

Lrp4 acts bidirectionally and coordinates synapse formation by binding agrin, activating MuSK and stimulating postsynaptic differentiation, and functioning in turn as a muscle-derived retrograde signal that is necessary and sufficient for presynaptic differentiation.