Researchers created a new catalyst by combining nickel with molybdenum carbide, allowing oxygen to selectively trap and form temporary oxycarbide species. This setup unlocks a new reaction mechanism, significantly lowering the energy barrier for methane activation and improving the catalyst's stability.
Ecological water scarcity affects 412 river basins worldwide, with 29% of the study area impacted and 35% of global population covered. Human interventions drive the problem, and climate mitigation can reduce future risks, but ecosystem restoration and water conservation are needed.
Researchers have developed a bilayer terahertz metasurface design strategy based on S4 point-group symmetry, achieving robust quasi-bound states in the continuum with high Q-factors and enhanced resistance to fabrication defects.
Weaning stress causes broad transcriptional and translational remodeling in piglets, leading to increased translation efficiency of key inflammatory mediators. GC-rich codons and gut microbiota composition play a role in this process.
Researchers examine how carbon capture can connect with electricity, sunlight, and heat to convert CO2 into valuable chemicals and fuels. The review highlights opportunities to integrate capture with conversion, combine catalytic steps, and use renewable energy or waste heat to accelerate materials discovery and improve efficiency.
A new study reveals the planet's magnetic field was in turmoil 261 million years ago, with rapid reversals occurring over a 3.75-million-year interval. This geomagnetic behavior may have amplified surface environmental stress, which could have contributed to a severe mass extinction event.
A Germanium photodetector developed for AI clusters offers high bandwidth and efficiency, with a 110 GHz bandwidth and 95.3% quantum efficiency. The device also demonstrated low dark currents and high responsivity, making it a scalable candidate for future single-lane 400-Gbps optical interconnects.
Researchers engineered a strain of E. coli to target gut inflammation and restore balance in the gut-brain axis, alleviating symptoms of colitis-associated depression. The engineered strain secretes anti-inflammatory nanobodies and regulates gamma-aminobutyric acid metabolism to promote beneficial gut bacteria and improve mental health.
A new self-aeration system with a decoupled interface has been developed to improve water purification efficiency and reduce costs. The system achieves high removal rates of organic pollutants, including antibiotics, while minimizing energy consumption and carbon emissions.
The study analyzed data from 4,258,033 adults and found that different obesity indices, such as the Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI) and triglyceride-glucose index (TyG), can identify risks for major chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes more accurately than BMI alone. However, these measures have limited abi...
Researchers found silicate melts can store substantial excess oxygen, which could have oxidized the shallow mantle, crust, and atmosphere. The study proposes a possible pathway linking Earth's deep interior to its oxygen-rich surface and atmosphere.
In a groundbreaking study, researchers found that the immune system of mice relies on continuous signals from their gut microbiota to maintain immune competence after weaning. This discovery redefines postnatal immune maturation, highlighting the crucial role of microbiota in shaping the immune system.
Umbilical cord blood's diverse components, including T cells and regulatory T cells, offer therapeutic strategies for cancer and immune disorders. Researchers explore ways to expand and engineer immune cells, as well as tune immune responses to reduce inflammation and graft-versus-host disease.
Researchers designed a new lipid recipe that improves mRNA delivery precision, reducing liver accumulation and improving local expression. The new formulation, SM102M, showed strong local expression while sharply reducing liver expression in mice, and maintained delivery over repeated doses.
Researchers developed a GRM4-targeted lipoplex to generate NKG2D CAR T/NK cells within triple-negative breast cancer, eliminating the need for cells to reach their target. The approach improved safety and antitumor efficacy, increasing CD8+ T cell infiltration, NK cell activation, and tumor growth inhibition.
Researchers developed a 'deuterium engineering' strategy to enhance imaging, therapy and stability of phototheranostic agents for cancer. The strategy, using deuterium substitution, improves fluorescence, reactive oxygen species generation and plasma stability.
Researchers developed a nano-activator that drives localized immune activation to eliminate tumors without complex antigen screening. The platform successfully remodeled the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and induced a durable, systemic immune memory.
A new satellite-based study shows that recovery after severe drought is widespread but highly uneven across large river basins. Persistent deficits are concentrated in drylands and some inland basins that do not drain to the ocean, with water storage deficits that persist for years.
A new AI-physics model, ProNet, has been developed to predict air pollution more accurately than human forecasters, outperforming expert forecasts and uncovering hidden flaws in current chemical models. ProNet integrates neural networks with atmospheric physics, preserving physical realism and using routine data to diagnose where chemi...
Researchers discovered inducible germinal center-like structures in common carp gut, showing conserved molecular programs and cell-cell communication networks. These findings suggest that sophisticated mucosal adaptive immunity emerged early in vertebrate evolution.
A new framework proposes integrating risk assessment with action to improve response times and effectiveness in infectious disease preparedness. The framework, which follows the full pathway from signal detection to operational response, aims to bridge the gap between risk assessment and public health action.
Researchers uncover a critical role for Pcyt2 minor intron splicing defects in SMA pathogenesis, highlighting a new target for glia-targeted diagnosis and treatment. Aberrant splicing compromises splicing of the Pcyt2 minor intron, leading to SMA-like phenotypes.
A new system combines living bacteria with synthetic nanoparticles and a cancer drug to target bladder cancer cells. The treatment breaks down collagen in the tumor's matrix, allowing chemotherapy to penetrate and disrupt cancer cells.
Researchers developed EEGEmoLib, an open-source Python toolbox to standardize emotion recognition, allowing for more interpretable and comparable results. The toolbox includes mechanisms to model EEG frequency bands and electrode locations, enabling biologically motivated assumptions to improve performance.
Researchers develop analytical framework to predict when large interconnected systems will shift from steady to oscillatory states. The study shows how network complexity, propagation delays, and interaction types jointly determine transitions between steady and oscillatory states.
Research suggests marine organic particles are underrepresented in climate models, with a bimodal size distribution and a significant impact on cloud formation and radiative effects. The findings have implications for aerosol-cloud interactions and assessments of marine cloud brightening.
A research team has uncovered a key antagonistic regulatory module, GhRCD1-GhMYC3, that constrains cotton improvement. GhRCD1 promotes fiber elongation, while GhMYC3 suppresses seed vigor. The module acts as a fine-tuning rheostat, adjusting ROS concentration and pectin methylesterification to modify seed coat hardness. By targeting th...
Artificial intelligence helps identify alternative recipes for growing carbon nanotubes with prescribed structural features, such as array height, density, and alignment. The approach allows researchers to explore routes beyond familiar recipes, accommodating practical processing constraints while preserving selected structural features.
Scientists created FINDSPINGROUP to systematically distinguish between magnetic geometry and spin-orbit effects in unconventional magnets. The platform allows researchers to compare these contributions directly and determine the physical origin of responses, enabling a better understanding of these materials.
The Juno spacecraft has revealed a rippling current sheet in Jupiter's magnetodisk, which is generated by magnetic reconnection. This wave-like structure is created by numerous small reconnection sites across the magnetosphere, causing the current sheet to break and push away from its equilibrium position.
Researchers found that CDC20 is essential for mitotic progression in rice, but has distinct roles in meiosis. Disruptions in CDC20 activity led to defects in gametophyte development and chromosome segregation during meiosis.
The study highlights the need for a holistic approach to plastic pollution, considering its impacts on wildlife, human health, and climate-relevant processes. Priorities for mitigation include reducing unnecessary plastic production, designing safer products, and promoting reuse and recycling.
KRAS mutations define a distinct molecular subset of gastric adenocarcinoma with poor response to immunotherapy. KRAS inhibition combined with CTLA-4 blockade overcomes immunotherapy resistance by attenuating TGF-beta activity and impairing regulatory T cell function, sensitizing tumors to CTLA-4 immunotherapy.
The review unifies biomimetics, spectral physics, and artificial intelligence to chart next-generation camouflage, stealth, and trustworthy AI. Researchers explore strategies to control light interaction across various bands, from ultraviolet to microwave, and attack AI decision boundaries.
Holocene precipitation in eastern China exhibited a clear north-south dipole pattern, influencing agricultural development and cultural evolution. Northern China became wetter while southern China became drier, supporting agriculture and driving cultural development from Neolithic to Bronze Age.
A value-guided framework for legal computing integrates normative values with technological innovation to provide reliable and justifiable AI-driven legal decisions. This approach aims to address the limitations of current AI models and reduce the risk of biased recommendations.
Research found that gliding mammals rarely share same rapidly evolving regulatory regions, but different regulatory regions can be associated with similar genes and biological pathways. The study identified several candidate regulators and evolutionary hotspots that may be involved in gliding adaptation.
Silicate weathering carbon consumption rates are significantly higher during glacial periods, with an estimated 9.3% contribution to atmospheric CO2 reduction. This study reveals the mid-latitude shelf region as an active carbon sink during glacial periods.
Researchers develop a microrobot skin that converts chemical energy from the substrate and atmospheric moisture into electricity. The skin can sense the surface beneath it and detect different materials, allowing the robot to recognize its environment and actively seek energy-rich paths.
A study of the Lancang River basin found that silicate weathering rates decrease with increasing erosion, while carbonate and sulfide oxidation rates increase. The study suggests that lithology, suspended sediment weathering, and groundwater input control chemical weathering and its carbon effect in large river basins.
Astronomers have observed a new phase of short GRBs, powered by a compact object merger, revealing a hidden X-ray chapter of cosmic collisions. The discovery opens a new window for multi-messenger astronomy, demonstrating Einstein Probe's unique capability to uncover new classes of transient phenomena.
Researchers demonstrated nonreciprocal dynamic degeneracy splitting in a gyromagnetic photonic crystal, enabling directional transport and imaging. This breakthrough enables structured loss in momentum space to act as a channel-selection rule, pointing toward complex-band dynamical engineering.
A comprehensive review reveals that Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells (MSCs) function as master regulators of the body's internal microenvironment, driving tissue regeneration through immunomodulatory and paracrine properties. MSCs can sense changes in the host microenvironment in real-time and adjust their regulatory phenotypes and secre...
Recent progress in chiral organic semiconductors and circularly polarized light detectors is reviewed, highlighting the challenges of balancing chirality and charge transport. The review discusses strategies for material innovation, spectral tailoring, and device engineering to optimize detector performance.
Researchers developed physics-embedded inverse learning (PEIL) to supervise parameter estimation in wireless communications and MRI. PEIL uses signal recovery to estimate intermediate parameters without labels, achieving strong symbol recovery and comparable performance to parameter-supervised baselines.
Recent advances in engineered mitochondrial delivery aim to improve stability, efficiency, and precision of mitochondrial transplantation. Four strategies have been proposed, including surface-engineering, cell-mediated delivery, vesicle-encapsulation, and cell-type-specific targeting.
The study provides unprecedented genomic resources for licorice, revealing key genes for medicinal metabolite biosynthesis and desert stress adaptation. The GiPHL1-Gi4CL5 regulatory module is identified as a major determinant of licochalcone A accumulation and drought tolerance in licorice species.
A new framework IDEAI organizes embodied AI around explicit intent, combining perception, knowledge, planning, action and values. It provides a structured commitment that can be inspected, revised and verified, guiding action and ensuring safety.
Researchers develop PHICS framework to integrate physics-causal modeling and Pareto optimization for inverse design of composites. This enables high-throughput evaluations and high-precision inverse parameter inversion of optimal microstructural parameters, leading to breakthroughs in thermal management materials.
Research by Professor Dong Zhang's team identifies IFITM1 as a key regulator of mitophagy, essential for maintaining the anti-tumor activity of double-negative T cells. This mechanism provides a promising strategy for optimizing TCRαβ+CD4-CD8- T cell therapies.