What’s the point of methane reforming to make environmentally friendly fuels if the process itself is environmentally unfriendly? To make the process greener, researchers at Tohoku University used oxygen carriers to improve efficiency.

Porous materials are widely used for gas storage, separation, catalysis, and environmental purification. Their functionality arises from nanoscale pores that allow molecules to be selectively captured or transported. However, most porous materials, such as metal-organic frameworks, rely on rigid three-dimensional networks formed by strong chemical bonds, which often make them mechanically brittle and difficult to process into practical shapes.

A research team led by Professor Shuhei Furukawa at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (WPI-iCeMS), Kyoto University, has developed a new type of microporous aerogel that overcomes these limitations. Their study demonstrates a strategy to assemble metal–organic polyhedra (MOPs) into hierarchically ordered one-dimensional porous fibrils using weak van der Waals interactions.

Unlike conventional porous frameworks constructed through strong chemical bonds, the newly developed fibrils are held together by reversible van der Waals interactions between MOP molecules. Thanks to the weak nature of these interactions, the molecular assemblies can reversibly associate and dissociate with minimal energy input, exhibiting thixotropic behavior. This feature allows the material to be easily shaped using molds, providing a high degree of processability that is rarely achieved in conventional microporous materials.

Artificial intelligence is transforming how scientists design catalysts for sustainable fuel production. A research team used a custom AI agent to uncover a universal design principle for copper-based catalysts that convert carbon dioxide into valuable multi-carbon products. The breakthrough marks a shift from trial-and-error experimentation to faster, data-driven materials discovery.

Move over lithium-ion batteries – researchers found a creative way to combine materials (lithium metal and a ceramic surface) that may prove to be better for energy storage used in electric vehicles and portable electronics.

Interactions between diet and the gut microbiome have been shown to have broad roles in shaping host metabolism and health. Now, researchers at the Human Biology Microbiome Quantum Research Center (WPI-Bio2Q, directed by Kenya Honda, M.D., Ph.D., co-senior author of the study) and Keio University, together with researchers from City of Hope and the Broad Institute, show how specific gut microbes are able to interpret diet and subsequently drive the conversion of white adipose tissue into beige fat, a metabolically active form of fat that burns energy instead of storing it.

The study, which has been published in Nature, also identified the molecular pathways that connect these aspects of dietary protein intake, microbial metabolism, and the host’s fat-burning response.

“These findings show, in a mechanistic way, how gut microbes are able to act as an important mediator of dietary cues, and how these bacteria are able to produce signals that shape host metabolism” said Scott Behie, member of WPI-Bio2Q and co-author of the study.

A team of researchers led by the University of Tokyo Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI) Project Assistant Professor Elisa Ferreira has shown that a discrepancy in a key cosmic measurement in the early universe originates from a subtle statistical interplay between measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO).

Researchers at AIMR engineered cultured neuronal networks with brain-like hierarchical modularity and directional connectivity using microfluidic devices. Integrating experiments with computational modeling, they demonstrated that directional connections suppress excessive synchrony and enhance balanced network dynamics. This platform advances understanding of brain organization and enables applications in drug discovery and brain-inspired biocomputing systems.

This invited publication highlights the contributions of Distinguished Professor Hao Li to AI and materials science – focusing on their original concept for a digital materials ecosystem.