A research team led by Profs. HUANG Jiacong and GAO Junfeng from the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with collaborators from the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment and Jiangxi Normal University, has developed a novel high-resolution machine learning model based on a comprehensive national dataset, enabling high-precision prediction and spatial mapping of CO₂ emissions from China’s lakes.

Scientists from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have uncovered the earliest fossil evidence of annelids (ringed worms) in Cambrian microfossils dating back approximately 535 million years ago. This discovery offers fresh insights into the origin and early evolution of the annelids, a group of animals that includes bristle worms, earthworms, leeches, and peanut worms.

A landmark lipidomic study reveals that ceramides modulate salicylic and jasmonic acid pathways to govern resistance to Sporisorium scitamineum.

This study investigates the adaptive mechanisms of the rare orchid Paphiopedilum purpuratum under ex situ conservation, uncovering physiological trade-offs such as enhanced seed production accompanied by lowered photosynthetic capacity and elevated oxidative stress. It further demonstrates that host nitrogen metabolism shapes root fungal communities, driving two contrasting adaptive strategies—stable, reorganized mycorrhizal networks and dynamic, pathogen-suppressive non-mycorrhizal shifts—providing a multi-level microbial framework for improving long-term ex situ conservation of rare orchids.

Endowing and controlling topologically structured emission in microlasers is highly desired yet remains challenging. Toward this goal, researchers at Fudan University developed a compound topological microcavity design for vectorial lasing with designable topological charges. Leveraging quasi-BIC Möbius-like correspondence, they establish a direct, predictive link between cavity morphology and topological charge of emitted lasing profile. Experimentally, they demonstrate vectorial lasing with topological charges from −5 to +5, representing a substantial advance toward compact topological light sources.

Ancient African topography remotely modulated the South Asian summer monsoon millions of years ago

Harnessing the power of generative AI, researchers at Tsinghua University have developed AIGP—a diffusion-based generative framework that enables instant translation of optical properties into fabrication-ready metasurfaces. By using transmission, phase, and polarization as “prompts,” AIGP directly maps optical properties to subwavelength, fabricable structures, generating high-fidelity metasurface designs in seconds. This breakthrough overcomes critical bottlenecks in photonic inverse design and paves the way for large-scale, AI-driven generative optical devices.

This article introduces a no-code online platform for Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) research and cancer diagnostics. It allows users to generate realistic digital OCT phantoms to benchmark various signal processing methods. Additionally, the platform provides advanced multimodal processing to extract optical attenuation, speckle contrast, depolarization, and strain maps. Its effectiveness in improving tumor margin visualization is successfully demonstrated using real brain, skin, endometrial, and murine cancer data.

High-performance nanophotonic devices require extreme depth-to-diameter ratios, which are notoriously difficult to fabricate. Towards this goal, scientists in China developed a novel technique combining femtosecond laser writing with spherical-aberration enhancement to create nanohole-clad waveguides in single crystals. This breakthrough achieves record aspect ratios exceeding 50,000:1, enabling highly sensitive optical sensing and opening new avenues for 3D functional photonic integration and multi-functional integrated devices.