Enteroviruses (EVs) are a diverse group of viruses and a common cause of multiple infections in children. A recent Pediatric Investigation review examines EV infections, highlighting the challenges posed by viral diversity, rapid evolution, immune evasion, and limited treatment and vaccine options. Currently, no specific antiviral treatment exists for EV, and prevention is limited since current vaccines cover only certain serotypes, underscoring the need for further research to expand both preventive and therapeutic options.

The universe has been having fewer and fewer stellar “babies.” Over the past 4.5 billion years, the rate of star birth has crashed to less than half of what it once was. But here’s the twist: the most essential “fuel” for making stars has barely decreased. This finding comes from an international team led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project. They used China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope to make high-precision measurements of cosmic neutral atomic hydrogen over the past 4.5 billion years.

A new study published in Biomedical Analysis reports a protein-coated nanoparticle platform that combines the powerful light-to-heat conversion ability of copper sulfide with the biological compatibility of albumin, offering a potential strategy for safer photothermal cancer therapy.

A new study in Energetic Materials Frontiers provides a detailed picture of how aluminum combustion evolves after detonation and how this process contributes to the sustained thermal and blast-wave effects of CL-20-based thermobaric explosives. By combining high-speed infrared thermography, blast-wave measurements and theoretical modeling, the researchers show that thermobaric explosives differ fundamentally from TNT in the spatial organization and temporal evolution of their fireballs. More importantly, the work identifies a key transition around 30 ms after detonation, when the dominant contribution shifts from early oxygen-deficient aluminum combustion to secondary post-combustion involving entrained atmospheric oxygen.

Researchers have developed a dimethyl-substituted energetic molecular perovskite, DAP-DM4, by rationally modifying the A-site cation of the DAP-4 framework. Single-crystal analysis reveals that double methylation induces a structural transformation from the conventional three-dimensional perovskite network to a one-dimensional chain architecture, while simultaneously eliminating labile N–H bonds. This molecular passivation raises the decomposition temperature to 373.5 °C and improves friction insensitivity, providing a new strategy for designing ultra-heat-resistant perovskite energetic materials. 

Zinc–air batteries offer attractive characteristics for electrochemical energy storage, but their practical performance is still constrained by the slow kinetics of oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution at the air electrode. A recent study published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts presents a strategy that uses carbon curvature and metal-support interactions to regulate Co-N₄ single-atom sites. Through a Zn volatilization-induced pyrolysis process, the researchers constructed cobalt nanoparticles and Co-N₄ sites on curved, nitrogen-doped biomass-derived carbon. The resulting structural distortion and electronic polarization strengthened metal-support interactions, altered the electronic structure of Co-N₄ sites and improved oxygen intermediate adsorption. The catalyst delivered a half-wave potential of 0.87 V for oxygen reduction and an overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 for oxygen evolution. A zinc-air battery using the catalyst reached a peak power density of 172 mW cm^-2 and operated for more than 400 h.

A new study published in Nature Aging on August 25 reports that a single gut bacterium—Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum (BP)—together with a small molecule it produces, 5-aminovaleric acid betaine (5-AVAB)—can alleviate multiple hallmarks of aging and extend the healthy lifespan in mice, opening a promising avenue toward healthier aging in humans.