Retired electric vehicle batteries in China hold immense potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions and save costs—but where they retire and where they are needed rarely align.

A research team led by Prof. JIANG Changlong from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a new porous material that can both detect and adsorption copper ions (Cu²⁺) from complex environments.

A research team led by Prof. ZHAO Guoping at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. WU Lijun at Anhui University, has uncovered how the protein CIP2A controls DNA repair during cell division and influences tumor response to radiotherapy.

Alkaline-salt soils can quietly weaken apple production by damaging roots, disrupting redox balance, and limiting plant growth before yield losses become visible. 

Root elongation is a critical adaptive trait that enables plants to respond to soil conditions, yet woody fruit trees like apple suffer from naturally low root density—typically one‑tenth to one‑twentieth that of annual crops—limiting nutrient uptake, stress tolerance and productivity.

With the increasing scale of space infrastructure such as large space telescopes, antenna arrays, and solar power stations, the payload fairing size of launch vehicles has become a critical bottleneck constraining their development. On-orbit autonomous assembly via deployable modules has emerged as an important technical approach to overcome this limitation. Deployable modules typically exhibit high packaging ratios; however, the geometric deviations caused by residual strain, assembly tolerances, and dynamic coupling effects after deployment can significantly affect docking accuracy and structural stability, and may even lead to assembly failure. Nevertheless, existing studies have mostly focused on post-deployment final configuration accuracy optimization, with insufficient attention paid to the cooperative strategies between real-time deformation control and motion control during the assembly process. Moreover, a dynamic modeling method capable of accurately describing the coupling between variable-length flexible components and rigid bodies is still lacking. Therefore, how to achieve active configuration correction and coordinated position–attitude control of deployable modules on orbit has become a key challenge in the autonomous assembly of large space structures.

A single transcription factor may help explain how sweet osmanthus produces the layered floral fragrance that makes the plant valuable in food, cosmetics and perfumery. 

Pea production worldwide faces a serious threat from Fusarium wilt, a soilborne fungal disease that can destroy entire crops. 

Menopausal syndrome, also known as perimenopausal syndrome or menopause-related symptom complex, refers to a group of symptoms that occur as ovarian function gradually declines under natural physiological conditions. These symptoms are mainly related to autonomic nervous system dysfunction and neuropsychological changes, including hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disorders, anxiety, and depression. With increasing life expectancy, women are spending a longer period of their lives after menopause. As a result, perimenopausal health management is no longer limited to short-term symptom relief, but has become an important window for the early prevention and control of chronic diseases such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, glucose and lipid metabolism disorders, and cognitive decline.

A research team found that dietary Radix isatidis herbal residue (RIHR), a traditional Chinese medicine by-product, may improve growth, mucosal immunity, gut microbiota, and lipid metabolism in broilers.