Optical computing offers high speed and low consumption for data compression and computer vision. However, most optical differentiators are static. The group in Nanjing University proposes a reconfigurable ferroelectric chiral nanostructure to dynamically control optical differentiation. By switching the electric field polarity, differentiation or bright-field imaging is actively selected within 62 μs. Biological edges are clearly identified while direct imaging is also achievable. This work opens new avenues for biomedical microscopy and artificial intelligence.

Refractive index (RI) reflects key sample properties such as morphology, density, stress, and composition. Optical tomography (OT) and optical diffraction tomography (ODT) reconstruct 3D RI distributions from transmittance wavefronts recorded at multiple illumination angles using Fourier slicing or diffraction principles. This review summarizes the principles, implementations, and reconstruction algorithms of 3D RI imaging techniques. Further, different 3D RI imaging approaches are compared, and the current trends and future perspectives are discussed.

This study reveals a novel multi-target skin-whitening strategy using Haematococcus pluvialis extract (HPE) combined with niacinamide (NAM). By integrating B16F10 melanoma cell assays and a HaCaT/MNT-1 transwell coculture model, the study demonstrates that HPE not only suppresses melanin synthesis through tyrosinase inhibition but also reduces melanosome transfer. Moreover, HPE and NAM exhibit synergistic effects on pigmentation regulation, with combination treatments showing enhanced inhibition of melanin accumulation. These findings provide new mechanistic insights into natural bioactive ingredients and support the development of more effective, sustainable, and multifunctional whitening formulations.

Even after receiving guideline‑directed treatment for acute coronary syndrome, many patients face persistent residual cardiovascular risk and repeated ischemic events. This narrative review published in Cardiology Discovery synthesizes recent clinical evidence to build a practical management framework for clinicians caring for acute coronary syndrome survivors. The authors organize residual risks into non-culprit lesion instability, lipid‑related, inflammatory, thrombotic and modifiable lifestyle‑driven categories, and summarize available pharmacologic and non‑pharmacologic interventions for each risk domain. The work supports personalized risk assessment to guide tailored secondary prevention plans. As a narrative review, it does not generate original clinical trial data and requires real‑world studies to validate the proposed clinical workflows.

Hydrogels have become essential to modern biomedicine, enabling advances in drug delivery, tissue engineering and wearable healthcare. Researchers have proposed an architecture-based framework for designing high-performance hydrogels beyond conventional, randomly crosslinked networks. Their review defines hydrogels with high-order structures, outlines four construction routes, including phase separation, molecular self-assembly, nanocomposite integration and polymer crystallization, and links multiscale organization to mechanical robustness, transport control and integrated biomedical functions.

Coronary artery disease remains the top global cause of death, yet current clinical practice often targets advanced vessel narrowing and ischemia, missing opportunities for early prevention before heart attacks occur. This peer‑reviewed commentary, inspired by The Lancet Commission, synthesizes real‑world Chinese population data showing atherosclerotic plaques are common among middle‑aged and older adults, with coronary plaque prevalence reaching 44.9% in local community cohorts aged 50‑75 years. The authors outline a stepwise, risk‑stratified screening workflow for primary‑care settings to detect subclinical plaque, prioritize systemic medical therapy over routine stenting for non‑culprit unstable lesions, and integrate inflammation and environmental risk control. The authors note that robust long‑term randomized trial evidence is still needed to validate broad implementation of plaque‑guided care.

This review assesses the state-of-the-art of functional liquid crystals with nanomaterials, including self-organized alignment enabled by nanotechnology, diverse properties of nanoparticle-doped systems, soft actuators and tunable structural color in nanohybrid elastomers, and provides critical perspectives on comparative advantages and remaining challenges.

This article collection features papers published in Environmental Surfaces and Interfaces since 2023 on the theme of materials‑driven environmental pollutant removal. It focuses on the development of novel materials and their practical applications in environmental pollutant remediation. All articles are freely available for reading.

Optical fibres carry the global internet because light travels through them with extremely low loss. Researchers at Caltech and the University of Southampton have now adapted flame hydrolysis deposition, a process widely used in optical-fibre manufacturing, to photonic chips. The resulting high-germania-doped microresonators reach ultrahigh Q from telecom to violet wavelengths, opening a scalable route toward fibre-like loss, low-noise lasers, frequency combs and precision photonic systems.