Restoring degraded peatlands could play a vital role in tackling climate change, according to a new study led by researchers from Bangor University and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. The study shows that combining rewetting with biochar and iron sulphate additions can significantly slow down carbon loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from drained agricultural peat soils.

In a pioneering exploration of the evolving landscape of carbon fiber composite material recycling, researchers are leveraging bibliometric analysis to uncover the latest advancements and emerging hotspots in this critical field. The study, titled "Research Advances and Hotspot Evolution of Carbon Fiber Composite Material Recycling Based on Bibliometrics Analysis," is led by Prof. Da Chen from the Science and Technology Innovation Research Institute at the Civil Aviation University of China in Tianjin, China, and the Tianjin Engineering Research Center of Civil Aviation Energy-Environment and Green Development. This comprehensive analysis offers valuable insights into the current state and future directions of carbon fiber recycling research.

A team led by Associate Researcher Zhaoming Zhang and Researcher Xuzhou Yan from Shanghai Jiao Tong University introduced pseudorotaxane end groups of varying sizes and utilized their steric hindrance to modulate the dissociation kinetics of supramolecular crosslinks, thereby achieving control over the mechanical properties of supramolecular polymer networks (SPNs). This study systematically elucidated the relationship between supramolecular structure, dissociation kinetics, and macroscopic mechanical properties of the network, providing new insights into the development of high-performance SPNs.

A research team led by Prof. BI Guo-Qiang from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with several domestic and international institutions, has resolved a 50-year-old controversy in neuroscience. By employing a self-developed, time-resolved cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) technique, the team has delineated the intricate choreography of synaptic vesicle (SV) release and rapid recycling, the cornerstone of neural communication. Their findings, which introduce a new biophysical mechanism termed the “Kiss-Shrink-Run”, were published in Science on October 17 (Beijing time).

The secret to tomato size lies within the flower's core. Scientists have discovered that the gene SlKNUCKLES (SlKNU), which encodes a zinc finger protein, serves as a key switch that determines fruit size by regulating floral meristem activity—the tissue responsible for forming reproductive organs. 

The size of a tomato fruit begins with its flower. Scientists have revealed that the gene SlKNUCKLES (SlKNU), which encodes a zinc finger protein, plays a decisive role in determining tomato fruit size by regulating the activity of floral meristems—the tissue that gives rise to reproductive organs. 

The development of proton conductors that demostrate high conductivity with mechanical resilience is critical for advancing energy devices operating under harsh conditions. Polymer nanocomposites offer a promising route to reconcile these competing requirements through strategic material design. In this work, we report an anhydrous proton-conducting nanocomposite composed of a comb-like crosslinked polymer network and superacidic polyoxometalate (POM) clusters. The modular tunability of both polymer topology and inorganic clusters establishes this approach as a generalizable platform for tailoring ion-transport materials and opens new avenues for high-performance energy technologies.

Photocatalytic conversion of plastic waste into valuable chemicals represents a groundbreaking approach to addressing global plastic pollution while generating clean energy. Nickel-substituted polyoxometalates (Ni-POMs), when combined with cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanospheres, create highly efficient single-cluster catalysts that enable simultaneous hydrogen production and plastic degradation under visible light irradiation. The optimized Ni₉@CdS-10 catalyst demonstrates exceptional performance, achieving a hydrogen evolution rate of 22.29 mmol g⁻¹ alongside 19.01 mmol g⁻¹ of pyruvate production from polylactic acid (PLA) degradation. This innovative system, developed by researchers at Tianjin University of Technology, offers a sustainable solution for plastic waste management through its unique electron-sponge mechanism that enhances charge separation efficiency by 160-fold compared to conventional CdS catalysts.

Owing to their tunable structures and strong emission, chiral metal–organic frameworks (CMOFs) incorporating rare-earth ions hold great promise for circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Herein, enantiomeric rare-earth CMOFs are synthesized via the direct self-assembly of optically pure ligands (1,3-bis((S)- and (R)-1-carboxyethyl)-1H-imidazol-3-ium chlorides) with Tb³⁺ ions and shown to exhibit CPL with a dissymmetry factor (|g_lum|) of 0.016, which is attributed to efficient chirality transfer and the antenna effect. The introduction of a luminescent guest (MnCl₄²⁻) into the framework channels markedly enhances CPL and increases |g_lum| to 0.071. The results of control experiments and spectral analysis indicate that this enhancement arises from the synergy between host–guest energy transfer and chirality transfer. This work describes a modular strategy for constructing CPL-active rare-earth CMOFs and provides a general design principle for tuning their chiroptical properties through host–guest interactions.

The sputtering mode diagram (SMD) can be utilized to precisely control the phase structure as well as the electronic properties of niobium nitride (NbN), thus realizing the precise tuning of device performance. The SNSPDs fabricated in different modes have flexible performance with saturated quantum efficiency and small kinetic inductance, which provide a practical reference for extending the research and application of superconducting devices.