A collaborative study led by Piao Shilong’s team and Zhang Yao’s team from the Institute of Carbon Neutrality at Peking University reveals the distinct mechanisms by which plants and animals respond to climate change in their life-cycle phenology. This research provides comprehensive global-scale evidence on the asynchronous phenological changes between plants and animals.

A team of researchers led by Professor Piao Shilong at the Institute of Carbon Neutrality of Peking University (PKU) has made significant advances in understanding how China’s land-use changes—such as forest planting—can contribute to the country’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Their study, published in Nature Communications, offers fresh insights into China’s carbon removal capacity through land-use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF), a key strategy for achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

 Prof Zhang Zhiyong’s team developed a heterojunction-gated field-effect transistor (HGFET) that achieves high sensitivity in short-wave infrared detection, with a recorded specific detectivity above 1014 Jones at 1300 nm, making it capable of starlight detection. Their research was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials, titled “Opto-Electrical Decoupled Phototransistor for Starlight Detection”.

In a groundbreaking achievement, researchers from Peking University's School of Materials Science and Engineering, led by Professor Jin-Hu Dou, have synthesized a novel non-van-der-Waals two-dimensional (2D) coordination polymer with intrinsic superconducting properties. The findings, published in Nature Communications (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53786-1) on October 29, 2024, introduce the first precise crystal structure of the Cu₃BHT coordination polymer, marking a significant leap in the development of advanced electronic materials and quantum state exploration.

 A research team led by Prof. Li Mingsong at Peking University has provided new insights into the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and its effects on ocean chemistry. This study, entitled “Coupled decline in ocean pH and carbonate saturation during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum” published in Nature Geoscience reconstructs ocean acidification during this ancient climate event, offering parallels with current trends linked to human-driven CO2 emissions.

Addressing the challenge of controlling electronic states in materials, the scientific community has been exploring innovative methods. Recently, researchers from Peking University, led by Professor Nanlin Wang, in collaboration with Professor Qiaomei Liu and Associate Research Scientist Dong Wu, uncovered how ultrafast lasers can manipulate non-volatile, reversible control over the electronic polar states in the charge-density-wave material EuTe4 at room temperature. Their findings, entitled “Room-temperature non-volatile optical manipulation of polar order in a charge density wave” were published in Nature Communications (doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53323-0) on October 16, 2024.

Imagine the deep frustration of countless men who long to become fathers, only to face infertility due to a genetic condition they can't control. For those with Klinefelter syndrome, this painful reality is a constant struggle.

How does an extra X chromosome lead to infertility in men? Professor Qiao Jie and her team at Peking University Third Hospital revealed why Klinefelter syndrome, a common genetic condition affecting one in every 600 men, often leads to infertility—and they’ve identified a potential way to treat it. Their research, titled “How the extra X chromosome impairs the development of male fetal germ cells,” published in Nature Cells (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08104-6) provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms at play and even offers potential treatment avenues.

In the era of big data, global mass data flow has presented data storage systems with a looming challenge. As DNA has incredibly high storage density – a single gram of DNA can store 215,000 terabytes, the same size as 10 million hours of high-definition video (Imburgia & Nivala, 2024)– and long-term stability, it is an attractive medium for data storage. However, conventional DNA storage relies on de novo synthesis, where nucleotides are added one by one in a fixed order, making the process time-consuming and costly. Zhang et al.’s method enables DNA self-assembly that allows data writing to become parallel and programmable.