New study reveals leafy crops accumulate more resistance genes than fruiting plants, offering insight into safer agricultural practices.

Two unique hallmarks in non-Hermitian systems, namely exceptional points (EPs) and the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), have attracted considerable attention, particularly regarding their interplay. Recently, researchers in China demonstrated that coupling two non-Hermitian systems, each exhibiting independent NHSE, can induce multiple pairs of EPs. This further realizes the manipulation of wave-function localization, which is experimentally characterized on integrated photonic platforms. This work may inspire new designs for photonic integrated devices based on non-Hermitian physics.

Based on a symmetry-guided synthesis strategy, the research group of Professor Yefeng Tang at Tsinghua University recently achieved the efficient construction of the tricyclic core skeleton of polycyclic aromatic tetralin-type lignans by using as key steps the chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed photoasymmetric [2+2] cycloaddition and ring strain-driven oxidative ring expansion reactions. They also achieved the efficient enantioselective total synthesis of multiple aromatic tetralin-type lignan natural products through subsequent biomimetic cyclization and local desymmetrization reactions. These results were published as an open access article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

In a pioneering effort to enhance our understanding of carbon storage in wetland ecosystems, researchers are utilizing advanced satellite technology to estimate carbon stocks in the reed wetlands of Weishan County, China. The study, titled "Estimation of Carbon Stock in the Reed Wetland of Weishan County in China Based on Sentinel Satellite Series," is led by Prof. Jie Chen from the College of Oceanography and Ecological Science at Shanghai Ocean University in Shanghai, China, and the State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing, China. This research offers valuable insights into the carbon sequestration potential of these vital ecosystems.

Soil pollution from pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals is a growing threat to global food security and public health. With nearly 80 percent of agricultural soils containing traces of organic contaminants, researchers are looking for sustainable ways to restore damaged land. A new study in Biochar highlights an emerging solution that pairs plant-microbe partnerships with biochar, an engineered carbon-rich material—to detoxify polluted soils while supporting plant growth and economic resilience.

Engineers and scientists, as well as artists, have long been inspired by the beauty and functionality of nature’s designs. Japan designed high-speed trains to cut through the air as smoothly as the kingfisher cuts through water, for example, but useful designs can also be found at a microscopic level. The study of biology in combination with materials science is called biomateriomics. An Italian research team sees great potential in the application of generative artificial intelligence to this already interdisciplinary field. They have described this potential, and the associated limitations and challenges, in an open access review article titled “Generative Artificial Intelligence for Advancing Discovery and Design in Biomateriomics,” published May 1 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal.