The high O–H bond strength of common alcohols prevents their direct hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) activation. By leveraging the β-silicon effect in α-silyl alcohols, the research group of Professor Xiao Shen at Wuhan University weaken the O–H bond to enable redox-neutral, photoinduced homolysis using thioxanthone. The resulting alkoxy radicals undergo Brook rearrangement to carbon radicals, which are intercepted by nickel catalysis for enantioconvergent cross-couplings with acyl chlorides and aryl bromides. This protocol tolerates substrates inert under classical SET/PCET conditions and establishes direct HAT as a versatile platform.

From rhythmic activity in localized populations of cortical neurons to dengue hotspots that repeatedly reappear across Medellín, Colombia, localized oscillations shape collective dynamics in complex networked systems ranging from the brain to urban epidemics. However, existing explanations are often constrained by strict requirements on system dimensionality. This study reveals a more general mechanism for the emergence of localized oscillations, showing how collective dynamics can transcend these conventional constraints and broadening the theoretical framework for understanding localized collective behavior.

HER2-positive breast cancer accounts for about 15% of all breast cancers, and although anti-HER2 targeted therapies have dramatically improved patient survival, primary and acquired drug resistance remain major clinical challenges. In a comprehensive review, researchers from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Kunming Medical University, and collaborating institutions map ten major categories of resistance mechanisms, evaluate strategies to overcome them—including next-generation antibody-drug conjugates—and highlight predictive tools that are paving the way toward precision treatment.

Researchers at Zhejiang University have developed AtomDiT, a machine learning framework that builds a digital twin of dislocations from a single high-resolution electron micrograph. The twin simultaneously reveals dislocation type and position, local stress, and chemical fields. Demonstrated across metals and alloys, including dual-phase systems and hydrogen-segregated grain boundaries, AtomDiT uncovers how stress and chemistry govern dislocation motion, offering a new route to understanding crystal deformation and damage.

A review published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences synthesizes current knowledge of nitrous oxide (N₂O) production by marine planktonic ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), an important microbial group involved in ocean nitrification. The authors summarize the potential metabolic pathways of AOA-derived N₂O and examine how environmental factors including oxygen, temperature, pH, substrate availability, and organic carbon regulate this process. The review highlights the need to understand multifactorial effects of ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation to better predict marine N₂O emissions under future climate change.

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, a team of researchers led by Professor Jia Xin from the Institute of Environmental Archaeology at Nanjing Normal University reconstructed the environmental evolution and human settlement adaptation processes at the Xuecheng archaeological site in the Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River during the Mid to Late Holocene. By integrating multiple environmental proxies and high precision topographic data, the study revealed how hydrological and landscape changes shaped prehistoric settlement migration and spatial organization, providing new evidence for understanding human environment interactions during the formation of early Chinese civilization.

Circularly polarized light (CPL) carries spin angular momentum information and holds great promise for magnetic recording, spin optical communication, biological sensing and quantum computation. Conventional CPL detectors rely heavily on bulky and complex external optical components, which restrict device integration and miniaturization. Chiral organic semiconductors possessing an intrinsic capability for direct CPL discrimination, have emerged as promising candidates for CPL detectors. However, their development faces an intrinsic trade-off between charge carrier mobility and absorption dissymmetry factor.

Encouragingly, tremendous efforts have been devoted to resolving this contradiction, contributing to the development of a series of high-performance chiral organic semiconductors and thereby CPL detectors. Now, writing in Science Bulletin, researchers at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, systematically review representative progress of chiral organic semiconductors with a particular emphasis on the planarity-helicity dilemma and spectral tailoring. The review further highlights advances in CPL detectors and emerging applications, and discusses key challenges and future opportunities toward high-performance, miniaturized, and integrated CPL detection technologies.