Water reshapes the Earth through slow, powerful erosion, carving intricate landscapes like caves and pinnacles in soluble rocks such as limestone. An international team from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, the University of Florida, and the Institute of Earth Sciences in Orléans has discovered that vertical channels, known as karstic solution pipes, preserve a record of Earth’s climatic history. Their study, published in Physical Review Letters, reveals that these pipes evolve with time into an invariant shape, a fixed, ideal form that remains unchanged as the pipes deepen, encoding ancient rainfall patterns.

Chemical grouting is an effective technique to improve soil structure when it is prone to liquefaction risks during earthquakes. Reliable and uniform grout permeation in heterogeneous soil with low-permeability zones is challenging. Researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan, and Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, have now developed an integrative approach of using Finite Element Method to analyze permeation behavior alongside AI-based permeation prediction, to help engineers improve grouting outcomes in complex soil types.

Chemists at UCL (University College London) and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth – a key process in the origin of life.

Chemistry needs to become more sustainable and urgent actions are needed. That is the main message of the Stockholm Declaration on Chemistry for the Future that was launched at the Nobel Prize Museum on 23 May.

Efficient recycling of real-world polyester plastics faces challenges such as separating products from impurities and additives, as well as slow hydrolysis at ambient temperatures. Recently, a research paper proposed a synergistic strategy combining photothermal depolymerization and reforming to overcome these limitations. With a Pt/TiO₂ catalyst, both commercial polylactic acid (PLA) granules and real-world PLA products can be efficiently converted into easily separable H₂, CO and CH₄.

How can we precisely control microscale surfaces using magnetic fields?

Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and others propose a unified framework for designing magnetically responsive microstructured surfaces (MRMFSs).

Published in International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, this review outlines advances in structure, fabrication, and actuation, with future potential in micro-manipulation, soft robotics, sensing, and smart materials.

Scientists created dye-based molecules that self-assemble into ring-shaped structures, mimicking nature’s light-harvesting systems. These stacked rings allow electrons and energy to circulate freely, demonstrating a phenomenon called toroidal conjugation. The work could inspire new materials for solar energy, optoelectronics and next-generation electronic devices.