The Royal Academy of Engineering is to award the prestigious Princess Royal Silver Medal to Professor Robert Thomson FREng, Professor of Photonics at Heriot-Watt University.

POSTECH-KRISO team develops an ultra-light underwater lens for broadband low-frequency sound focusing.

POSTECH Identifies True Cause of Prussian Blue Performance Loss — Surface Oxidation, Not Crystal Water, Is the Key Factor.

Supercontinuum is an important light-source for spectroscopy and fundamental science. However, on-chip ultraviolet supercontinuum sources have remained challenging due to absorption and dispersion of conventional photonic materials. A team at Zhejiang University demonstrated for the first time, an on-chip UV-C to mid-infrared (270–2400 nm) supercontinuum source using periodically poled lithium tantalate (PPLT) thin films, covering more than three octaves. This platform opens new avenues for broadband on-chip nonlinear photonics and spectroscopic sensing.

A research group has developed “TP-An,” a molecule that enables even low-energy, long-wavelength light to be used more effectively by solar cells and photocatalysts. The molecule can be used even at high concentrations that are difficult for traditional materials, suggesting their usefulness in technology.

Organic molecular crystals can respond to external stimuli such as heat, light, and mechanical force, making them attractive candidates for next-generation functional materials. However, predicting how multiple intermolecular interactions cooperate or compete to govern crystal behavior remains a major challenge. Now, researchers at Kochi University of Technology have demonstrated that the hierarchy of intermolecular interactions—the relative strength and priority of different molecular forces—can determine crystal structures, luminescence properties, and even phase-transition pathways in molecular crystals. Their findings provide a new design principle for controlling solid-state functions through molecular engineering. The study was conducted by Mahiro Nakabayashi and Professor Shotaro Hayashi and published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

As countries expand nuclear power to support low-carbon energy goals, securing a stable supply of uranium has become an increasingly important scientific and environmental challenge. A new review published in Biochar examines how biochar-based porous materials could provide a more sustainable route for selectively separating uranium from complex water systems, including seawater, salt lakes, groundwater, and nuclear wastewater.