The increasing demand for efficient and sustainable energy storage has accelerated interest in biomass-derived carbon materials for supercapacitors. A newly published study in Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts introduces a green synthesis strategy for lignin-based carbon aerogels that combines phytic acid–induced spherical structure formation with dual phosphorus and sulfur heteroatom doping. Using magnesium lignosulfonate and sodium alginate as renewable precursors, the researchers achieved uniform heteroatom distribution, optimized pore architecture, and enhanced electrochemical activity without relying on additional sulfur sources. The resulting carbon aerogels exhibit high specific capacitance, impressive energy density, and excellent cycling durability, highlighting their potential for next-generation sustainable energy storage devices.

Researchers revisited the long-neglected intrinsic fluctuations of spontaneous Brillouin scattering (SpBS), uncovering their physical mechanism and stochastic characteristics through comprehensive theoretical analysis and dedicated experimental validation. They developed a unified framework and verified that SpBS noise establishes a fundamental precision foundation in Brillouin metrology, exceeding the traditional shot-noise limit. The study offers new perspectives for optimizing the performance of current and future Brillouin-based technologies across a broad range of applications, such as imaging, microscopy, and sensing.

Professor Ying-Wei Yang's research group at Jilin University successfully constructed an azobenzene-modified metal-organic framework (MOF)-based nano-impeller platform using a dimensional engineering strategy. They synthesized two-dimensional layered Zn-Azo-MOF-1 and three-dimensional network Zn-Azo-MOF-2 with the same composition but different dimensions. They found that the photoisomerization efficiency of the two-dimensional framework (cis isomer content 33%) was an order of magnitude higher than that of the three-dimensional framework (3%). Mechanical grinding triggered interlayer slip in the two-dimensional structure, breaking the spatial confinement and activating efficient photoisomerization. Analysis of rotational energy barriers and framework-ligand interactions revealed the mechanism by which dimensionality and mechanical activation synergistically regulate the photo-switching dynamics. The constructed two-dimensional Zn-Azo-MOF-1 achieved 99% cargo release within 50 minutes under alternating UV-Vis irradiation, successfully extending the nano-impeller function from an amorphous platform to a crystalline platform, providing a dimensional engineering design principle for the programmable switching behavior of stimulus-responsive materials. The article was published as an open access Research Article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

No ears, no problem! The tobacco hornworm caterpillar, a common garden pest, can actually detect airborne sound via microscopic hairs on its body, according to a team of faculty and graduate students at Binghamton University, State University of New York. The research could have implications for improving microphone technology.

Multicellularity is one of the most profound phenomena in biology, and relies on the ability of a single cell to reorganize itself into a complex organism. It underpins the diversity in the animal kingdom, from insects to frogs, to humans. But how do cells establish and maintain their individuality with such precision? A team led by Jan Brugués at the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life (PoL) at Dresden University of Technology has uncovered fundamental mechanisms that shed light on this question. The findings, now published in the scientific journal Nature, reveal how cells establish physical boundaries through an inherently unstable process, and how different species have evolved distinct strategies to circumvent this process.

Researchers at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA published a step-by-step framework for determining the three-dimensional positions and elemental identities of atoms in amorphous materials. These solids, such as glass, lack the repeating atomic patterns seen in a crystal. The team analyzed realistically simulated electron-microscope data and tested how each step affected accuracy.

New research shows quarks create wakes as they speed through quark-gluon plasma, the material that existed during the first microseconds of the early universe. The findings could help physicists understand the earliest moments of the infant universe.