A reserach team led by Guangfan Zheng and Qian Zhang at Northeast Normal University reported a visible light-mediated photoredox catalytic radical-polar cross-coupling strategy to achieve bifunctionalization of ipso- and para-positions in substituted aromatics. By utilizing the rapid coupling between sulfur dioxide and the dearomatized radical-type Meisenheimer intermediate, the Smiles rearrangement process was successfully delayed. Following radical ipso-cyclization, the inert C–N bond and the para-C–H bond were activated stepwise. This in-situ and para-bifunctionalization mode is complementary to the Catellani reaction, providing a novel strategy for precise multi-site modification of substituted aromatics. The article was published as an open access Research Article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

In a new study from Northern Arizona University, a group of researchers discovered that when fabricated gold, copper and iron nanocrystals clump together during a lightning-fast chemical reaction, they form pentagonal constructs that strongly resemble natural snowflakes, a phenomenon that holds incredible implications for the future of nanotechnology. 

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Corday Selden, an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, as a recipient of the TOS Early Career Award, recognizing her outstanding early-career research contributions, leadership in ocean sciences, and exceptional promise for future impact in oceanography. Dr. Selden will be recognized at The Oceanography Society Honors Breakfast, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Seth Zippel, Assistant Professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, as a recipient of the TOS Early Career Award, recognizing his significant early-career research contributions, impact, and exceptional potential for future achievement in oceanography. Dr. Zippel will be recognized at The Oceanography Society Honors Breakfast, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics announced Uriel Levy, a professor at the Applied Physics Institute and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as the inaugural editor-in-chief of Advanced Quantum Catalyst (AQC). 

Soils store more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined, with soil microorganisms playing the main role. As a result, the global soil carbon cycle—by which carbon enters, moves through, and leaves soils worldwide—exerts a significant impact on climate change feedback. Now an important study led by researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences sheds new light on this cycle by overturning assumptions about the relationship between microbial respiration and carbon storage.

The proinflammatory activation of immune cells called macrophages can be remotely directed using piezoelectric nanoparticles coupled with ultrasound, Boston College researchers report in Scientific Reports. This potentially allows for the precise, on-demand activation of cells specifically at an infection or tumor site, avoiding the toxicity and side effects associated with the systemic administration of traditional therapeutics.