A team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has created a machining method that takes a clear step beyond all existing field-assisted cutting techniques. Instead of using only one external energy field, such as heat or magnetism, the new approach applies a laser field and a magnetic field at the same time during diamond cutting. This dual-field method offers a way to machine advanced materials that are extremely difficult to process with conventional techniques.

The research group of Professor Chuandong Dou at the State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, Jilin University, recently constructed two novel boron-hexane two-dimensional benzobenzenes using a borane-controlled cyclization strategy, elucidating the importance of boron atom doping. Using conjugated boranes as precursors, the researchers synthesized boron-hexane Z-type and bilayer benzobenzenes C₃₂B₂ via FeCl₃ and Bi(OTf)₃-mediated intramolecular cyclization reactions, obtaining narrow-spectrum fluorescence (half-width at half-maximum as narrow as 19 nm) and amplified spontaneous emission properties, demonstrating their potential application as gain mediators. Furthermore, by studying the electronic structures of their divalent anions and all-carbon isoelectronic forms, they revealed that boron atoms can perturb the aromaticity of the conjugated framework, thereby reconstructing the spin density distribution. This research expands the topological diversity of boron-containing carbon molecules and provides a new system for studying luminescent functions and spin properties. The article was published as an open access Research Article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

Researchers used Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold2 and ProteinMPNN to speed development of antibody-based probes that can be used to see key functions and chemical changes inside living cells as they happen. This AI-driven method is significantly faster than previous manual testing and development approaches, allowing the CSU team to rapidly create and test 19 new potential probes. The work enables continuous imaging of living cells, which may help researchers better understand errors in genetic expression that can lead to cancer and other disorders.  

Heat stress limits the performance of biofertilizer microbes in hot climates. Researchers at QST combined adaptive laboratory evolution with repeated, precisely dosed gamma irradiation to rapidly generate Bradyrhizobium strains that thrive at higher temperatures, suggesting a faster, non‑transgenic route to robust industrial microorganisms with broad sustainability benefits for agriculture, biomanufacturing, and renewable fuels.

An international research team led by scientists from the University of Rostock, CNRS-École polytechnique in France, and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf has discovered a previously unknown form of superionic water for the first time: The researchers have succeeded in experimentally discovering an exotic, highly electrically conductive phase at the European XFEL X-ray laser near Hamburg and the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC in the USA. It may occur inside ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune.

A stable "exceptional fermionic superfluid," a new quantum phase that intrinsically hosts singularities known as exceptional points, has been discovered by researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo. Their analysis of a non-Hermitian quantum model with spin depairing shows that dissipation can actively stabilize a superfluid with these singularities embedded within it. The work reveals how lattice geometry dictates the phase's stability and provides a path to realizing it in experiments with ultracold atoms.

Gas and dust flowing from stars can, under the right conditions, clash with a star’s surroundings and create a shock wave. Now, astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have imaged a beautiful shock wave around a dead star — a discovery that has left them puzzled. According to all known mechanisms, the small, dead star RXJ0528+2838 should not have such structure around it. This discovery, as enigmatic as it’s stunning, challenges our understanding of how dead stars interact with their surroundings.

A multiscale cellulose hydrogel reported in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts delivers 10.27 mS cm^-1 ionic conductivity and a 0.84 Zn²⁺ transference number while suppressing dendrites and hydrogen evolution. The separator-free, biodegradable film cuts separator cost twelve-fold and enables flexible pouch cells that survive 2 kg bending loads, offering a scalable path for safe, low-cost aqueous zinc-ion batteries.