What if humanity's search for life on other planets returns no hits? An international team of researchers, led by ETH Zurich's Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics studied what insights can be gained from a 'no life detected' scenario in future exoplanet surveys.

A paper published in National Science Review highlights the role of China's natural terrestrial ecosystems (NTEs) as significant sources and sinks of methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), two potent greenhouse gases. The study, led by Dr. Tingting Li and her team, compiles a new CH₄ and N₂O inventory for China's NTEs from 1980 to 2020, revealing the complex interplay between climate change, land-use changes, and greenhouse gas emissions. The findings underscore the importance of NTEs in global greenhouse gas budgets and provide recommendations for enhancing carbon sequestration and reducing emissions.

Lysosomes are considered as the major degradative site and were recently recognized as dynamic regulators of cellular homeostasis. Many diseases, including cancer, have been linked to functional changes in lysosomes. Natural products and their structural analogs have historically made major contributions to pharmacotherapy. By employing the natural small molecule isowalsuranolide as a chemical probe, the underlying mechanisms of its lysosome-inducing effects were investigated. This study revealed that isowalsuranolide targets TrxR1/2 and triggers lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy via the p53-TFEB/TFE3 axis. This study provides important insight into the lysosomal adaptation mechanism to redox signals and the application of lysosome-inducing agents in the treatment of lysosome-related diseases, including cancer.

Green hydrogen from water splitting has emerged as a critical energy vector with the potential to spearhead the global transition to a fossil fuel-independent society. The feld of catalysis has been revolutionized by single-atom catalysts (SACs), which exhibit unique and intricate interactions between atomically dispersed metal atoms and their supports. Recently, bimetallic SACs (bimSACs) have garnered signifcant attention for leveraging the synergistic functions of two metal ions coordinated on appropriately designed supports. BimSACs ofer an avenue for rich metal–metal and metal–support cooperativity, potentially addressing current limitations of SACs in efectively furnishing transformations which involve synchronous proton–electron exchanges, substrate activation with reversible redox cycles, simultaneous multi-electron transfer, regulation of spin states, tuning of electronic properties, and cyclic transition states with low activation energies. This review aims to encapsulate the growing advancements in bimSACs, with an emphasis on their pivotal role in hydrogen generation via water splitting. We subsequently delve into advanced experimental methodologies for the elaborate characterization of SACs, elucidate their electronic properties, and discuss their local coordination environment. Overall, we present comprehensive discussion on the deployment of bimSACs in both hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction, the two half-reactions of the water electrolysis process.

The molecular world of bitter compounds has so far only been partially explored. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich in Freising and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle (Saale) have now isolated three new bitter compounds from the mushroom Amaropostia stiptica and investigated their effect on human bitter taste receptors. In doing so, they discovered one of the potentially most bitter substances known to date. The study results expand our knowledge of natural bitter compounds and their receptors, thus making an important contribution to food and health research.

Koun Shirai from The University of Osaka gives an answer to a long-standing question in theoretical glass physics: what does it mean to be an order parameter for an inherently out-of-equilibrium system? Starting from first principles, Shirai reexamines what it means to be in equilibrium and arrives at the conclusion that order parameters of glass are merely time-averaged positions of atoms.