01 December 2025 / Kiel. A study by an international team involving the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel shows that the expansion of Antarctic Bottom Water during a major warming phase around 12,000 years ago displaced a carbon-rich mass of deep-water in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. This process released carbon dioxide that had been stored in the deep ocean, thereby contributing to the end of the last Ice Age. The study provides important insights into how the ocean may respond as Antarctica continues to warm today. The findings are published today in Nature Geoscience.

Slow earthquakes have been discovered to exhibit anomalously slow, long-lasting, and small slips, adjacent to regular earthquakes where we sometimes feel catastrophic vibration. However, no one knows the reason why they show such strange characteristics. In a study published in a scientific journal Nature Communications, researchers at The University of Osaka succeeded in experimentally reproducing the multiple features of slow earthquakes in the lab and suggested the grain-scale origin of them based on their direct observations.

Inspired by snake pit organs, we propose a CMOS-integrated upconverter system achieving room-temperature, 4K ultra-high-resolution short-wave and mid-wave infrared imaging. Utilizing colloidal quantum dot barrier heterojunctions and co-hosted emitting units, the device demonstrates superior luminance and upconversion efficiency. This innovation breaks visible light limitations, advancing applications in night vision, agriculture, and industrial inspection.

Wearable/implantable phototherapy devices offer advantages such as portability, ease of use, and personalized treatment. This article focuses on clinical applications, systematically reviewing the mechanisms and applications of phototherapy, as well as the key challenges faced by existing phototherapy devices. It also proposes the integration of AI and flexible sensing technologies to develop closed-loop diagnostic and therapeutic systems.

An international team led by Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, has used state-of-the-art cryo-electron microscopy to visualize electrical synapses (gap junctions) inside living cells. In doing so, they discovered a surprising additional structure: a previously unknown circular “cap” that is connected to the channel from the inside of the cell. It appears to be formed by the protein UNC-1, whose protein family is associated with various diseases. The results were published in Science Advances.

Synchrotron radiation sources generate highly brilliant light pulses, ranging from infrared to hard X-rays, which can be used to gain deep insights into complex materials. An international team has now published an overview on synchrotron methods for the further development of quantum materials and technologies in the journal Advanced Functional Materials: Using concrete examples, they show how these unique tools can help to unlock the potential of quantum technologies such as quantum computing, overcome production barriers and pave the way for future breakthroughs.