A new review shows how PEDOT:PSS, a flexible conductive polymer, enables tactile sensors that mimic human touch. These sensors detect pressure, strain, and temperature, opening doors for smarter healthcare monitoring, robotics, and wearable electronics.

Liver organoids, three-dimensional structures derived from stem cells or hepatic progenitors, have emerged as a transformative technology. Unlike traditional two-dimensional cultures or animal models, organoids faithfully recapitulate the complex architecture and functionality of native liver tissue. This review summarizes recent advancements in liver organoid technology, detailing their development, classification, and key applications.

Dissolved organic matter, a complex mixture of carbon-containing molecules found in soils, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and sediments, plays a central role in how carbon moves through the environment. It can feed microbes, bind pollutants, influence nutrient availability, and affect how much carbon is stored or released as carbon dioxide. Yet scientists are still working to understand why some dissolved organic matter is quickly consumed by microbes, while other portions persist much longer.

Researchers have developed a new biochar-based composite that can capture uranium from water while also converting part of it into a less toxic chemical form, offering a potential strategy for recovering uranium from seawater and supporting future nuclear energy resources.

Grain-sized device uses a single optical signal to simultaneously detect force and twisting in all directions, which could improve precision in robotics and medical instruments.

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has named Katherine (Kate) Evans as associate laboratory director for the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate (BESSD). Evans will lead the directorate as it advances the science and technology needed to strengthen energy security, safeguard infrastructure and accelerate biotechnology innovation.

Summertime hikes and afternoons in the backyard can be ruined by mosquito bites. So, many people apply topical synthetic repellents like DEET before heading outside, but there is a growing market for natural repellants that could be less irritating to the skin and more environmentally friendly. In ACS Omega, researchers describe their new plant-based formulation, a patchouli oil-infused lotion that protected against mosquitoes as effectively as a commercially available DEET formulation. 

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have demonstrated, for the first time, a single quantum of vibrational energy interacting with a single atomic spin, seeding a pathway to quantum technologies that use sound as an information carrier, instead of light or electricity.