Heavy metal pollution in farmland creates a problem that does not end when contaminated plants are harvested. Crop residues and plants used to remove metals from polluted soils can themselves contain substantial amounts of mercury, cadmium, lead, nickel and other potentially hazardous elements. If these materials are burned, landfilled or returned directly to farmland, the metals may be released again into the environment.

Researchers have discovered that a bacterium from the human urinary tract can turn a common steroid precursor into testosterone. The finding does not show that bacteria cause prostate cancer, but it opens a new line of research into whether microbes can influence the hormone environment around the prostate. Computational biophysicists at Auburn University helped explain how the bacterial enzymes perform this surprising chemistry.

Satellite measurements detected declining photosynthetic activity in Western U.S. forests two years before bark-beetle mortality appeared in aerial detection surveys, according to new University of Utah-led research. The first-of-its-kind study suggests that satellite-observed chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), a measure of plant photosynthesis, could provide an early warning of forest stress. As drought, wildfire and insect outbreaks occur with increasing frequency across the American West, the technology could also help scientists understand how these disturbances affect forests’ ability to absorb and store carbon from the atmosphere.

In recognition of his exceptional work to understand the chemistry of carbohydrates and the role they play in health and disease, Scripps Family Chair Professor Chi-Huey Wong of Scripps Research will receive the 2027 Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry.

Harvard researchers have created a layered semiconductor and metasurface optical device that exhibits strong nonlinear frequency conversion, including at near-infrared wavelengths.

A study investigated how ingesting expanded polystyrene (EPS) affects wharf roaches, a common shoreline scavenger. EPS-fed animals showed no significant reduction in lifespan, but their guts displayed altered expression of genes involved in chemical defense, DNA repair, and digestion. Gut microbial communities were largely unchanged, although several rare taxa were detected only in EPS-fed specimens. The findings highlight the need for a more comprehensive understanding of how microplastic pollution affects marine ecosystems.

Researchers from The University of Manchester have completely suppressed superconductivity in magic-angle graphene by screening interactions between electrons, helping resolve a long-running debate about the origin of the phenomenon.

Metal halide perovskites (e.g., CsPbBr₃) have emerged as highly promising scintillator materials owing to their superior optoelectronic characteristics. However, their practical deployment is constrained by intrinsic structural instability and nonradiative recombination-induced energy loss. Herein, they show that Ni²⁺ doping constitutes a potent regulatory strategy for synergistically improving the scintillation performance and environmental robustness of CsPbBr₃ perovskite. Various characterizations combined with threotecial calculation indicate that the incorporation of Ni²⁺ dopants triggers lattice contraction, thereby enhancing the resistance to environmental perturbations. Ni-doping also passivates intrinsic defects and traps, leading to marked suppression of nonradiative recombination pathways. This synergy in as-prepared Ni-doped CsPbBr₃ leads to an 11-fold enhancement in photoluminescence intensity and a substantial increase in photoluminescence quantum yield from 56.0% to 93.7%. Notably, it delivers an exceptional light yield of 38428.5 photons MeV⁻¹, a low detection limit of 64.9 nGyₐᵢᵣ s⁻¹, and superior radiation tolerance. Furthermore, a flexible scintillation screen containing Ni-doped CsPbBr₃ enables high-resolution X-ray imaging with a spatial resolution of 16.6 lp mm⁻¹, notably surpassing that of the majority of reported perovskite-based scintillators. This study provides profound insights into the pivotal role of metal doping into halide perovskites for enhancing environmental stability in radiation detection technologies.