An Osaka Metropolitan University-led research team conducted a review that examined the theoretical foundations of Artificial Superintelligence and explored how misaligned AI systems could optimize for wrong objectives, leading to patient harm and systemic failures.

The rapid expansion of high-throughput sequencing technologies has generated unprecedented amounts of multi-omics data, essential to advancing research in biodiversity, evolution, agriculture, medicine, and environmental science. 

The proliferation of 5G communication technology and the miniaturization of electronic devices have made protection against human electromagnetic radiation an urgent global public health issue. Concurrently, intensifying great power arms races are driving electromagnetic warfare environments towards full-spectrum capabilities and intelligentization. Microwave (300 MHz–300 GHz) and terahertz wave (0.1–10 THz) technologies, as core frequency bands in electromagnetic spectrum engineering, have deeply penetrated critical fields such as communications, military, healthcare, and industrial inspection. Consequently, electromagnetic wave absorption and shielding have become imperative problems to solve. However, traditional absorbing materials face numerous challenges, such as singular loss mechanisms, a lack of adaptive cross-band regulation capability, and excessive thickness. These limitations severely restrict their application in complex electromagnetic compatibility scenarios.

The central Himalayan forests, known as the Earth's vital carbon reservoirs, play a significant role in our global carbon mitigation efforts. A new study delves into these forests to estimate ecosystem carbon storage, allocation, and carbon credit potential across various tree species, including chir-pine (Pinus roxburghii Sarg.), deodar (Cedrus deodara [Roxb.] G. Don), oak (Quercus leucotrichophora A. Camus), and sal (Shorea robusta [Roth]) forests.

Emerging two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are among the most promising materials for ultra-scaled transistors due to their intrinsic atomic-level thickness. As the stacking process advances, the complexity and cost of nanosheet field-effect transistors (NSFETs) and complementary FET (CFET) continue to rise. The 1 nm technology node is going to be based on Si-CFET process according to international roadmap for devices and systems (IRDS) (2022, https://irds.ieee.org/), but not publicly confirmed, indicating that more possibilities still exist. The miniaturization advantage of 2D semiconductors motivates us to explore their potential for reducing process costs while matching the performance of next-generation nodes in terms of area, power consumption and speed. In this study, a comprehensive framework is built. A set of MoS₂ NSFETs were designed and fabricated to extract the key parameters and performances. And then for benchmarking, the sizes of 2D-NSFET are scaled to a extent that both of the Si-CFET and 2D-NSFET have the same average device footprint. Under these conditions, the frequency of ultra-scaled 2D-NSFET is found to improve by 36% at a fixed power consumption. This work verifies the feasibility of replacing silicon-based CFETs of 1 nm node with 2D-NSFETs and proposes a 2D technology solution for 1 nm nodes, i.e., “2D eq 1 nm” nodes. At the same time, thanks to the lower characteristic length of 2D semiconductors, the miniaturized 2D-NSFET achieves a 28% frequency increase at a fixed power consumption. Further, developing a standard cell library, these devices obtain a similar trend in 16-bit RISC-V CPUs. This work quantifies and highlights the advantages of 2D semiconductors in advanced nodes, offering new possibilities for the application of 2D semiconductors in high-speed and low-power integrated circuits.

Research led by Professor Philip C. Y. Chow and his PhD student Ms. Yumeng Song from the Department of Mechanical Engineering under the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), has revealed how minute structural modifications in advanced perovskite materials critically influence their light-emission properties. This study, conducted in collaboration with research teams from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Southern University of Science and Technology, provides valuable insights and practical guidance for designing brighter, more efficient, and versatile materials. The findings could accelerate the development of next-generation optoelectronic and quantum devices.

A new study published in Biochar reveals that biochar, a carbon rich soil amendment widely used to improve soil health and reduce pollution, continues to influence the movement of veterinary antibiotics in farmland soils even after five years in the field. The work shows that biochar’s ability to retain pollutants changes in surprising ways over time, shifting from adsorption driven effects in the first year to soil structure driven mechanisms after long term aging.