Plants are quietly absorbing microplastics from soil and air, and those particles can work their way into our food and ecosystems, according to a new review by researchers at Nankai University in China. The study pulls together the latest evidence to show how plastic fragments and fibers enter plants through roots and leaves, how they travel and accumulate inside tissues, and what this means for crop health, soil microbes, and global food security.

As sea levels rise and soils grow saltier, even the iconic Sabal palmetto – the official state tree of Florida also known as the cabbage palm – may be in danger. But a new study in HortScience suggests a simple, widely available amendment could help young palms survive in salty conditions. 

With the advancement of Internet applications, the global demand for broadband satellite communication services is incessantly escalating. Furthermore, there exists an exponential surge in the requisition for the capacity of satellite communication systems. In response to this evolving demand, the domain of satellite communication technology is progressively evolving toward the realm of high-throughput satellite (HTS) communication systems. The typical technical characteristics of HTS are: (a) the satellite adopts multibeam technology for beam overlapping coverage of the service area, which improves the quality of the wireless link while realizing the spatial dimension segmentation; (b) based on this, the system adopts multiple frequency multiplexing to improve the communication capacity of a single satellite; (c) the gateway station is tightly coupled with the user beam clusters are tightly coupled to complete 2-hop communication, which makes multiple gateway stations share the communication resources of the same satellite, forming a spatial isolation of the gateway stations, and once again realizing the frequency multiplexing of the gateway station links. A key requirement for future multibeam broadband satellite communication systems is the ability to flexibly adjust beam capacity according to changes in business distribution, in order to meet time-varying business requirements. Beam hopping technology provides an efficient solution to achieve the efficient use of frequency resources and power resources. At the same time, the use of beam hopping makes the beam hopping of satellite payload need to match the business signals of ground signal stations, bringing about the need for synchronization of beam hopping between satellite and ground.

In a landmark study from the Journal of Sport and Health Science, an international team of researchers has gathered evidence from 27 reviews and 135 studies to provide a first global consensus on the definition and classification of short bouts of accumulated exercise. They expect its implementation to empower populations to avoid sedentary behavior, such as prolonged sitting, and move increasingly often, promoting improvements in public health.

A nationwide, multicenter trial in China compares tegoprazan-based (TACB) and esomeprazole-based (EACB) triple therapy plus bismuth for Helicobacter pylori. TACB has 93.5% eradication in the full analysis set, superior to EACB’s 86.4%, with comparable safety and high compliance.

An Osaka Metropolitan University-led research team assessed how varying IVM durations affect developmental competence and embryo quality in oocytes with fast- or slow-predicted NMS classified via machine learning.

The development of flexible zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) faces a three-way trade-off among the ionic conductivity, Zn²⁺ mobility, and the electrochemical stability of hydrogel electrolytes. To address this challenge, we designed a cationic hydrogel named PAPTMA to holistically improve the reversibility of ZIBs. The long cationic branch chains in the polymeric matrix construct express pathways for rapid Zn²⁺ transport through an ionic repulsion mechanism, achieving simultaneously high Zn²⁺ transference number (0.79) and high ionic conductivity (28.7 mS cm⁻¹). Additionally, the reactivity of water in the PAPTMA hydrogels is significantly inhibited, thus possessing a strong resistance to parasitic reactions. Mechanical characterization further reveals the superior tensile and adhesion strength of PAPTMA. Leveraging these properties, symmetric batteries employing PAPTMA hydrogel deliver exceeding 6000 h of reversible cycling at 1 mA cm⁻² and maintain stable operation for 1000 h with a discharge of depth of 71%. When applied in 4 × 4 cm² pouch cells with MnO₂ as the cathode material, the device demonstrates remarkable operational stability and mechanical robustness through 150 cycles. This work presents an eclectic strategy for designing advanced hydrogels that combine high ionic conductivity, enhanced Zn²⁺ mobility, and strong resistance to parasitic reactions, paving the way for long-lasting flexible ZIBs.