In a pioneering study that explores the hidden carbon reservoirs of coastal ecosystems, researchers are quantifying the carbon stocks of macroalgal beds in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. The study, titled "Carbon Stocks of Coastal Macroalgal Beds in the SW Atlantic," is led by Prof. Angelo Fraga Bernardino from the Departamento de Oceanografia at Universidade Federal Do Espírito Santo (UFES) in Vitória, Brazil. This research offers valuable insights into the role of macroalgal beds in carbon sequestration, highlighting their importance in marine protected areas.

Ultraviolet (UV) phototherapy is a widely used and effective dermatological treatment, yet its application has been limited by UV toxicity and challenges in targeted delivery. Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), a novel photoluminescent nanomaterial capable of converting near-infrared (NIR) light into shorter-wavelength visible or UV light, hold promise for enabling NIR-driven skin phototherapy.

Tomatoes, one of the world's most important horticultural crops, often struggle to grow in saline soils that limit yields and quality. 

Water behaves very differently when confined at the nanoscale, and understanding these anomalies is crucial for advancing catalysis, environmental technologies, and energy systems. A new study has investigated the mechanisms and scale-dependent behavior of confined water between Al₂O₃ layers, and identified a threshold range of 10 to 20 nm that marks the transition between confined and bulk water behaviors, offering guidance for the design of next-generation nanoreactors and interfaces.

High altitude long endurance aircraft, benefitting from excellent aerodynamic performance and dwell time, could suffer aerodynamic and structural nonlinearities during severe environments. These coupled nonlinearities can result in unfavorable aeroelastic responses, posing a potential threat to structural integrity and flight safety. Most studies focused only on aeroelastic systems with isolated structural or aerodynamic nonlinearity. It is necessary to fill this research gap since coupled nonlinearities can cause significantly different aeroelastic signatures that cannot be captured in an isolated nonlinear case.

Inspired by the natural spider web structure, this study innovatively designed an omnidirectional strain sensor array with a bioinspired spider web configuration. Using Ti₃C₂T_x (MXene) conductive ink and 3D printing technology, the sensor array was successfully fabricated. The strain sensor array leverages the isotropic strain response characteristics of the spider web structure, combined with a multi-class multi-output neural network, to achieve signal decoupling of the sensor array, enabling accurate identification and differentiation of both strain direction and magnitude. Within the 0-10% strain range, the sensor demonstrated a gauge factor (GF) of 26.3, with an identification accuracy of approximately 97% for strain magnitude and direction under various surface stimuli. This research provides a novel approach for achieving both high sensitivity and reliability in strain detection, demonstrating potential applications in human motion monitoring and multi-directional stress sensing. Furthermore, it offers promising prospects for applications in intelligent robotics and wearable health monitoring devices.