This review summarizes the research progress on flexible wearable sensors based on different plant signals and classifies them according to their functions: physical sensors, chemical sensors and electrophysiological sensors. Furthermore, the challenges currently faced by wearable plant sensors are presented and we propose a design framework for next-generation plant wearable sensors enabling continuous real-time plant health monitoring under field conditions.

Prof Eliane Candiani Arantes heads the Laboratory of Animal Toxins at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirao Preto, University of São Paulo (USP) where her group is working with toxins found in the venom of the Crotalus durissus terrificus rattlesnake and the Tityus serrulatus scorpion. They also study the venom of scorpions from the Amazon region, which are still not well understood.

Prof Manuela Berto Pucca heads the Laboratory of Immunology and Toxinology at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at São Paulo State University (UNESP). Her research focuses on venomous animals, the molecular complexity of their venoms, and the development of next generation antivenoms.

They are co-authors of a recently published Frontiers in Public Health article that focuses on the rising number of scorpion stings straining Brazil’s public health system. In this latest Frontier Scientist installment, they talk about their research and careers.

A noninvasive self-powered iontophoresis mask based on a water-driven fiber battery has been reported by Mingwei Tian's group at Qingdao University. A zinc-manganese fiber battery (Zn-Mn@FB) was constructed by continuously preparing long-fiber electrodes in a self-built device, and then seamlessly integrated with a nonwoven cellulose-based superabsorbent fibers (SAFs) substrate.

Professor Xiaoyuan (Shawn) Chen, Nasrat Muzayyin Chair Professor in Medicine and Technology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), has been appointed the founding Editor-in-Chief of ACS Nano Medicine, a new peer-reviewed hybrid journal published by the American Chemical Society (ACS).