Forests are a critical frontline in the fight against climate change, but the complex details of their carbon storage have long been hidden in a blur of overlapping canopies. 

With the continuous advancement of deep-space exploration missions, the potential threat of microorganisms in the closed environment of space stations to astronauts' health has attracted increasing attention. Fusobacterium nucleatum, as an opportunistic pathogen colonizing the oral cavity and mucosal sites, is closely associated with various diseases including periodontal disease and colorectal cancer. Under extreme space conditions such as microgravity and radiation, the growth, virulence, drug resistance, and metabolic characteristics of microorganisms may undergo significant alterations, thereby increasing the risk of infection for astronauts. However, current research on the effects of microgravity on anaerobic bacteria remains extremely limited, and the phenotypic changes and molecular regulatory mechanisms of F. nucleatum under simulated microgravity conditions have not yet been elucidated, making it difficult to provide a scientific basis for the prevention and control of anaerobic bacterial contamination and infection risk assessment in space stations.

Despite the surging global prevalence of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and related liver fibrosis, effective treatments remain limited. While the traditional Chinese medicine Juanyu-Xiaozhi Formula (JYXZF) is used against MASLD, its bioactive components and mechanisms are poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of JYXZF and elucidate its underlying mechanisms of action.

A review published in Nano Research systematically examines how acid treatment engineers the optoelectronic properties of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides, confronting the long-standing trade-off between optical enhancement and electrical performance. Superacid treatment boosts photoluminescence quantum yields toward unity by passivating sulfur vacancies, yet often degrades field-effect transistor transport. The authors rationalize this paradox with a sulfur-vacancy-mediated hopping transport model and assess strategies from two-step thiol–acid passivation to Lewis acid substitutional doping that decouple optical and electronic responses. Future directions include machine-learning-assisted atomic-scale characterization and defect-diverse studies, aiming to transform passive defect passivation into active functionality design.

Organic fluorophores operating in the second near-infrared window can provide deep-tissue images with high contrast, but their performance often depends on nanocarriers that can prevent hydrophobic dyes from leaking in complex biological environments. Researchers at Tong and Xiang’s group have developed multivalent tetraphenylethylene-modified DNA nanoaggregates that remain assembled under denaturing conditions, stably retain NIR-II fluorophores, and enable high-contrast vascular imaging in living mice.