Why does cancer sometimes recur after chemotherapy? Why do some bacteria survive antibiotic treatment? In many cases, the answer appears to lie not in genetic differences, but in biological noise — random fluctuations in molecular activity that occur even among genetically identical cells.

Biological systems are inherently noisy, as molecules inside living cells are produced, degraded, and interact through fundamentally random processes. Understanding how biological systems cope with such fluctuations — and how they might be controlled — has been a long-standing challenge in systems and synthetic biology.

Although modern biology can regulate the average behavior of a cell population, controlling the unpredictable fluctuations of individual cells has remained a major challenge. These rare “outlier” cells, driven by stochastic variation, can behave differently from the majority and influence system-level outcomes.

Lithium-rich layered oxides (LRLOs) offer exceptionally high capacities but suffer rapid energy loss because of irreversible migration of transition-metal (TM) ions during cycling, triggering oxygen release and voltage decay. This study presents a breakthrough strategy: using trace dopants (only 0.75 at.% W⁶⁺) placed precisely at tetrahedral sites in the lithium layer. These isolated single dopants exert long-range Coulomb repulsion, suppressing both in-plane and out-of-plane TM migration across a ~2-nm region. As a result, cation ordering is preserved over 250 cycles, oxygen release is significantly reduced, and voltage decay drops to just 0.75 mV per cycle. This work provides a new atom-efficient pathway for stabilizing high-energy LRLO cathodes.

Developing durable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts for acidic media is vital for advancing proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWE). This study reveals that the stability of spinel oxide Co₃O₄ is profoundly dictated by the anchoring sites of iridium single atoms. By directly comparing iridium atoms at surface three-fold hollow sites versus lattice sites, the researchers found that lattice-embedded iridium dramatically suppresses cobalt and oxygen migration, enhances metal–oxygen covalency, and preserves structural integrity under harsh acidic conditions. These findings highlight a site-specific stabilization mechanism and provide an effective atom-level strategy for designing durable and low precious-metal OER catalysts.

A new study introduces a simple molecular-engineering strategy that dramatically improves the reversibility of zinc plating and stripping in aqueous zinc batteries. By using methylurea as a low-cost electrolyte additive, researchers achieved in situ formation of a robust solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) that stabilizes the zinc surface and suppresses parasitic reactions. This engineered SEI enables Coulombic efficiencies approaching 100%, dendrite-free deposition, and unprecedented cycling life across multiple battery configurations. The work demonstrates that a carefully designed interphase can overcome long-standing limitations of aqueous zinc systems and provides a pathway toward practical, cost-effective anode-free zinc batteries with ultrahigh energy efficiency and durability.