The 0.1wt% ultra-low loading 0.1(PtMnFeCoNi)/TiO₂ high-entropy catalyst developed by our team reduces the complete conversion temperature of CO in sintering flue gas to 230℃. It resists interference from H₂O and SO₂, and based on in-situ characterization and theoretical calculations, reveals the multiple action mechanism of "high-entropy effect - support synergy - reaction pathway". It exhibits excellent catalytic performance in CO oxidation reactions and is an industrial catalytic material with broad application prospects.

An Emirati-led team has converted pineapple peels into cellulose nanofibres 43 nm wide and used them to amend three Arabian desert sands. Published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts (2025, 10, 513-529), the work shows that alkali-bleached ball-milled fibres at only 1–2 % (w/w) reduce hydraulic conductivity by 58 %, extend water evaporation time by 55 % and boost compressive strength four-fold to 0.5 MPa without sacrificing breathability. Phosphate retention climbs from 30 % to 60 % relative to unamended sand, while biodegradation tests reveal negligible CO₂ evolution in sterile desert matrices, indicating multi-year stability. Cherry-tomato seedlings grown in 1 % fibre-amended sand achieved 100 % survival versus 40 % at 3 %, underscoring a narrow agronomic optimum. The open-source process uses kitchen-grade blenders and yields 13 % cellulose from peel waste, offering smallholders a circular, low-tech weapon against land degradation.

No-tillage with total green manure mulching can optimize maize root structure by improving soil water content and soil temperature environment. NTG increased maize photosynthetic capacity and grain yield. The relationship between SWC, ST, root length, photosynthetic characteristics, and grain yield was expounded.

Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a research team led by Professor Sung Jae Kim from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has developed a new energy-harvesting water purification system capable of producing both purified water and hydrogen simultaneously.

This innovative technology removes impurities from saline water while reducing hydrogen ions at the electrode to generate hydrogen gas. The system integrates desalination and water electrolysis into a single process, thereby minimizing energy loss compared to conventional water-purification systems.

Designed as a compact and modular unit, the system allows for flexible scalability through the assembly of multiple modules. This makes the technology highly promising for resource-limited environments, such as spacecraft, disaster areas, and remote military sites where clean water and energy supplies are strictly limited.

Supported by the Korea Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the SNU Energy Initiative (SNUEI), the study has been published online in Communications Materials (Nature Portfolio, 2025), a leading journal in the field of materials science.

The shelf life of a sunscreen, the stability of a mayonnaise, the effectiveness of a drug; these all depend on what is happening within the materials that make up gels or glasses, disordered structures that change slowly over time. To truly understand how they change, a group of researchers from the Politecnico di Milano and the Université de Montpellier & CNRS decided to study them in near-zero gravity – in space.

Here we propose a novel filament-based ionizing radiation sensing method, and clarify the interaction mechanism between filaments and ionizing radiation from systematic experiment to microscopic theory.

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is widely used in autonomous driving, augmented reality, and embodied intelligence. In real-world settings, sensor measurements often suffer from substantial clutter (false alarms) and missed detections, which complicate SLAM data association. This complexity manifests as uncertainty in associating observations to landmarks, the possibility of erroneous associations between clutter and landmarks, and the potential absence of landmark observations. Random Finite Set (RFS) theory offers a Bayesian estimation framework well suited to SLAM with uncertain data association and an unknown, time-varying number of landmarks, and has spurred extensive research on RFS-based SLAM methods. Particle-filter-based Probability Hypothesis Density (PHD)-SLAM can effectively estimate the joint probability density of the pose and the map under clutter and missed detections, yielding robust SLAM performance. However, improving the estimation accuracy of particle-filter PHD-SLAM typically requires increasing the number of particles, which rapidly scales the computational cost.

The proliferation of rooftop solar panels and distributed batteries in residential neighborhoods has created new challenges for power grid operators. Blockchain technology is emerging as a promising solution for enabling secure energy trading among these networked communities. However, designing a blockchain system that can handle the real-time operational requirements and cybersecurity concerns of actual power systems remains a critical challenge. To address this issue, researchers at Illinois Institute of Technology developed and tested a permissioned blockchain system on networked microgrids connecting the IllinoisTech campus with the Bronzeville community in Chicago, demonstrating significant cost savings and revenue increases for participating neighborhoods.