Freestanding oxide membranes are promising platforms for flexible electronics, sensors, and heterogeneous device integration, but cracks and wrinkles formed during release and transfer can compromise their performance and reliability. Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have developed a lock-in thermography-based method that converts these hidden structural imperfections into characteristic thermal signatures. The approach enables rapid, wide-area inspection of conductive oxide membranes and provides semi-quantitative information on crack size, crack orientation, and wrinkle morphology.

A recent publication has revealed the first photographic evidence and confirmed sighting of the Cozumel dwarf fox in over twenty years. This exciting discovery confirms that this elusive and endangered mammal continues to survive on the island of Cozumel, Mexico. The full publication is available in the open-access journal Neotropical Biology and Conservation.

Exciting new research at Tohoku University’s Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR) explains how to transform decades of scattered literature data into design rules for catalysts.

Some barley beers labeled as “gluten-free” contain small amounts of gluten residues that may trigger celiac disease, which are not detected by the standard antibody-based tests currently in use. This is the conclusion of a study by the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich. In the study, researchers compared two antibody-based testing methods with a mass spectrometric detection method newly developed at the Institute. The study results show that modern food analytical methods could help further improve the safety of gluten-free products in the future.

Brain stimulation techniques can correct abnormal activity in the neural circuits involved in conditions such as Parkinson's disease and depression. However, current transcranial stimulation methods delivered through the scalp reach only the brain’s surface, limiting their effectiveness. Deep brain stimulation, on the other hand, can target deeper structures but requires surgical implantation of electrodes. A team from the Synapsy Centre for Neuroscience and Mental Health Research at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with ETH Zurich, the Wyss Center Geneva and EPFL, has succeeded in improving a promising intermediate technology called "temporal interference stimulation". This method could allow deeper and more targeted non-invasive brain stimulation. The study can be found in Cell Systems.

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction for solar fuel production is a critical technology enabling carbon cycling and efficient renewable energy storage. However, conversion efficiency remains severely limited by bottlenecks such as rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers, high activation barriers for CO2 molecules, and inadequate catalyst stability. To overcome these challenges, this study constructed an in situ ZrO2 nanoparticle protective layer on CdS nanospheres, yielding a ZrO2/CdS-20 (ZOCS-20) core-shell composite photocatalyst. Under light conditions, this catalyst demonstrated exceptional performance, with a CO production rate of 330.23 µmol/(g·h) and near 100% CO selectivity. Systematic characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the underlying enhancement mechanism. The core-shell heterostructure suppresses charge recombination through interfacial engineering, significantly improving charge separation efficiency and carrier transport kinetics while enhancing material stability. Crucially, strong electron coupling at the ZrO2/CdS interface shifts the d-band center of catalyst toward the Fermi level, strengthening CO2 chemisorption and lowering its activation barrier. The optimized electronic interface also reduces the energy barrier for forming the *COOH intermediate, substantially decreasing activation energy of the rate-determining step (RDS) and providing additional thermodynamic driving force. This work elucidates an interface-band synergy enhancement mechanism, offering both theoretical insights and experimental guidance for the design of efficient photocatalytic materials.

The interfacial stress between silicon bottom cell and perovskite top cell remains a critical challenge for flexible perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, leading to interfacial delamination and device degradation. In this work, the effect of the thickness and pyramid size on mechanical properties of silicon wafers are investigated, demonstrating that thinner wafers and smaller pyramids significantly enhance the flexural strength of thin silicon wafers by mitigating stress concentration effects. Based on these findings, a synergistic optimization strategy is proposed that employs precise wet-etching control to fabricate small-sized, high-density, uniform pyramids on 55 µm silicon wafers for efficient and flexible perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. By optimizing the texturing duration, this approach simultaneously enhances the minority carrier lifetime (τ) and achieves an excellent implied open-circuit voltage (iVoc). Furthermore, the uniform submicron-scale pyramid structure promotes high-quality perovskite film formation and improves interfacial contact properties. As a proof of concept, monolithic flexible perovskite/silicon tandem devices fabricated on such uniformly textured pyramids delivered a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 30.04%. These devices promise for low-cost, lightweight and flexible photovoltaic applications.