A new study has identified the first known gene in eggplant that provides resistance to begomoviruses, a group of plant viruses responsible for major crop losses worldwide. The research shows that virus-resistant plants accumulate far less viral DNA than susceptible plants, linked to a gene encoding an exonuclease involved in viral defense. This previously unknown resistance pathway could support the breeding of virus-resistant crops, strengthen food security, and reduce reliance on chemical pesticides.

The hunting of large whales goes back much further in time than previously thought. New research from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) and the Department of Prehistory of the UAB reveals that Indigenous communities in southern Brazil were hunting large cetaceans 5,000 years ago, around a thousand years before the earliest documented evidence from Arctic and North Pacific societies.

An international group of researchers says that biodiversity conservation and scientific research are not benefiting from the vast knowledge about the world’s plants held by botanic gardens, because of fragmented data systems and a lack of standardisation. They call for a unified and equitable global data system for living collections to transform how the world’s botanic gardens manage and share information. This would enable them to work together as a ‘meta-collection’ to strengthen scientific research and conservation efforts.

Nickel-cobalt (Ni-Co)-based superalloys are leading candidates for advanced turbine disks; however, their strength relies heavily on how dislocations interact with nanoscale γ′ precipitates during deformation. In a new study, researchers combined in-situ neutron diffraction tensile testing with line-profile analysis and electron microscopy to monitor the alloy’s internal response in real time. They discovered a sequential transition in strengthening mechanisms—from γ′ shearing to Orowan looping—accompanied by interphase load transfer from γ to γ′. This study links these microstructural events to changes in dislocation character and configuration, driving the alloy’s characteristic three-stage work-hardening behavior.

In the first quantitative roadmap covering the entire forest-biomass value chain, researchers show that integrating selective harvesting, residue valorisation and advanced catalytic refining could raise carbon-use efficiency above 85 % and generate an annual mitigation wedge of 2.2 Gt CO₂—comparable to eliminating global aviation emissions twice over. The study, published today in Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, pinpoints lignin recalcitrance and volatile bio-chemical prices as the twin barriers preventing the sector from moving from pilot glory to gigatonne scale, and calls for an international “carbon-smart biorefinery” programme modelled on semiconductor R&D alliances.

A research team led by Profs. WANG Song and ZHU Yongping from the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new approach to suppressing the shuttle effect in transition metal fluoride cathodes. The team's study focused on thermal batteries—a type of battery that operates at 350–550 °C.

TiNb₂O₇ represents an up-and-coming anode material for fast-charging lithium-ion batteries, but its practicalities are severely impeded by slow transfer rates of ionic and electronic especially at the low-temperature conditions. Herein, we introduce crystallographic engineering to enhance structure stability and promote Li⁺ diffusion kinetics of TiNb₂O₇ (TNO). The density functional theory computation reveals that Ti⁴⁺ is replaced by Sb⁵⁺ and Nb⁵⁺ in crystal lattices, which can reduce the Li⁺ diffusion impediment and improve electronic conductivity. Synchrotron radiation X-ray 3D nano-computed tomography and in situ X-ray diffraction measurement confirm the introduction of Sb/Nb alleviates volume expansion during lithiation and delithiation processes, contributing to enhancing structure stability. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectra results verify that crystallographic engineering also increases short Nb-O bond length in TNO-Sb/Nb. Accordingly, the TNO-Sb/Nb anode delivers an outstanding capacity retention rate of 89.8% at 10 C after 700 cycles and excellent rate performance (140.4 mAh g⁻¹ at 20 C). Even at −30 °C, TNO-Sb/Nb anode delivers a capacity of 102.6 mAh g⁻¹ with little capacity degeneration for 500 cycles. This work provides guidance for the design of fast-charging batteries at low-temperature condition.

A research team led by Hiroshima University and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have proposed a neuroendocrine mechanism in bony fish that signals ovulation from the ovaries to the brain, using the medaka fish as a model; the first step to elucidate the neural circuits for facilitation of sexual receptivity in female teleosts.