Single-crystal materials, characterized by structural uniformity and exceptional intrinsic properties, are crucial for high-performance device applications. A research team has now developed a universal method to produce large-scale single-crystal metal foils by establishing a fundamental correlation among strain, stored energy, texture, and single-crystal formation. The study reveals that sufficient deformation-stored energy is essential for generating a uniform cubic recrystallization texture, which reliably guides foils toward single-crystal conversion. This approach is compatible with cast, rolled, and electrodeposited precursors, and enables the scalable fabrication of single-crystal copper and nickel foils with both low- and high-index surfaces. These findings present a new paradigm for single-crystal metal manufacturing and lay a critical materials foundation for future industrial applications.

A new study led by researchers at the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa published today in Nature Communications is the first of its kind to show that waste discharged from deep-sea mining operations in the Pacific’s biodiverse Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) could disrupt marine life in the midwater “twilight zone” — a vital region 200-1,500 meters below sea level that supports vast communities of zooplankton, tiny animals that serve as the ocean’s basic food building blocks. Specifically, it finds that 53% of all zooplankton and 60% of micronekton, which feed on zooplankton, would be impacted by the discharge, which could ultimately impact predators higher up on the food web.  

Scientists have built the ‘material networks’ to map which elements can be mixed to form metallic glasses. This novel approach reveals hidden patterns in the past 60 years of research data, identifies an ‘innovation trap’ in traditional material design, and provides a powerful strategy to design these complex and valuable materials more intelligently.

Researchers at Miguel Hernández University (UMH) in Spain have successfully tested a new generation of visual neuroprosthesis capable of bidirectional communication with the cerebral cortex, enabling a more natural and functional artificial vision. This technology, developed at the UMH (Spain), represents a crucial step toward achieving more natural and functional artificial vision, holding immense potential to improve the quality of life, mobility, and autonomy of people who are blind.

Could a single memristor replace both the driving transistor and storage capacitor in micro-LEDs?

Prof. Tae-Geun Kim and team at Korea University reveal the world’s first capacitor-free active-matrix circuit in the International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, showing a single memristor controlling micro-LED pixels.

This leap forward could unlock denser, more energy-efficient displays and transform the way next-generation high-resolution screens are built.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has successfully demonstrated entanglement swapping (one of the key quantum communication protocols) using sum-frequency generation (SFG) between single photons for the first time.

Although nonlinear optical effects of single photons have long been theoretically recognized as powerful tools for advancing quantum communication protocols, such effects are extremely weak at the single-photon level and had never been applied for quantum operations. By combining NICT’s state-of-the-art technologies including high-speed-clocked entangled photon-pair sources, low-noise superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, and a high-efficiency nonlinear optical crystal, the research team succeeded in observing SFG between single photons with an unprecedented signal-to-noise ratio. Using this effect, they achieved the first experimental demonstration of entanglement swapping via single-photon SFG.

This achievement is expected to pave the way for miniaturized and efficient photonic quantum information processing circuit, as well as long-distance device independent quantum key distribution.

The results were published in Nature Communications on October 7, 2025 (Tuesday).

“Why do immune cells that are supposed to eliminate viruses suddenly turn against our own body?”

There are instances where killer T cells—which are meant to precisely remove virus-infected cells—malfunction like overheated engines, attacking even healthy cells and damaging tissues. A KAIST research team has now identified the key mechanism that regulates this excessive activation of killer T cells, offering new insights into controlling immune overreactions and developing therapies for immune-related diseases.

KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on November 5 that a research team led by Professors Eui-Cheol Shin and Su-Hyung Park from the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Hyuk Soo Eun from Chungnam National University College of Medicine, has uncovered the molecular basis of nonspecific activation in killer T cells and proposed a new therapeutic strategy to control it.