Michael Danquah, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the associate dean for academic and student affairs, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB), a distinguished honor that recognizes outstanding contributions to the advancement of biological sciences.

A research team has uncovered how ethylene, a key plant hormone, enhances peanut seed germination by modulating hormonal pathways and promoting metabolic processes.

An interference pattern that emerges from three stacked and twisted layers of graphene, called a supermoiré pattern, can uncover hidden properties of simpler moiré materials.

New research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) investigates whether introducing new mutations could make immunotherapy more effective against some cancers; shows that people in their 90s who underwent lung cancer surgery had positive outcomes; shares lessons on the responsible governance of artificial intelligence in oncology; studies AI-assisted biomarker assessment in lung cancer; and demonstrates a cancer-trained large language model has strong predictive value.

Led by Assistant Professor Kou Li, a research group in Chuo University, Japan, has developed chemically enriched photo-thermoelectric (PTE) imagers using semiconducting carbon nanotube (CNT) films, resulting in the achievement of enhanced response intensity and noise reduction, that enables efficient remote and on-site inspections, according to a recent paper publication in Communications Materials. CNT film-based PTE imagers are crucial for multimodal non-destructive inspection, but conventional device design strategies have faced challenges in achieving high response intensity for wireless data logging.

　CNT film-based PTE imagers enable functional electromagnetic-wave monitoring, potentially facilitating multimodal non-destructive inspection device usage. The CNT film compositions govern the fundamental device performance, and satisfying high PTE conversion efficiency (higher response and lower noise) is essential for sensitive operations. Although typical sensitive design focuses on minimising noise, the associated levelling-off response intensity (up to a few millivolts) induces technical limitations in device operations. These issues include mismatching for coupling with compact wireless circuits, which are indispensable for on-site inspection applications and require high-intensity responses at least a few millivolt orders. This work develops chemically enriched PTE imagers comprising semiconducting CNT (semi-CNT) films. While semi-CNTs provide greater intensity thermoelectric responses than semi-metal mixture compositions in the conventional PTE device, the presented imager employs p-/n-type chemical carrier doping to relax inherent significant bottlenecking noise. Such doping enhances material properties for PTE conversion with semi-CNTs up to 4,060 times. The imager satisfies similar performances to conventional CNT film devices, including ultrabroadband sensitive photo-detection (with minimum noise sensitivity of 5 pWHz^−1/2) under repeatedly deformable configurations, and advantageously exhibits response signal intensity exceeding a few–tens of millivolts. These features enable remote on-site non-destructive PTE imaging inspection with palm-sized wireless circuits.

Inexpensive and easily available raw materials combined with practical and efficient preparation technology is an important direction for the future development of microwave absorption materials. In this study, coal tar pitch (CTP), an advantageous resource with low cost and wide source, be used as the carbon source. Hypercrosslinked porous polymers are prepared by crosslinking aromatic compounds in CTP based on the classical Friedel-Crafts reaction. Porous carbon (PC) microwave absorption materials will be prepared by high-temperature carbonization.

Polyoxometalates (POMs) have broad applicability and significant potential in electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. However, the practical application of pure POMs is significantly constrained by their decomposition in polar media (such as neutral and alkaline solutions). The modification of POMs with metal-calixarene clusters is beneficial for fabricating functional hybrid materials with the combined merits of the two components. Four new thiacalixarene-functionalized polyoxometalate clusters were synthesized by researchers at School of Petrochemical Engineering, Liaoning Petrochemical University, China. These four clusters were characterized by Keggin-type PM₄Mo₈ motifs, which confer redox properties similar to those of PMo₁₂O₄₀³⁻ (PMo₁₂) while providing superior structural stability and electrocatalytic reduction of IO₃⁻. The substitution of four metal ions in PMo₁₂, along with the capping TC4A ligand and VO unit, significantly modulated visible-light absorption, enhancing photothermal conversion in the solid state and organic solutions.