Researchers from the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering (IDSSE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the University of Pisa, Italy, and the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere Research, New Zealand, have now documented the world’s deepest and largest known aggregation of whale fossils and active whale-fall ecosystems. This deep-sea site, referred to as a “whale necropolis” due to its vast size, is located in the Diamantina Zone of the southeastern Indian Ocean and contains evidence of cetacean falls for at least 5.3 million years.

A systematic assessment of 102,847 plant specimens across nine subtropical mountains in Jiangxi, China, identifies four interconnected collection biases and proposes evidence-based strategies to improve sampling equity and conservation effectiveness.

Precise shaping of three-dimensional vector fields inside enclosed optical cavities has long been a critical unresolved bottleneck in modern photonics, essential for super-resolution imaging, nanolasers and advanced quantum photonic technologies. To address this, scientists in China invented a novel full-space adjoint-enabled freeform meta-optics framework, realizing 5-fold imaging fidelity enhancement while retaining λ/5 optical super-resolution. This technique opens new avenues for cutting-edge nanophotonics, topological photonics and quantum optics applications.

A team from Tsinghua University reports Au–TiO₂ metasurfaces that convert visible light into singlet oxygen at high speed and extremely high local density. By combining quasi-BIC field confinement with hot-carrier transfer across an ultrathin interface, the device produces molar-level singlet oxygen locally within seconds, which is surprisingly ~10⁶ times that achieved by conventional approaches. Besides, the on-chip generator enables wavelength- and pixel-selective cytotoxicity for targeted tumor cell killing in photodynamic therapy.

This study develops a replicable Transformative Service Ecosystem for Sustainable Operations Management (TSESOM) model to address research gaps and empower botanic gardens to deliver integrated sustainability, conservation and visitor economy outcomes.

Researchers have developed an electricity-driven catalytic system that converts lignin, an abundant plant-based aromatic polymer, into valuable phenolic chemicals and fuel-related molecules with high efficiency. By combining a Ru@Bi/N-C catalyst with a HPW-HFIP electrolyte, the system directs active hydrogen toward useful reactions while suppressing hydrogen gas formation, offering a greener route for upgrading biomass into sustainable chemicals and aviation-fuel precursors.

New study shows that under low warming, planting trees increases global water inequality; under high warming, it reduces overall water availability.