EurekAlert! Chinese Academy of Sciences - News Releases from CAS Headquarters

News from CAS Headquarters

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 28-Jun-2026 12:16 ET (28-Jun-2026 16:16 GMT/UTC)

Study: China reverses widespread freshwater deoxygenation via wastewater management

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Freshwater ecosystems worldwide have been suffering from declining oxygen levels—a trend known as deoxygenation—that threatens biodiversity, fisheries, and ecosystem stability. However, a new study published on June 26 in Nature Geoscience offers hope: targeted nutrient management via wastewater control can reverse this trajectory, even in the face of rapid climate warming.

Journal: Nature Geoscience

Scientists use novel crystal strategy to enhance zero-thermal-expansion materials

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team led by Prof. LIN Zheshuai from the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (TIPC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has successfully designed a material with an exceptionally broad zero-thermal-expansion temperature window.

Journal: Nature Chemistry
Funder: National Key Research and Development Program of China

Lamprey brain atlas uncovers ancestral blueprint of the vertebrate brain

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of researchers led by SU Bing from the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with collaborators from BGI-Research and Liaoning Normal University, built the first three-dimensional, single-cell atlas of an entire lamprey brain, which is essentially a high-resolution map showing the location of every cell and which genes are active in each cell.

Journal: Science

Natural hallucinogens may have evolved as ecological tools, not chemical accidents

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers led by Prof. WANG Xiaohui from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have proposed that natural hallucinogens may have primarily evolved as ecological tools that help organisms survive, defend themselves, and interact with other species.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

New 3D photothermal structure enables efficient solar desalination and crop irrigation

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Shenzhen University have developed a new three-dimensional (3D) photothermal structure that greatly improves solar evaporation efficiency.

Researchers uncover "intelligent molecular module" for rice chilling recovery and nitrogen use efficiency

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team led by Prof. CHONG Kang from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has identified what it calls an "intelligent molecular module," <i>Chilling Phoenix</i> (<i>CHPO</i>), which coordinates chilling resilience and nitrogen use in rice by automatically changing its function depending on environmental conditions.

Journal: Nature

Chinese scientists propose "First principle of drug design" and introduce "Pulsatile activation" concept for drug design

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers led by H. Eric Xu and LI Jia from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica have proposed what they call the "first principle of drug design"—designing drugs whose delivery mimics the body's physiology—to create a new type of FXR agonist. They have designed and synthesized a non-bile-acid FXR agonist—a novel drug candidate, Linafexor.

Journal: Nature

Novel generative AI model enables atomic-scale prediction of protein–protein interactions

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have made an important advance in the atomic-scale prediction of protein–protein interactions by developing Void-X, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model that designs protein interfaces from the bottom up.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Thermochemical mantle plume identified as the likely origin of Earth's largest oceanic plateau

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology revealed that the Ontong Java Plateau in the western Pacific Ocean, known as the largest oceanic plateau on Earth, may have been formed by a thermochemical plume.

Journal: Nature Geoscience

Chinese scientists explain formation of global seamounts

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Over 40,000 seamounts are scattered across the ocean floor. Some form linear chains, others appear randomly. But what creates them? By reconstructing the dynamic evolution of Earth's interior over the past 270 million years, a recent study reveals that all seamounts — whether they form linear age-progressive hotspot chains or appear as scattered, isolated cones — are produced by deep plume-related activity.

Journal: Nature Geoscience

1
2
3