Researchers from Tongji University present a comprehensive review of emerging optical techniques for sorting and detecting chiral particles. The review highlights advances in engineered light fields, nanophotonic platforms, and artificial intelligence that enhance the sensitivity, selectivity, and efficiency of chiral analysis. By comparing optical sorting and detection strategies across diverse platforms, the work outlines current challenges and future directions, providing a valuable roadmap for developing practical, high-performance optical technologies for chemistry, biomedicine, and materials science.

An epigenetic “mechanostat” has been discovered that protects tooth-forming progenitor cells from mechanical stress and supports lifelong tissue renewal. Using mouse incisors, the study shows that KDM6B restrains force-induced calcium signaling by regulating the mechanosensitive channel PIEZO1 through a chromatin-based pathway. The findings reveal how mineralized tissues adapt to constant mechanical loading and identify potential therapeutic targets for skeletal and dental degeneration, while providing new insights into tissue regeneration and mechanobiology overall.

An international scientist team from China, US and Israel find that tropical convective clouds can reach much higher supersaturation than previously documented by comparable aircraft-based approaches.

Peatlands store vast amounts of carbon, but when they are drained for agriculture, they can become major sources of greenhouse gases. Restoring water levels can slow carbon dioxide emissions, yet overly wet peat can produce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. This creates a difficult climate dilemma: how can peatlands be managed to protect soil carbon without triggering high methane release?

Paddy soils are living chemical reactors. Under flooded and drained conditions, microbes, minerals, oxygen, and organic matter constantly exchange electrons, shaping how pollutants move, transform, or disappear. A new study published in Biochar reports that a specially engineered form of biochar can redirect these electron flows, helping paddy soils generate more hydroxyl radicals, one of nature’s most powerful oxidants, and break down the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole more efficiently.

Microalgae have long been viewed as a promising source of renewable fuel. They grow quickly, capture carbon dioxide efficiently, and do not compete with food crops for farmland. Yet turning algae into usable liquid fuels remains difficult because algae-derived bio-oil often contains high levels of oxygen and nitrogen compounds, which can lower fuel quality, reduce stability, and create pollution concerns during combustion.

Interfacial solar steam generators enable sustainable freshwater production via photothermal conversion, yet effective purification of both feed water and distillate remains challenging. Here, a mechanically interlocked MXene/boron-doped mesoporous g-C₃N₄ nanosphere (BMNS) hybrid membrane is engineered through vacuum-assisted self-assembly, synergistically coupling ultraefficient photothermal evaporation with robust photocatalytic degradation. The BMNS nanospheres embedded in loosely stacked MXene nanosheets establish rapid water transport nanochannels while achieving ultralow thermal conductivity (0.43 W m^-1 K^-1). This structure enabled a high solar evaporation rate of 2.10 kg m^-2 h^-1 and achieved a photothermal conversion efficiency of 98.1%. Simultaneously, the generated reactive oxygen species (•OH/•) degraded 95.6% of the organic pollutants (10 ppm Rhodamine B) within 4 h. Furthermore, it maintained a stable evaporation rate of 2.00 kg·m^-2·h^-1 over a long-term operation of 200 h. Field validation using eutrophic lake water demonstrates concurrent clean water production and comprehensive purification: 90.0% total organic carbon removal, 92.0% chemical oxygen demand reduction, 93.1% microbial inactivation, improved optical clarity, and >99% antibacterial efficiency against E. coli and S. aureus. This work provides a scalable blueprint for multifunctional membranes addressing water scarcity and pollution simultaneously.

Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) is a prevalent respiratory pathogen without approved vaccines or targeted treatments. Researchers have discovered that hMPV’s regulatory protein M2-2 directly interacts with host splicing factors hnRNP H1, hnRNP M, and hnRNP U, thereby modulating the alternative splicing of cellular genes such as STRAP and TANC2. These splicing changes are essential for efficient viral protein production and infectious particle generation, with CRISPR knockout studies showing significant reductions in viral replication. Comparative analysis with other respiratory viruses reveals that this splicing modulation is highly specific to hMPV, highlighting a unique virus-host strategy. Targeting the M2-2–spliceosome interaction could offer a promising therapeutic approach.

DNA sequencing with nanopores has proven their power as single molecule sensors and highlighted their potential for next-generation protein sequencing. In protein nanopores, precise structural engineering through modification, reconstruction and de novo design has driven major advances, enhancing measurement accuracy and versatility and opening new frontiers in protein sequencing and sub nanometer analysis.