The rapid development of aero-engines has raised higher requirements for the performance of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). The solid-solution mechanism of Yb and Sc doping in Gd₂Zr₂O₇ (GZO) was investigated using first-principles calculations, and 11.76 at.% Yb and 5.88 at.% Sc co-doped GZO (GYbSc) was optimized. Experiments have shown that GYbSc remains phase-stable after 300 h heat treatment at 1400 °C, with a thermal conductivity as low as 0.935 W·m^-1·K^-1, a coefficient of thermal expansion reaching 11.059 × 10^-6 K^-1, and superior CMAS corrosion resistance. The findings of this study provide an efficient strategy for novel TBC materials.

Thermal barrier coatings for aeroengines are facing a severe challenge of premature failure due to CMAS molten salt corrosion. This study innovatively designs a Zr-Ta-O/YSZ double-layer structure and prepares a core-shell eutectic Zr-Ta-O (ZTO) top layer (with a porosity of only 2.0%) by atmospheric plasma spraying. This layer achieves a compressive strain of over 30% and a yield strength of 4.5 GPa, effectively blocking the penetration of CMAS at 1250°C through dynamic sealing and self-removal dual mechanisms, protecting the underlying YSZ. This technology significantly extends the coating's lifespan and provides a key protective solution for the next generation of high thrust-to-weight ratio engines.

It is our great pleasure to announce and congratulate the awardees of the 2026 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award. Established in 2024, this award recognizes young researchers (PhD student or postdoctoral researcher) who have demonstrated exceptional research potential and innovative capabilities in the fields of carbon materials, carbon catalysis, low-carbon energy, or chemical engineering.

Researchers develop an interpretable hybrid feature selection model to overcome the "curse of dimensionality"in genomic selection, pinpointing key genetic markers for global food security.

A core-shell Pd@CeO₂/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst improves exhaust treatment for stoichiometric natural gas vehicles by promoting lower-temperature CH₄ and NO conversion and strong hydrothermal stability. The design lowers reaction barriers at Pd-CeO₂ interfaces and retains high activity after severe aging. After aging at 800 °C for 16 hours, the catalyst showed only minor losses in CH₄ and NO conversion over a 100-hour test, offering a promising route to cleaner and more durable NGV aftertreatment.

A team of researchers from the North China Electric Power University and the National Institute of Metrology in China has published a perspective on a promising class of materials for extracting uranium from aqueous environments. Their work details the design and application of heterocyclic-linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs), which use light to perform this critical task. This approach holds significant potential for both cleaning up contaminated water sources and securing a sustainable supply of uranium, the primary fuel for nuclear energy, by extracting it from seawater.

The dual need for environmental remediation and resource security has spurred the development of new technologies for uranium capture. Traditional methods face challenges with selectivity and capacity. The authors explain that photocatalysis offers a distinct advantage by using light to trigger specific redox reactions, reducing soluble and mobile uranium (U(VI)) into insoluble and immobile forms (U(IV)). The success of this technique depends on creating highly efficient photocatalysts. The focus of this perspective is on COFs, which are crystalline, porous materials built from organic molecules linked by strong covalent bonds.

On the afternoon of May 4, the online academic event Master Forum was successfully held, co-organized by the Clinical Neuroscience Center, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the Editorial Office of LabMed Discovery (LMD). The lecture focused on “Kinase RIPK1 and Cell Fate Determination”, with Professor Zhang Tao as the invited speaker. The event was chaired by Zhang Chencheng, and was attended by Lu Yong, Wang Erliang and experts from multiple departments of Ruijin Hospital.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - April 29, 2026. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have introduced Bioinspired123D, a generative AI system that translates plain-English design descriptions into executable 3D geometries inspired by biological materials, from crab exoskeletons to horse hoof walls. The work, published in AI for Science, shows that controllable, high-fidelity 3D generation for scientific design does not require massive 3D foundation models.

Developed by graduate student Rachel K. Luu and Professor Markus J. Buehler in MIT's Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics (LAMM), the system departs from mainstream text-to-3D methods that rely on meshes, voxels, or point clouds. Instead, Bioinspired123D generates compact Blender Python scripts — programs that, when executed, produce parametric, smooth, and fabricable structures. This "code-as-geometry" representation makes the resulting designs interpretable, editable, and ready for downstream simulation or 3D printing.

"Biological materials encode an extraordinary amount of design intelligence in their geometry - helicoidal plies in stomatopod clubs, gradient porosity in horse hooves, cellular cores in bird beaks," said Buehler, the McAfee Professor of Engineering at MIT and senior author of the paper. "We wanted to build a system that can take that intuition, expressed in natural language, and turn it directly into structures you can fabricate, without needing a supercomputer to do it."