A new study  by Prof. XUE Tian from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Prof. YAO Yonggang of the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Prof. ZHAO Huan of Hefei University has revealed that chronic exposure to artificial light at night (LAN) can trigger depression-like behaviors by activating a specific neural pathway in the brain.

Optical computing confronts three fundamental bottlenecks: clock-rate constraints, chip-scale limits, and inter-core parallelism. While clock rates and chip scales approach technological limits, microcomb-driven parallel optical computing offers a viable path to boost computility by overcoming parallelism constraints. A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a parallel optical computing architecture with 100 wavelengths, pushing the boundary of computility. This breakthrough enables higher computing density and scalable, thread-level parallelism beyond conventional hardware limitations.

Using national rural data, this study finds that adaptive behaviors in China's grain production mitigate 52.5%–63.5% of high-temperature impacts. But they can't effectively reduce excessive precipitation impacts. Tech progress and input adjustments are key adaptation mechanisms.

Researchers have developed a humidity-resistant phosphorescent material using a simple and effective strategy of multi-component crosslinking in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films. The innovation enables ultralong phosphorescence (3.18 seconds) under high humidity (80% RH), enabling applications in anti-counterfeiting, data encryption, and wearable electronics.

Anode-free all-solid-state batteries (AFASSBs) are potential candidates for next-generation electric mobility devices that offer superior energy density and stability by eliminating Li from the anode. However, despite its potential to stabilize the interface between sulfide solid electrolytes (SEs) and anode-free current collectors (CCs) efficiently, a controllable approach to incorporating MoS₂ into AFASSBs has not yet been found. Herein, we propose a strategy for stabilizing the interface of Li-free all-solid-state batteries using controllable MoS₂ sacrificial thin films. MoS₂ was controllably grown on CCs by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition, and the MoS₂ sacrificial layer in contact with the SEs formed an interlayer composed of Mo metal and Li₂S through a conversion reaction. In the AFASSBs with MoS₂, Mo significantly reduces the nucleation overpotential of Li, which results in uniform Li plating. In addition, MoS₂-based Li₂S facilitates the formation of a uniform and robust SE interface, thereby enhancing the stability of AFASSBs. Based on these advantages, cells fabricated with MoS₂ exhibited better performance as both asymmetrical and full cells with LiNi_0.6Co_0.2Mn_0.2O₂ cathodes than did cells without MoS₂. Moreover, the cell performance was affected by the MoS₂ size, and full cells having an optimal MoS₂ thickness demonstrated a 1.18-fold increase in the initial discharge capacity and a sevenfold improvement in capacity retention relative to SUS CCs. This study offers a promising path for exploiting the full potential of MoS₂ for interface stabilization and efficient AFASSB applications.

Given the limited exposure of active sites and the retarded separation of photogenerated charge carriers in those developed photocatalysts, photocatalytic CO₂ splitting into value-added chemicals has suffered from the poor activity and remained in great challenge for real application. Herein, hydrothermally synthesized BiOCl with layered structure (BOCNSs) was exfoliated into thickness reduced nanosheets (BOCNSs-w) and even atomic layers (BOCNSs-i) via ultrasonication in water and isopropanol, respectively. In comparison with the pristine BOCNSs, the exfoliated BiOCl, especially BOCNSs-i with atomically layered structure, exhibits much improved photocatalytic activity for CO₂ overall splitting to produce CO and O₂ at a stoichiometric ratio of 2:1, with CO evolution rate reaching 134.8 µmol g^-1 h^-1 under simulated solar light (1.7 suns). By surpassing the photocatalytic performances of the state-of-the-art Bi_lO_mX_n (X: Cl, Br, I) based photocatalysts, the CO evolution rate is further increased by 99 times, reaching 13.3 mmol g^-1 h^-1 under concentrated solar irradiation (34 suns). This excellent photocatalytic performance achieved over BOCNSs-i should be benefited from the shortened transfer distance and the increased built-in electric field intensity, which accelerates the migration of photogenerated charge carriers to surface. Moreover, with oxygen vacancies (V_O) introduced into the atomic layers, BOCNSs-i is exposed with the electrons enriched Bi active sites that could transfer electrons to activate CO₂ molecules for highly efficient and selective CO production, by lowering the energy barrier of rate-determining step (RDS), *OH + *CO₂⁻ → HCO₃⁻. It is also realized that the H₂O vapor supplied during photocatalytic reaction would exchange oxygen atoms with CO₂, which could alter the reaction pathways and further reduce the energy barrier of RDS, contributing to the dramatically improved photocatalytic performance for CO₂ overall splitting to CO and O₂.

Researchers at Shenzhen University developed a dual-modal microscopy system integrating pump-probe and interferometric imaging to simultaneously capture 2D reflectivity and 3D topography with 236 nm/256 fs resolutions. This method revealed laser-induced periodic surface structure (LIPSS) formation, strengthening, and erasure on silicon, showing modulated ablation drives patterning over molten flow. The technique enables precise analysis of ultrafast laser interactions, advancing optimization in laser manufacturing and surface modification.