Researchers have unveiled a surprising new way that soil microbes can use sunlight energy — even after the lights go out. A team from Kunming University of Science and Technology and the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed a “bio-photovoltage soil-microbe battery” that can capture, store, and release solar energy to power the breakdown of antibiotic pollutants in the dark.

A team of scientists has found that biochar made from an aggressive invasive plant can protect rice from two modern pollutants that threaten global food security: nanoplastics and cadmium. The study, published in Biochar, reveals how biochar biofilters derived from Mikania micrantha, an invasive vine spreading across Asia, can reduce the combined toxicity of these contaminants by regulating plant metabolism and strengthening rice’s natural defense systems.

In a pioneering study that explores innovative solutions for soil salinization, researchers are investigating the effects of subsurface organic fertilization on microbial necromass accumulation in saline soils. The study, titled "Subsurface Application of Organic Ameliorant in Saline Soils Increases Microbial Necromass Accumulation in Mineral-Associated Organic Matter," is led by Prof. Yuyi Li from the State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Arable Land in China at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, China. This research offers valuable insights into how subsurface organic fertilization can enhance soil health and mitigate the impacts of salinization.

Chinese researchers have developed a novel method to efficiently engineer natural killer (NK) cells for cancer immunotherapy.

Yuwu Zhong's team at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, focused on the deposition of metal co-catalysts on the surface of organic semiconductor heterojunctions, and they recently proposed a scheme to construct heterojunctions using a small organic molecule containing multi-terminal pyridine (TAPyr) and graphitic carbon nitride (CN). They effectively regulated the dispersion state and deposition amount of the Pt co-catalyst on the heterojunction surface, and combined comparative experiments and theoretical calculations to clarify the important role of the pyridine group. This method of constructing heterojunctions also effectively promotes charge separation. For photocatalytic hydrogen production, a maximum hydrogen production rate of 6.6 mmol·h^-1· g_cat^-1 can be achieved, which is more than 30 times higher than that of the single-component CN system and maintains excellent stability, providing new research ideas for the conversion and storage of solar energy. These results were published as an open access article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

As climate change intensifies droughts worldwide, a new perspective published in Agricultural Ecology and Environment argues that the most effective defense against crop failures is not genetic engineering but better water management.

Researchers in China have developed a modified biochar made from biogas residue that can efficiently remove ammonium nitrogen from water, offering a low-cost and sustainable solution to agricultural pollution.

A pioneering two-year field study has revealed that biodegradable microplastics, often hailed as eco-friendly alternatives to conventional plastics, are quietly reshaping the chemistry of farmland soils in unexpected and complex ways. Published on August 22, 2025, in Carbon Research as an open-access original article, this research was co-led by Dr. Jie Zhou from the College of Agriculture at Nanjing Agricultural University, China, and Dr. Davey L. Jones from the School of Environmental and Natural Sciences at Bangor University, UK—a powerful Sino-British collaboration bridging soil science, microbiology, and climate resilience. The team investigated how polypropylene (PP)—a common conventional plastic—and polylactic acid (PLA)—a widely used biodegradable plastic—affect soil organic carbon (SOC) in real-world agricultural conditions. Both were added at realistic concentrations (0.2% w/w) to topsoil (0–20 cm), with an unamended plot serving as control. While neither plastic changed the total amount of carbon stored, the story beneath the surface was dramatically different.

Researchers have developed an optical "knob" using Poincaré sphere engineering to continuously tune topological states in ferroelectric materials. Unlike prior methods relying on abrupt electrical or mechanical changes, this approach manipulates structured light’s orbital angular momentum to smoothly create and control skyrmions, antiskyrmions, and hybrids on ultrafast timescales, promising new routes for dynamic, precise topological control in nanoscale memory and photonic devices.

Researchers from Nanjing University and Nanjing Medical University have identified sperm microRNAs as key messengers that transmit the benefits of paternal exercise to the next generation. Published in Cell Metabolism, the study shows that offspring of exercise-trained fathers inherit improved exercise endurance and metabolic health. Mechanistically, sperm microRNAs from exercised fathers suppress NCoR1 in early embryos, reprogramming gene networks to enhance mitochondrial biogenesis and glucose metabolism. These findings establish a PGC-1α–sperm microRNA–NCoR1 axis for intergenerational inheritance and suggest that paternal exercise before conception may offer a simple, cost-effective way to improve offspring health and help break the cycle of obesity and chronic disease.