A recent study led by Prof. ZHANG Xiaoming's team at the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. Ian T. Baldwin's group at the CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, has uncovered a novel ecological strategy. Rather than passively "hitchhiking" within insect vectors, rice viruses actively manipulate plant defense pathways to protect their insect carriers. This discovery reshapes our understanding of plant–virus–insect–parasitoid interactions and provides new insights for sustainable pest and pathogen management.

A research team from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEECAS) developed a semi-automated microanalytical method to quantify atmospheric plastic particles and their cross-compartmental fluxes—airborne, dustfall, rain, snow, and dust resuspension—in two major Chinese megacities: Guangzhou and Xi'an.

A collaborative team led by Yougang Ke and Linzhou Zeng from Hunan Institute of Science and Technology and Xinxing Zhou from Hunan Normal University has proposed and constructed a reconfigurable optical computing platform based on a double-layer liquid crystal structure, with mechanical degrees of freedom as its core control mechanism. This work establishes a novel paradigm for multifunctional and switchable all-optical image processing, advancing the development of highly compact, low-power-consumption intelligent optical systems. It holds significant application potential in fields such as autonomous driving vision, biomedical imaging, augmented reality, and next-generation computer vision.

Plant regeneration relies on a delicate balance between stem cell renewal and differentiation, yet the evolutionary origin and functional limits of key regulators remain poorly understood. 

Ventilatory ratio (VR) is a simple bedside index reflecting pulmonary dead space and is associated with outcomes in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This study developed and validated separate 30-day mortality prediction models for high and low VR subgroups using multicenter critical care databases. Subgroup-specific models demonstrated superior predictive performance compared with cross-applied models, highlighting the importance of VR-based stratification for improving prognostic accuracy and supporting more individualized ARDS management strategies.