By tuning molecular rigidity and intermolecular interactions through the incorporation of spiro units, Lu and Chen at the Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, demonstrate through systematic photophysical and device characterizations that the multi-spiro strategy effectively suppresses aggregation-caused quenching and bimolecular exciton annihilation. Consequently, the emitters exhibit outstanding resistance to concentration quenching, enabling high photoluminescence quantum yields and device efficiencies to be maintained even at high doping concentrations.

Hard carbon (HC) represents the most industrially promising anode material for sodium‑ion batteries. However, the intrinsic correlation between its nanopore architecture and sodium-ion storage kinetics as well as cycling stability remains to be clarified. In this study, lignin‑derivatives and phenolic resin were adopted as precursors. By regulating the molecular aggregation and chemical composition of the lignin precursors, HC materials with different nanoporous structures were prepared. The hard carbon anode with small carbon microcrystal size, high content of sp³ hybrid carbon and relatively large pore size is prone to structural damage during large current cycle. The disorder degree of graphene layers increases and the pore volume decreases. The destruction of the graphene layer structure not only leads to a rapid decline of plateau capacity but also reduces the formation potential of sodium clusters and increases the safety risk of sodium dendrite precipitation. This work reveals the relationship between the structure of HC nanochannels, sodium-ion storage kinetics, and cycling stability, providing a theoretical basis for the design of hard carbon anodes for fast-charging, low-temperature, long-life, and high-safety sodium-ion batteries.

Biological polarization vision extracts optical information inaccessible to conventional intensity-based imaging, offering a powerful paradigm for next-generation machine vision. However, simultaneously achieving large-area manufacturability, high polarization discrimination, and neuromorphic functionality remains challenging within a single organic material platform. Here, an electret-mediated biphasic dip-coating strategy was developed that enables scalable integration of ultrathin organic single crystals with an in-situ electret layer for neuromorphic polarization vision. In this design, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) serves as a dual-functional mediator: its amphiphilic structure regulates interfacial nucleation and mass transport to direct the continuous growth of highly oriented few-layer single crystals, while its hydroxyl-rich framework provides homogeneous electron trapping sites. The resulting uniformly anisotropic single-crystal coupled electret facilitates robust

polarization-dependent charge trapping, boosting the dichroic ratio (DR) above 10³ while delivering a low DR coefficient of variation (CV) of 7.3%. Furthermore, pronounced synaptic properties were achieved, featuring an exceptionally paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) index of 6594%, a photocurrent modulation range exceeding 10⁵, and an ultralow energy consumption of ∼1 aJ per synaptic event. By unifying scalable single-crystal growth with polarization discrimination and synaptic plasticity, this work advances organic semiconductors toward integrated neuromorphic polarization vision. Inspired by fish lateral lines, researchers developed a lightweight, miniaturized sensing unit that estimates both flow speed and direction. Combined with a neural network and an inertial measurement unit, the single unit was validated on an underwater robot during multiple motion states and attitude disturbances, reflecting practical underwater operating conditions.

Layered, nacre-inspired composites are strong but fail easily when loaded across their layers. Researchers have rolled the layered “brick wall” into a concentric cylinder, so the weak directions between layers point outward in every direction and never align into a single failure plane. The resulting rods are stronger and tougher than flat counterparts under compression, bending and twisting, and last over 1,000 times longer in bending fatigue.

Researchers have built a warm-white OLED from single-dopant light-emitting molecule. By linking two multi-resonance units with a thiophene bridge, the emitter glows blue-green on its own and orange-yellow of the excimer excited state. The two bands blend into warm white light, and the device reaches 27.1% external quantum efficiency, the best yet reported for a purely organic single-dopant white OLED.

This narrative review synthesizes current understanding of urban water ecological resilience and identifies three complementary enhancement pathways—technological, ecological, and governance—that are most effective when coordinated as an integrated social–ecological–technological transition. Led by Hua Zheng from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the study highlights a persistent "definition-to-decision gap" in which resilience concepts outpace measurable indicators and operational planning tools, calling for validated metrics, sustained monitoring, and adaptive governance to transform urban water management.

Just a few bottles of river water can reveal which fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and even mammals live nearby — according to a new study published in Water Biology and Security by researchers at the University of Florence and the University of Pisa.

This review summarizes composite interfacial strategies for organic solar cells. Composite interlayers improve energy-level matching, suppress interface defects, boosting device efficiency and stability. It offers guidance for developing low-cost, printable solar-cell materials toward future industrial use.

A research team at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has used scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscopy and vector magnetic field reconstruction to demonstrate at the nanoscale that zigzag graphene nanoribbons embedded in hexagonal boron nitride exhibit strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The work was published in the Journal of Functional Materials and Devices.

In a paper published in Earth and Planetary Physics,a research team of seismologists explores strong earthquake hazards along major active faults on the western Ordos margin using multiple seismological methods. The sparse earthquake segments overlapping low b-value anomalies mark stress-loaded locked fault patches, interpreted as potential seismogenic asperities. Theoretical magnitudes estimated from the spatial extents of these sparse segments along the faults are broadly consistent with the magnitude range of historical strong earthquakes.

A Chinese research team has shown that a self-developed, transportable cold atom gravimeter can measure the strength of Earth's gravity as accurately as the world's mainstream laser-interferometer instruments. During a two-month comparison organized by China's Crustal Movement Observation Network (CMONOC) in Wuhan, the atom-based instrument, WAG-H5-2#2508, was tested side by side with eight conventional absolute gravimeters. Its result differed from the group consensus value by only 1.4 microGal, about one billionth of the surface gravity, confirming that mechanically wear-free atom interferometry is now ready for high-precision, long-term gravity monitoring.

In a comprehensive review published in Earth and Planetary Physics, researchers from Wuhan University synthesize recent advances in the climatological variations and complex driving mechanisms of the equatorial electrojet (EEJ). The study highlights how the daytime EEJ responds to E-region conductivity, atmospheric tides, and intense mid- and high-latitude electrodynamic disturbances.

A research team at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has proposed a method for optimizing superconducting integrated circuits based on “time scaling”. By constructing a dual-active-device layer within a single wafer, the researchers successfully transformed key logic paths from planar structures into vertically compressed ones, significantly reducing pulse propagation time and paving a new path for superconducting computing in the post-Moore’s Law era.