News from Science China Press

The researchers have developed a high-oxygen-pressure based chemical route to effectively grow infinite-layer nickelates spanning middle to heavy rare-earth compositions. The expanded materials platform reveals robust field-reentrant superconductivity at both edges of the superconducting dome: a magnetic field first suppresses zero resistance, then restores it within a finite field window. Rare-earth substitution can strengthen this reentrance or raise the onset superconducting temperature to 40.1 K, while optimized films carry 266 kA cm^-2 at 2 K. High-field transport and muon-spin measurements link the competing states to rare-earth 4f magnetism, exchange-field compensation and enhanced magnetic correlations.

A new study in Science Bulletin reveals that maternal PAN2 protein is essential for early embryonic development by regulating mRNA poly(A) tail length. Using an oocyte-specific conditional knockout mouse model, researchers found that PAN2 deficiency causes embryos to arrest at the two-cell stage due to abnormal poly(A) tail elongation, maternal mRNA accumulation, and impaired zygotic genome activation. PAN2 recognizes substrates via the PAN3-PABPC1 complex, preferring tails lacking guanosine but enriched in uridine.

The review was led by Prof. Shaorong Gao of Tongji University, in collaboration with researchers from multiple universities and research institutes across China. It examines how epigenetic mechanisms decide which genes are used, when they are used and how strongly they are expressed - from the earliest stages of development to aging, cancer and therapy.

Bringing together evidence from reproduction, embryonic development, stem-cell research, tissue maintenance, aging, cancer and clinical translation, the review assesses what these mechanisms may mean for reproductive medicine, regenerative medicine and precision treatment. It also distinguishes promising directions from interventions that still require stronger evidence on delivery, specificity and long-term safety.

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, researchers at Sun Yat-sen University developed an SFA-based Climate Prediction (SCP) method, which directly extracted slow-varying predictable signals from observed precipitation data and applied it to seasonal prediction of summer precipitation over South China. Independent forecasts for 2011–2022 show that the SCP method achieves a regional mean temporal correlation coefficient of 0.36 and accurately predicted the sign of regional-mean precipitation anomalies in 10 of 12 summers, outperforming two dynamical models and a hybrid dynamical–statistical prediction system. The study provides a new perspective to identifying potentially predictable signals and improving regional seasonal precipitation prediction.

Robots often learn from historical experience collected under older controllers and physical conditions. When tasks, hardware or environments change, that data can become misleading. Researchers developed Occupancy-Matching Policy Optimization (OMPO), which anchors large replay buffers to a small set of recent interactions. Across locomotion, transfer, manipulation and a real-robot test, OMPO improved stability, sample efficiency and adaptation.

A recent study published in the National Science Review reveals that the tradition of wrapping grains in leaves may date back as far as 2,200 years ago. Leaf-wrapped plant bundles unearthed at the Wuwangdun Site—believed to have served as funerary offerings—are now considered an early precursor to zongzi, the iconic traditional Chinese food enjoyed during the Dragon Boat Festival.