Atmospheric water vapor is vital to weather and climate research, yet estimating it from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals depends on an intermediate temperature value that global models may not represent accurately at regional scales. In Geodesy and Geodynamics, researchers introduce three models calibrated for Iran using radiosonde observations and radio occultation profiles from multiple satellite missions. Models using measured surface temperature performed best with radiosonde data, while a surface-temperature-independent model proved more reliable for satellite profiles and cut errors in GNSS-derived precipitable water vapor by about half at test stations in Tehran and Tabriz.

This review synthesizes collective insights from the 1st China–Australia–New Zealand Water Quality Modeling Symposium (CANWaS 2024) and outlines a roadmap for strengthening international collaboration in surface water quality modeling. Organized by Jiping Jiang from Harbin Institute of Technology and Danlu Guo from Australian National University, an international research team identifies shared priorities, mutual interests, and actionable pathways—including best-practice guidelines, open knowledge sharing, and joint technological innovation—to advance predictive capacity and policy impact for global freshwater management.

Researchers from the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have demonstrated that Rheum nobile, a flagship alpine plant in the Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains long treated as a single species, actually comprises four distinct species. The finding, based on integrative analyses of morphology, multi-locus genomic data, and Bayesian species delimitation, underscores the role of "sky island" geography in driving plant speciation and suggests that biodiversity across the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau may be substantially underestimated.

Researchers have developed Fe-doped carbon composite catalysts that significantly enhance the thermal decomposition and combustion performance of the energetic molecular perovskite DAP-4. By tailoring the loading of iron oxide nanoparticles on carbon substrates, the study demonstrates accelerated decomposition kinetics, reduced ignition barriers, and intensified combustion, providing a promising catalytic strategy for improving the energy-release efficiency of next-generation molecular perovskite energetic materials.

A new review highlights how microneedle technologies are evolving from a promising concept into a next-generation platform for precision monitoring and rehabilitation. The authors summarize recent advances in materials, sensing, drug delivery, and intelligent integration, while also identifying challenges such as manufacturability, validation, safety, and technological accessibility that must be addressed to make microneedle systems more inclusive and widely usable.

Since the discovery of RNA splicing in the mid-1970s, splicing regulation has remained a central focus in molecular biology. Approximately 50% of human diseases are associated with splicing abnormalities. In eukaryotes, 70% to 90% of genes complete splicing during transcription, a process termed co-transcriptional splicing. However, the precise mechanisms coupling splicing with transcription remain incompletely understood. Moreover, the conceptual and functional boundaries between co-transcriptional and alternative splicing continue to confuse many researchers. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms and downstream functions of co-transcriptional splicing thus stands as a key frontier in the field.

Recently, a team led by Yajing Hao (China National Center for Bioinformation / Beijing Institute of Genomics, CAS) and Xiang-Dong Fu (Westlake University) published a review entitled "Hierarchical regulation and molecular functions of co-transcriptional splicing" in Science Bulletin. The article covers detection technologies, quantitative metrics, regulatory mechanisms, functional consequences, and disease associations, highlighting that co-transcriptional splicing is an active and hierarchically regulated hub of gene expression. The review also notes that many mechanisms remain debated, and systematic elucidation will open new opportunities for translational research.

A new Perspective in Science Bulletin explains why computational pathology must move beyond accurate algorithms. To help in real hospitals, AI tools need to be interpretable, reportable, cost-aware, and tested in routine clinical workflows.