With only five years until the 2030 deadline for achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new international study reveals uneven progress in achieving the goals since their adoption in 2015. The paper, recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals that global progress on numerous SDGs with high initial benchmarks has either stalled or gone into reverse. In contrast, SDG indicators with lower baseline performance continue to register gains. Researchers caution that the vast majority of countries will fail to meet their 2030 SDG targets under current trends.

A new study led by Dr. YANG Weibing from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a hidden "molecular gatekeeper" that controls the stiffness of these walls, directly guiding the fate of plant stem cells.

A research team from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a confined crystallization strategy. This approach reconstructs—i.e., redesigns—the crystallization pathway during spray coating at its source through solvation structure regulation. Specifically, the team established a localized high-concentration (LHC) precursor system within individual spray droplets, enabling precise control over nucleation behavior during film formation.

A research team from the Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with China Pharmaceutical University, integrated whole-genome assemblies of 122 vascular plant species with morphological analyses (including analyses of stomata, vascular bundles, and aerenchyma), waterlogging experiments, and transcriptome sequencing.