Controlling interactions between molecules and their functions from the molecular level to the macroscopic scale is challenging in supramolecular chemistry and materials chemistry. To this end, a research team led by Associate Professor Yosuke Tani from WPI-ITbM at Nagoya University and Keisuke Wada from Kyoto University designed a vapor-controlled reversible host–guest chemistry system that controls the optical and physical properties of a functional molecular liquid (FML)—non-volatile fluids that can feature optical, electronic, and catalytic properties. Their research was published in Chemical Science on July 21, 2026.

Disorder is emerging as a powerful design principle in nanophotonics, enabling optical functionalities beyond periodic architectures. Researchers from the University of Florence and the University of Southampton, in collaboration with Eindhoven University of Technology show that hyperuniform disordered photonic networks host an unusually rich modal landscape, combining spectral level repulsion, distinct Anderson and Lifshitz-like localized states, and controlled hybridization of defect modes within a single architecture, opening new routes toward programmable disorder-based photonic devices.