For the second time, Würzburg chemistry professor Frank Würthner has received a prestigious award from the European Research Council: the ERC Advanced Grant is endowed with 2.5 million euros. The professor is pursuing an ambitious goal: he wants to synthesise schwarzites, novel carbon-based nanomaterials with unique properties.

For the first time, a research team led by Markus Koch from the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) has tracked in real time how individual atoms combine to form a cluster and which processes are involved. To achieve this, the researchers first isolated magnesium atoms using superfluid helium and then used a laser pulse to trigger the formation process. The researchers were able to observe this cluster formation and the involved energy transfer between individual atoms with a temporal resolution in the femtosecond range (1 femtosecond = 1 quadrillionth of a second). They recently published their findings in the journal Communications Chemistry.

Optical computing confronts three fundamental bottlenecks: clock-rate constraints, chip-scale limits, and inter-core parallelism. While clock rates and chip scales approach technological limits, microcomb-driven parallel optical computing offers a viable path to boost computility by overcoming parallelism constraints. A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a parallel optical computing architecture with 100 wavelengths, pushing the boundary of computility. This breakthrough enables higher computing density and scalable, thread-level parallelism beyond conventional hardware limitations.

Cellulose-based textile material can make the clothing sector more sustainable. Currently, cellulose-based textiles are mainly made from wood, but a study headed by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology points to the possibility of using agricultural waste from wheat and oat. The method is easier and requires fewer chemicals than manufacturing forest-based cellulose, and can enhance the value of waste products from agriculture.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have successfully increased the production of D-lactic acid from methanol by exposing Komagataella phaffii yeast to ultraviolet irradiation.

Researchers have developed a humidity-resistant phosphorescent material using a simple and effective strategy of multi-component crosslinking in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films. The innovation enables ultralong phosphorescence (3.18 seconds) under high humidity (80% RH), enabling applications in anti-counterfeiting, data encryption, and wearable electronics.