Tokyo, Japan – The research group of Professor Kotohiro Nomura, Tokyo Metropolitan University, in cooperation with the research groups of Senior Researcher Hiroshi Hirano and Director Seiji Higashi, Osaka Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, and Associate Professor Hiroki Takeshita, The University of Shiga Prefecture, has developed biobased poly(ester amide)s from inedible bio-renewables, which can be easily chemical recyclable and exhibit better mechanical (tensile) properties in film than commodity plastics.

The world’s soils are vast reservoirs of organic carbon, vital for both climate change mitigation and sustaining agricultural productivity. A major component of this vital carbon pool is Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS), a sticky "slime" secreted by microorganisms. Despite its importance, how EPS transforms and persists within soils, particularly in interaction with minerals, remains poorly understood. A study from Huazhong Agricultural University sheds new light on these intricate processes, revealing that microbial activity, rather than simple surface attachment, drives significant changes in soil organic matter (SOM) composition, with iron (oxyhydr)oxides emerging as key players in carbon stabilization.

This investigation addressed a critical gap in understanding the intricate relationship between microbial life and geological structures beneath our feet. The team's work illustrates the complex pathways through which bacterial EPS contributes to SOM persistence, a process crucial for maintaining soil health and securing long-term carbon storage. EPS primarily comprises polysaccharides, proteins, and nucleic acids, acting as the interface for microbial interactions with their environment and impacting the stability of soil aggregates.

Soft robots capable of self-driven information transmission show great potentials in future. Recently, scientists in China have developed an optically interactive soft robotic system that can transmit encoded instructions through holographic feedback, thereby guiding operators to perform tasks with high precision. This strategy establishes a new framework for the development of interactive soft robots that mimic biological systems by employing light as the central carrier of information.

A research team led by Prof. WANG Xianlong and Dr. WANG Pei from the Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has successfully stabilized a B31-type MnSe_0.5Te_0.5 phase that exhibits superconductivity driven by pressure-induced Jahn–Teller distortions.

Scientists in China developed a hybrid frequency-dimension simulator on a thin-film lithium niobate chip. By combining intra- and inter-resonant frequency lattices, it realizes models such as the Hall ladder, Creutz ladder, and SSH model, enabling direct band-structure readout of the SSH model. Phenomena including spin-momentum locking, topological flat bands, and the Aharonov–Bohm cage are observed, while applications like piecewise-continuous optical frequency shifting are enabled via device cascading.

Soil moisture does more than help crops grow. It also shapes the invisible microbial reactions that determine whether nitrogen fertilizer is efficiently converted in soil or temporarily builds up as reactive nitrogen compounds. A new study published in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes reveals how changing soil water levels can disrupt the balance between two key steps of nitrification, a central process in the soil nitrogen cycle.

According to study data, glaciers and snowfields thinned between 2014-2022 at a seven-fold increase compared to 1967-2014, with ice thinning driven by warming summer temperatures. In contrast, rock glaciers are near equilibrium and saw no change in the rate of ice melt from 1967-2022.

Lehigh University researchers have discovered that tiny drug-delivery robots, known as microswimmers, unexpectedly reverse their direction of motion when traveling through complex, non-Newtonian fluids like blood and mucus. Published in Applied Physics Letters, the study provides the first experimental proof of this "backward sliding" phenomenon. This foundational insight into fluid rheology could fundamentally change how biomedical engineers manipulate and control microscale robots for targeted drug delivery inside the human body, turning the surrounding bodily fluids from a navigation obstacle into a mechanism for steering control.