The biennial Ocean Sciences Meeting, co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union , the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography , and The Oceanography Society , brings together 6,000 scientists, students, policymakers and educators to discuss breaking research across the ocean sciences and critical issues affecting a sustainable future for our oceans.

2H-NbO₂—a novel van der Waals oxide synthesized by researchers from Japan—exhibits strongly correlated electronic properties with two-dimensional flexibility. By chemically extracting lithium ions from the layered sheets of LiNbO₂, the researchers transformed a three-dimensional oxide into a two-dimensional material—unlocking unique properties like Mott insulating states and superconductivity. Bridging transition metal oxides and 2D materials, the discovery paves the way for realizing advanced quantum materials in next-generation electronic devices.

Metal oxides are abundant in nature and central to technologies such as photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Yet, many suffer from poor electrical conduction, caused by strong repulsion between electrons in neighboring metal atoms. Researchers at HZB and partner institutions have shown that light pulses can temporarily weaken these repulsive forces, lowering the energy required for electrons mobility, inducing a metal-like behavior. This discovery offers a new way to manipulate material properties with light, with high potential to more efficient light-based devices.

The exploration of interplay between topology and nonlinearity leads to an emerging field of nonlinear topological physics. Now, based on the technology of momentum lattices, Chinese scientists synthesize a topological trimer array with tunable nonlinearities caused by atomic interactions, and observe the formation of nonlinear edge states in the density population evolution and participation ratio with increasing interaction. This work opens the avenue for exploring emergent nonlinear topological behaviors in ultracold atomic gases.

Due to their high mechanical compliance and excellent biocompatibility, conductive hydrogels exhibit significant potential for applications in flexible electronics. However, as the demand for high sensitivity, superior mechanical properties, and strong adhesion performance continues to grow, many conventional fabrication methods remain complex and costly. Herein, we propose a simple and efficient strategy to construct an entangled network hydrogel through a liquid–metal-induced cross-linking reaction, hydrogel demonstrates outstanding properties, including exceptional stretchability (1643%), high tensile strength (366.54 kPa), toughness (350.2 kJ m⁻³), and relatively low mechanical hysteresis. The hydrogel exhibits long-term stable reusable adhesion (104 kPa), enabling conformal and stable adhesion to human skin. This capability allows it to effectively capture high-quality epidermal electrophysiological signals with high signal-to-noise ratio (25.2 dB) and low impedance (310 ohms). Furthermore, by integrating advanced machine learning algorithms, achieving an attention classification accuracy of 91.38%, which will significantly impact fields like education, healthcare, and artificial intelligence.