Superconductors are famous for carrying electricity without resistance, but a new study shows they can also reshape the crystals in which they are housed. Scientists at Okayama University, Japan, have discovered that the topological superconductor Cu_xBi₂Se₃ can distort its crystal lattice when it reaches the superconducting state. Using synchrotron X-ray diffraction, the team detected structural changes linked to the unusual spin-triplet pairing in this material, revealing a new way superconductivity interacts with crystal structure.

In a collaboration between the Max-Born-Insitute, ARCNL Amsterdam, and Aarhus University, researchers have now shown that extreme ultraviolet (XUV) high-harmonic interferometry can provide direct access to such dynamics.

A research team from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed FastTrack, a new machine learning-based framework dedicated  to evaluate ion migration barriers in crystalline solids. By combining machine learning force field (MLFFs) with three-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) sampling and interpolation, FastTrack enables accurate prediction of atomic migration barriers within mere minutes. Unlike traditional methods such as density functional theory (DFT) and nudged elastic band (NEB), which can take hours or days per calculation. FastTrack offers a speedup of over 100 times without sacrificing accuracy, closely matching experimental and quantum-mechanical benchmarks. This powerful tool automatically identifies diffusion pathways, visualizes energy landscapes, and provides detailed microscopic insights into ion migration mechanisms, crucial for designing more efficient batteries, fuel cells, and other energy storage and conversion devices.

Researchers develop method to guide how MDA-MB-231 cancer cells – an invasive breast cancer cell – stuck, spread, and multiplied by tweaking the curves and chemistry of microscopic 're-entrant' structures.

Researchers from Kunming University of Science and Technology have discovered that certain soil minerals can trap dissolved organic matter released from biochar, keeping more carbon in the soil and potentially enhancing its long-term storage. Their study, published in Biochar, reveals that low-intensity rainfall helps retain this dissolved carbon within mineral-rich soils, limiting its downward movement and loss.

De-Wei Gao's research group at ShanghaiTech University has developed a new method for efficient and highly selective boron-heteroatom functional group exchange reactions. Their method overcomes the inherent difficulty of primary radical instability in traditional free radical chemistry and can achieve highly selective conversion of primary carbon-boron bonds to a variety of heteroatom functional groups. This strategy has been successfully applied to a sugar-derived 1,n-diboron compound system, achieving modular modification and efficient synthesis of sugar molecules and has shown to have potential application in the rapid construction of bioactive molecules. These results were published as an open access article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.