Research shows that while connections between innovations speed discovery, they also sharply increase the risk of total system collapse – with the sweet spot for sustainable innovation proving surprisingly narrow.

Chemical-free pesticides and integrated pest management are the need of the hour to limit the damage to the environment while improving food productivity. In a new study, researchers from Japan have turned their attention to aromatic bush basil plants to contain agricultural pests. They found that the volatile organic compounds emitted from bush basil could activate plant defense-related genes in the leaves of common bean plants cultivated closer to bush basil.

Two researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) were honoured at the 21st International Electromagnetic and Light Scattering Conference in Milazzo, Italy:

Prof. Andreas Macke, Director of TROPOS was honoured with the "Elsevier van de Hulst Prize for Light Scattering" 2025 for his significant contributions to the understanding of scattering properties of atmospheric ice crystals. Prof Macke has developed and applied light scattering models based on geometrical optics for complex irregular ice crystals and thus achieved a breakthrough in the consideration of realistic crystal structures. His models and results are used worldwide in numerous scientific fields such as astrophysics, biology, medicine and, of course, atmospheric physics. The prize honours the life's work of an individual scientist who has made a pioneering contribution to the research field of electromagnetic scattering by particles and its applications.

Dr Moritz Haarig from TROPOS received the AS&T Young Scientist Award for the best presentation at the conference. The AS&T Award has been presented since 2025 for outstanding conference contributions by young scientists.

Magnetic field can speed up ultrafast laser-driven demagnetization in a novel 2D magnet Fe₃GeTe₂, revealing a universal control mechanism for future high frequency tech.

Wider voltage windows accelerate voltage decay at Mn³⁺/Mn²⁺ plateau in LMFP cathodes. Huazhong University researchers attribute this to irreversible lattice distortion and deteriorated lithium-ion diffusion, providing a roadmap for stable high-energy batteries.

Chip-scale integration of optical frequency combs provides miniaturized instrumentation that bridges optical and microwave signals. Recently, Chinese scientists have demonstrated soliton microcombs in high-Q microresonators on X-cut thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), a platform that enables monolithic integration of modulators and frequency doublers—essential for realizing complete comb functionality on photonic chips. This advance overcomes a key limitation of TFLN photonics and supports fully integrated, fast-tunable, self-referenced microcombs for chip-scale applications in timekeeping, ranging, and spectroscopy.

A joint research team from Japan has observed "heavy fermions," electrons with dramatically enhanced mass, exhibiting quantum entanglement governed by the Planckian time – the fundamental unit of time in quantum mechanics. This discovery opens up exciting possibilities for harnessing this phenomenon in solid-state materials to develop a new type of quantum computer.