Recent research reveals that engineered microstructures within piezoelectric electrospun fibers, combined with piezoelectric enhancement strategies, are unlocking unprecedented therapeutic potential for tissue regeneration. Researchers from the Li Zhou team at Tsinghua University have pioneered a comprehensive review revealing how piezoelectric electrospun fibers harness mechanical energy to generate bioelectric signals, thereby accelerating tissue regeneration. This review presents a novel and systematic analysis of integrated multidimensional approaches to enhance piezoelectric performance in electrospun fibers. Additionally, various methods for generating electrical signals within these fibers are detailed, along with their diverse applications in tissue engineering.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have now discovered for the first time that large blackwater lakes in the extensive peatlands of the central Congo Basin are releasing ancient carbon.  To date, climate researchers had assumed that carbon was stored safely for millenia in the peat. How the carbon is mobilised from the peat to the lake, where it is finally released to the atmosphere, is still unknown. Climate changes and altered land use, especially the conversion of forest to cropland, could exacerbate this trend – with consequences for the global climate. 

The humble breadcrumb could hold the key to cutting out fossil fuels from one of the chemical industry’s most widely used reactions, according to a new study.

Scientists have found a one-pot microbial formula that uses waste bread to replace fossil fuel-derived hydrogen in hydrogenation – a chemical reaction used extensively to manufacture foods, pharmaceuticals, plastics and other everyday products.

How can we ensure smarter building solutions in the face of a rapidly changing climate? As Europe accelerates its transition toward a climate-neutral building stock, the need for accessible, reliable and up-to-date climate data has never been greater. The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) has launched ClimateDataForBuildings, a new open platform providing energy and climate modelling data for more than 3,600 European locations.

Scientists from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, in collaboration with teams from the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Sapienza University of Rome, University of Central Florida, Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses, National University of Singapore, CNR-IFN, as well as research centers in the Czech Republic (University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague) and Japan (National Institute for Materials Science), have observed a new microscopic mechanism enabling precise control of the magneto-optical properties of excitons in alloys of two-dimensional semiconductors. This discovery opens up tangible prospects for technological applications in devices exploiting valleytronics. The research findings were published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters.

How much will heat, flooding, drought and storms increase as a result of human-induced climate change? In a groundbreaking study, climate researcher Gottfried Kirchengast and his team at the University of Graz have developed a new method for computing the hazards from extreme events: it can compute all relevant hazard metrics for events such as heat waves, floods and droughts in any region worldwide with unprecedented information content. Using it for Europe, the researchers found that anthropogenic climate change has caused a tenfold increase in extreme heat in recent decades. The study, published in the journal Weather and Climate Extremes, also provides a basis for better quantifying the damage to people, ecosystems and infrastructure.