Biochar, a carbon rich material made by heating agricultural and forestry waste under low oxygen conditions, has long been valued for improving soil health. Now, a new review reveals that biochar is rapidly evolving into a powerful multifunctional material with the potential to tackle some of the world’s most urgent environmental challenges, from water pollution and nutrient loss to carbon emissions and clean energy production.

In research that could shed light on the growth and formation of complex tissue architectures, Brown University engineers show how cells orbit and reconfigure their surroundings to venture outward from confined spheroids.

Pilot whale samples from 1986-2023 show that legacy PFAS are declining in the open ocean. Newer PFAS remain a major unknown and may be accumulating in near-source environments.

Professor Hirotoshi Mori (Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University), together with Nichika Ozawa (first-year Ph.D. student at Ochanomizu University) and Assistant Professor Nahoko Kuroki of Ochanomizu University, has proposed a new design principle for QM/MM (quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics) simulations. The approach enables objective and automatic determination of the quantum-mechanical region based on electronic-state changes, addressing a long-standing challenge in multiscale molecular simulations. This work was published online in Advanced Science on December 23, 2025 (JST), an international journal that features conceptually innovative and interdisciplinary breakthroughs across materials science, life science, chemistry, and physics. This article will be published in issue 17 (March 23rd) of Advanced Science, and the cover design suggestion has been selected to be featured on a frontispiece in it. A frontispiece is a full-page image (similar to a cover) placed at the beginning of this article that highlights outstanding results.