A new study introduces China's Glacial Lake Management System (GLMS), an integrated approach that combines monitoring, engineering, and community engagement to reduce the impacts of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in the Himalaya. Research shows that while GLOF frequency has not significantly increased, downstream damage has risen due to growing exposure. The GLMS, implemented since 2019, has helped mitigate losses in China. Modeling indicates that without intervention, future GLOF intensity could rise by over 27%, but GLMS measures could reduce flood intensity by nearly one-quarter. The study proposes a scalable framework for regional cooperation to protect vulnerable communities across the Himalaya.

A large-scale synchronized observation across 37 cities in North China Plain reveals a critical transition in urban ozone formation mechanisms, from predominantly VOC-limited regime to VOC–NO_x co-limited regime. This finding indicates that China’s ozone control efforts have passed through the most challenging phase, in which NO_x reductions tended to exacerbate ozone pollution. Further reductions in both NO_x and VOC emissions are now expected to be broadly effective, offering greater flexibility, feasibility, and optimism for future ozone mitigation in China.

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a new molecule which carries DNA into biological cells, to treat or vaccinate against illnesses. Many existing options rely on molecules with a strong positive charge, which can cause harmful inflammation. The team overcame this by using a neutral molecule and a new method to bind DNA to it, making it possible to deliver DNA into cells. Successful experiments in mice promise new, more effective therapies.

A research team led by Prof. Yiwen Li and Associate Prof. Yuanting Xu from Sichuan University developed a hydrogel-based evaporator that dramatically enhanced solar-driven water purification by accelerating water transport and reducing evaporation enthalpy. By engineering a hierarchical porous structure with gallic acid, the system achieved efficient, stable, and low-cost solar-driven water purification, offering a promising route toward scalable and sustainable clean water purification.

Think of the economy as a giant web where every person, company, and country is linked. When something big happens — a pandemic, the rise of artificial intelligence, or a climate-driven disaster — it doesn’t just hit one strand. The shock ripples across the entire web, creating effects in real time that are hard to predict.

That’s the central theme of The Economy as an Evolving Complex System IV (SFI Press, 2026), the newest volumes in a series launched at the Santa Fe Institute nearly four decades ago to rethink economics through the lens of complexity science. Rather than assuming markets always balance neatly, these books treat the economy as a living system that grows, changes, and reacts in ways that are hard to predict.

Researchers led by physicists at the University of Bath in the UK have found that adding a twist during the fabrication of optical fibres creates a more robust pathway for light, minimising the effects of manufacturing flaws that can cause signals to be lost.