Engineers constructed a lattice of hexagonal unit cells, each fitted with a compliant flexure, voice coil actuator and Hall effect sensor, linked through a microcontroller that applies a non-reciprocal force rule based on measured strain. The team reports that interactions between active hexagons produce coarsening of mechanical waves across the structure, a behavior associated with time crystallization in an engineered, programmable material.
Scientists created macroscopic graphene oxide films by assembling surface-folded, multilayer graphene oxide flakes into a 'fold-clasping lamellar structure.' The resulting films achieved 2.9 GPa strength, 84.5 MJ/m³ toughness, and 5% elastic strain, combining properties that are typically difficult to achieve together in 2D material films.
Scientists studying perovskite light-emitting diodes found that a common additive, 5-aminovaleric acid, reacts in precursor solutions to form two distinct products: a beneficial zwitterion and a harmful lactam byproduct. By controlling which reaction pathway dominates and using the purified beneficial compound directly, they achieved perovskite films with 97.2% photoluminescence quantum yield and devices reaching a record 37.1% external quantum efficiency, with an average of 32.8%.
Researchers describe materials and methods used to study how microplastics such as polystyrene, polyethylene and PVC interact chemically with water at their surfaces. The methods include characterizing microplastic surface purity with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and using fluorescent probes, dyes and labeled DNA to track reactive activity and molecule binding at plastic-water interfaces.
Scientists dissected and mechanically tested the axial columns of juvenile lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) to measure bending and torsional properties of their notochord-based spines. The tests used a materials-testing machine with calibrated load and torque sensors to quantify how flexible these primitive vertebral structures are. The sturgeon served as a living stand-in for understanding the mechanics of early tetrapod necks, which lack fossil evidence of soft tissue.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center built an AI tool to automatically detect brown adipose tissue (BAT) in 18F-FDG-PET-CT scans, expanding an existing patient cohort with a new dataset spanning April 2018 to July 2024. The retrospective study linked BAT presence to clinical and demographic data, including BMI and outdoor temperature, to examine associations with cardiometabolic disease risk.
Researchers used two-photon imaging and holographic optogenetics to stimulate small groups of neurons in the motor cortex of mice trained on a lever-pressing task. Briefly activating about 20 neurons whose firing normally precedes voluntary movement produced both movements resembling the learned action and brain activity patterns resembling the natural learned pattern. The effect depended on the mouse being task-engaged and on stimulating the correct, early-firing neurons rather than ones that fire after movement onset.
Researchers confined subnanometre Rh2O3 clusters inside MFI zeolite channels, where they break apart into isolated Rh3+ and Rh+ species under reaction conditions. By adding nitrogen-containing molecules like N-methylpyrrolidine or 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, the team selectively blocked the Rh+ sites responsible for unwanted double-bond isomerization while keeping Rh3+ sites active for hydroformylation. The result was a linear-to-branched aldehyde ratio of 817 with 96% undecanal selectivity at 99.8% conversion of 1-decene, using NMP as the additive.
Researchers from 21 institutions, including MD Anderson, Duke, UCSF and Mayo Clinic, generated new whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing data on brain tumor samples, combining them with previously published GLASS and TCGA datasets. The analysis used longitudinal tumor and blood samples sequenced on Illumina NovaSeq platforms to track genomic changes in astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas over time.
The acknowledgments section of a paper on computational design of metalloproteases thanks staff and collaborators at the Institute for Protein Design for computational and laboratory support, along with researchers who provided reagents and feedback. It also credits beamline facilities at the Advanced Photon Source, National Synchrotron Light Source II and the Center for BioMolecular Structure, funded by the US Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health, for structural data collection.
Scientists reported designing new enzymes capable of cleaving peptide bonds using an activated cysteine nucleophile, achieving success in 13 of 69 designs. The engineered proteases, whose structures differ substantially from natural proteases, accelerated the cutting reaction by up to 30 million times over background rates, and six crystal structures closely matched computational design models. The enzymes also functioned effectively when tested inside mammalian cells.
A one-year single-blind study evaluated nine satellite-based methane-sensing systems operating across three continents, testing their ability to detect and quantify controlled methane releases without prior knowledge of the emission schedule. The results, building on earlier work including a 2024 blind test of similar systems, assess how accurately these tools can identify point-source methane emissions such as those from oil and gas infrastructure.
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