Transition metal carbides are prized for their exceptional hardness and stability under extreme conditions, but they are notoriously brittle. This intrinsic trade-off between hardness and toughness has long hindered their application in demanding fields. A research team has developed a novel strategy that uses nitrogen doping to fundamentally re-engineer the microstructure of (Ti, Zr)C ceramics. This approach unleashes a powerful toughening mechanism during a process called spinodal decomposition, resulting in a remarkable simultaneous increase of approximately 40% in hardness and 50% in toughness. This breakthrough provides a new blueprint for designing next-generation ceramics with superior reliability.

Breast cancer is increasingly affecting younger women globally, often before the screening guidelines recommend testing age. Young patients with breast cancer have a worse prognosis than older women.

Early screening through AI-enhanced mammography and high-throughput sequencing-powered genetic tests can identify high-risk individuals, offering a critical time frame for prevention and intervention.

Researchers have developed a manganese-based, cobalt-free lithium-excess layered cathode that significantly advances the performance of lithium-ion batteries. By employing an O₂-type honeycomb structure, the material demonstrates high reversible capacity, long cycling stability, and improved thermal safety. This design achieves ~284 mAh g⁻¹ with an energy density of 956 Wh kg⁻¹, while maintaining about 70% capacity after 500 cycles in full cells. Unlike traditional cathodes prone to oxygen loss and structural degradation, the new composition stabilizes the oxygen redox process and suppresses phase transitions. These findings mark a critical step toward sustainable, high-capacity, and long-lasting lithium-ion batteries for next-generation applications.

Converting carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals using renewable energy is a promising route to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and recycle carbon. Yet the stability of CO₂ molecules makes their activation both energy-intensive and inefficient when relying on a single energy input. Recent research highlights the power of coupling multiple energy sources—such as light with heat, electricity with heat, or plasma with thermal energy—to generate synergistic effects that improve efficiency, selectivity, and stability. By integrating these complementary modes of energy, synergetic catalytic systems open opportunities to overcome barriers in CO₂ reduction and move closer to practical, scalable carbon recycling technologies.

Nitrate pollution in water threatens ecosystems and human health, yet removing it efficiently without producing harmful byproducts remains a challenge. 

While desalination is a key solution for global freshwater scarcity, its implementation faces environmental challenges due to concentrated brine byproducts mainly disposed of via coastal discharge systems. Solar interfacial evaporation offers sustainable management potential, yet inevitable salt nucleation at evaporation interfaces degrades photothermal conversion and operational stability via light scattering and pathway blockage. Inspired by the mangrove leaf, we propose a photothermal 3D polydopamine and polypyrrole polymerized spacer fabric (PPSF)-based upward hanging model evaporation configuration with a reverse water feeding mechanism. This design enables zero-liquid-discharge (ZLD) desalination through phase-separation crystallization. The interconnected porous architecture and the rough surface of the PPSF enable superior water transport, achieving excellent solar-absorbing efficiency of 97.8%. By adjusting the tilt angle (θ), the evaporator separates the evaporation and salt crystallization zones via controlled capillary-driven brine transport, minimizing heat dissipation from brine discharge. At an optimal tilt angle of 52°, the evaporator reaches an evaporation rate of 2.81 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ with minimal heat loss (0.366 W) under 1-sun illumination while treating a 7 wt% waste brine solution. Furthermore, it sustains an evaporation rate of 2.71 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ over 72 h while ensuring efficient salt recovery. These results highlight a scalable, energy-efficient approach for sustainable ZLD desalination.

Ceramic aerogels (CAs) have emerged as a significant research frontier across various applications due to their lightweight, high porosity, and easily tunable structural characteristics. However, the intrinsic weak interactions among the constituent nanoparticles, coupled with the limited toughness of traditional CAs, make them susceptible to structural collapse or even catastrophic failure when exposed to complex mechanical external forces. Unlike 0D building units, 1D ceramic nanofibers (CNFs) possess a high aspect ratio and exceptional flexibility simultaneously, which are desirable building blocks for elastic CAs. This review presents the recent progress in electrospun ceramic nanofibrous aerogels (ECNFAs) that are constructed using ECNFs as building blocks, focusing on the various preparation methods and corresponding structural characteristics, strategies for optimizing mechanical performance, and a wide range of applications. The methods for preparing ECNFs and ECNFAs with diverse structures were initially explored, followed by the implementation of optimization strategies for enhancing ECNFAs, emphasizing the improvement of reinforcing the ECNFs, establishing the bonding effects between ECNFs, and designing the aggregate structures of the aerogels. Moreover, the applications of ECNFAs across various fields are also discussed. Finally, it highlights the existing challenges and potential opportunities for ECNFAs to achieve superior properties and realize promising prospects.

We present a nanophotonic-engineered thermal protective window (NTPW) strategy that incorporates a visible-light transparent broadband directional thermal emitter and a low-emissivity (Low-E) coating into commercial polycarbonate windows. This NETPW can provide users with thermal protection and personal thermal comfort in complex high-temperature working environments. The team demonstrated this approach enables simultaneous control of the thermal emission spectrum and direction, allowing for customized radiative energy exchange in high-temperature environments.

Physicists at Peking University have uncovered a new way to confine light far beyond conventional limits — without relying on metals and their inherent energy dissipation. By formulating the singular dispersion equation, the team discovered narwhal-shaped wavefunctions that trap light at deep-subwavelength volumes in purely dielectric materials. The advance, dubbed singulonics, could pave the way for ultra-efficient photonic chips, new quantum technologies, and imaging tools with unprecedented resolution.