Science Highlights

Chiral nanomaterials with intrinsic chirality or spatial asymmetry at the nanoscale are currently in the limelight of both fundamental research and diverse important technological applications due to their unprecedented physicochemical characteristics such as intense light-matter interactions, enhanced circular dichroism, and strong circularly polarized luminescence. In this review, we offer an account of the state-of-the-art advances on liquid crystal-templated chiral functional nanomaterials, including chiral plasmonic nanomaterials and chiral luminescent nanomaterials.

Dr. TANG Jing and her colleagues from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) carried out a statistical analysis of the radio-flaring brown dwarf population. The analysis has helped quantify the potential for finding such objects in Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) surveys.

The Insight-HXMT team has recently discovered a cyclotron absorption line with an energy of 146 keV in the neutron star X-ray binary Swift J0243.6+6124, corresponding to a surface magnetic field of more than 1.6 billion Tesla. After direct measurement of the strongest magnetic field in the universe at about 1 billion Tesla in 2020, the world records for the highest energy cyclotron absorption line and direct measurement of the strongest magnetic field in the universe have been refreshed significantly.

In order to accurately and efficiently identify the original plant of opium poppy in the anti-drug system, the Medicinal Plant Resources Group from the Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out research on opium poppy-specific molecular markers.

Using brain tissues from non-human primates (NHPs), the ideal model to mimic human hippocampal aging, scientists have worked jointly and established the first single-nucleus transcriptomic landscape of primate hippocampal aging. They revealed the molecular mechanism of its functional deterioration with age, and provided a valuable resource for the identification of new diagnostic biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets for interventions against hippocampal aging and related human neurodegenerative disorders.

A group of scientists have recently found that F. graminearum perithecia provided a specific ecological niche for bacteria that could play an important role in disease establishment. The researchers have deciphered the mechanism of the inhibitory effect of herbicolin A on fungi and identified its biosynthetic gene cluster. This discovery will support future progress in the sustainable management of Fusarium head blight worldwide.

A collaborative research team has investigated how microgravity and simulated microgravity exposure alters visual BM perception and has examined the underlying neural processes.

A Chinese research team has found that continued global warming may lead to shorter floral life of plants, according to the Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.