EurekAlert! Chinese Academy of Sciences

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-Dec-2025 04:11 ET (31-Dec-2025 09:11 GMT/UTC)

26-Dec-2025

Progress persists for low-baseline SDGs, while high-baseline goals stagnate or reverse

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With only five years until the 2030 deadline for achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new international study reveals uneven progress in achieving the goals since their adoption in 2015. The paper, recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals that global progress on numerous SDGs with high initial benchmarks has either stalled or gone into reverse. In contrast, SDG indicators with lower baseline performance continue to register gains. Researchers caution that the vast majority of countries will fail to meet their 2030 SDG targets under current trends.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

19-Dec-2025

Researchers show impact of mountain building and climate change on alpine biodiversity

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with collaborators, explored the impact of mountain building and climate cooling over 30 million years across five major mountain systems in the Northern Hemisphere and revealed that these processes are key drivers of the rich plant diversity found in the Earth's alpine biome.

Journal: Science Advances

16-Dec-2025

Scientists discover how cell walls guide stem cells

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study led by Dr. YANG Weibing from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a hidden "molecular gatekeeper" that controls the stiffness of these walls, directly guiding the fate of plant stem cells.

Journal: Science

News from CAS Institutes

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-Dec-2025 04:11 ET (31-Dec-2025 09:11 GMT/UTC)

30-Dec-2025

Sulfur isn’t poisonous when it synergistically acts with phosphine in olefins hydroformylation

Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics have designed a rhodium catalyst whose microenvironment is tuned by both sulfur and phosphine ligands, based on an industrial single-site Rh₁/POPs catalyst. The new “single-site” catalyst hydroformylates propylene and higher olefins up to twice as fast as the current benchmark, while maintaining high selectivity and stability. The study explains how a carefully controlled amount of sulfur can switch from poisoning the catalyst to promoting its performance.

Journal: Chinese Journal of Catalysis

30-Dec-2025

Decoupling the HOR enhancement on PtRu: Dynamically matching interfacial water to reaction coordinates

Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The PtRu(111)-alkali interface demonstrates superior hydrogen oxidation activity owing to reduced solvent reorganization energy, enabled by the synergistic matching of reaction coordinates, favorable water orientation, and an optimized hydrogen bond network.

Journal: Chinese Journal of Catalysis

29-Dec-2025

Femtosecond ultraviolet-C photonics

Light Publishing Center, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics And Physics, CAS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The ability to generate and detect ultrashort light pulses in the ultraviolet UV-C range (100-280 nm) is crucial for many applications. This work demonstrates a UV-C source-sensor platform that combines nonlinear optical crystals for the generation of femtosecond UV-C laser pulses with photodetectors based on atomically-thin semiconductors. The platform has potential for different technologies, from broad-band imaging to spectroscopy on femtosecond timescales. As a proof of concept, the source-sensor is used to demonstrate free-space communication.

Journal: Light Science & Applications
Funder: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

News from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Trending News Releases

News from CAS Headquarters

Progress persists for low-baseline SDGs, while high-baseline goals stagnate or reverse

Researchers show impact of mountain building and climate change on alpine biodiversity

Scientists discover how cell walls guide stem cells

News from CAS Institutes

Sulfur isn’t poisonous when it synergistically acts with phosphine in olefins hydroformylation

Decoupling the HOR enhancement on PtRu: Dynamically matching interfacial water to reaction coordinates

Femtosecond ultraviolet-C photonics