New research outlines a multi-dimensional strategy for fungal conservation, prioritizing species recognition, evolutionary analysis and targeted habitat protection to safeguard this understudied keystone group of life.

This research presents a high-performance near-infrared polarized photodetector based on a 1T'-MoTe₂/2H-MoTe₂ homologous polymorphic van der Waals heterojunction. It underscores the significant advantages of utilizing different phases of the same material for designing advanced optoelectronic devices. The findings provide a valuable and generalizable design strategy for developing future integrated, multifunctional sensing, and imaging systems.

Eccentric training is widely used to prevent hamstring injuries, but the mechanisms behind their effectiveness remain unclear. Researchers found that nine weeks of eccentric training allowed hamstring muscle fibers to operate at longer lengths during exercise without overstretching their microscopic contractile units. These adaptations likely occur through the addition of sarcomeres in series and may help explain why this training method reduces hamstring injury risk.

Hydrogels are appealing for electrolyte of soft energy storage devices due to their mechanical flexibility and high ionic conductivity. Their polymeric networks containing large amount of water result in mechanical flexibility suitable for soft devices. However, high water content in hydrogels results in insufficient mechanical strength and freezing at sub-zero temperatures. Herein, we developed anti-freezing hydrogels with high mechanical strength by liquid metal (LM)-initiated free-radical polymerization. During the polymerization, we introduced stearyl methacrylate (SMA) to form hydrophobic associations, increasing the physical cross-linking density within the polymer network, resulting in desirable mechanical properties (elongation at break of 907% and tensile strength of 766 kPa). The hydrogel exhibiting ionic conductivity of 4.35 S m⁻¹ at 25 °C after immersing in LiCl solution showed the slightly decreased ionic conductivity (3.39 S m⁻¹) and almost maintained mechanical stretchability (elongation at break of 897%) after being stored at − 20 °C for 12 h. Supercapacitors consisted of the hydrogel electrolyte and activated carbon electrodes achieved a high areal capacitance (93.52 mF cm⁻²) due to rapid ionic mobility through the hydrogel electrolyte and retained 98% of its capacitance after 45,000 charge–discharge cycles due to enhanced polymeric network of electrolyte via LM particles-initiated polymerization and SMA-induced hydrophobic association.

As climate change intensifies heatwaves around the world, soils are increasingly exposed to repeated drying and rewetting cycles that can mobilize toxic contaminants. A new study shows that a specially engineered biochar material can keep mercury locked safely in soil even under these stressful environmental conditions.

Scientists from Ocean University of China have crafted a 3D bimetallic MOF array material for electrocatalytic air sterilization, detailed in Engineering. The 0.3Co-MOF/Cu@Cu electrode boasts strong water stability and conductivity, killing 99.51% of E. coli in just 0.0026 s at 24 V and 1.5 m·s⁻¹ airflow, via electroporation and ROS generation, offering a promising indoor air purification solution.

A newly engineered biochar material may offer a powerful and sustainable way to clean up toxic metals from polluted water and soil, according to a recent study published in Biochar.

Necrotic cell death is a fundamental biological process, yet the terminal execution mechanisms of necrosis are still not fully understood. The team dissected different types of cell death at single-cell resolution and unexpectedly discovered that, even under identical death-inducing conditions, the execution of individual cells can be mediated by either apoptosis or necrosis, suggesting that we might need to consider cell death regulation with single-cell resolution. Further mechanistic analysis of necrosis demonstrated the role of extracellular proteases in the final execution of necrosis by entering the necrotic cells after the rupture of plasma membrane to mediate widespread and highly specific protein cleavage patterns distinct from apoptosis, thereby defining the terminal stage of necrosis. These cleavage events promote phagocytic clearance of necrotic cell remnants, helping to limit autoimmune pathology. Building on these findings, the authors developed monoclonal antibodies capable of specifically recognizing necrosis-associated protein cleavage products, providing a powerful new molecular tool for the precise detection and investigation of necrotic cells in animal models and human pathological samples.

Recently, a research team led by Prof. ZHANG Tao, Prof. HUANG Yanqiang from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. LIU Wei from DICP and Prof. WANG Yanggang from the Southern University of Science and Technology, has tracked the oxygen spillover in catalysts using environmental transmission electron microscopy and observed for the first time bulk oxygen spillover in Ru/rutile-TiO₂ catalysts. Their findings provide new approaches for using the catalyst bulk.