New behavioural economics research on gender and competition, using bidding experiments, finds no overall gender gap in competitiveness; where a gap does appear, it is women who push hardest for the highest positions.

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂RR) offers a route for sustainable chemical production using water as a clean proton source. However, water also promotes the competing hydrogen evolution reaction, limiting CO₂RR performance. Here we establish interfacial water as a decisive but overlooked design parameter for selective CO₂-to-ethanol electrolysis. A hetero-solvent microenvironment confining diglyme (DiG) near the Cu catalyst substantially suppresses HER under both neutral and alkaline conditions, where protons are supplied via water dissociation. In situ infrared absorption spectroscopy and theoretical calculation results reveal that DiG strengthens the hydrogen-bonding network of interfacial water, reducing free-water population prone to dissociation. Concurrently, the modulated water network effectively hinders solvent-mediated hydrogenation that favors ethylene formation, thereby promoting ethanol formation. Because this strategy modulates the microenvironment rather than the catalyst, it readily extends to Cu–Ag bimetallic catalyst. Moreover, confining hetero-solvent within microenvironment rather than in the bulk electrolyte enables high-current operation at low cell voltages, achieving an ethanol partial current density of 184.2 mA cm⁻² at 3.6 V under neutral condition.

A waste‑derived material best known for improving soil health may hold the key to making wastewater treatment dramatically more energy‑efficient, according to a comprehensive new review published in the journal Biochar.

A research team has developed a metal-free, nitrogen-doped porous carbon catalyst that simultaneously improves the capacity, charging efficiency, and operating life of lithium–oxygen (Li–O₂) batteries. 

High-resolution environmental DNA sampling reveals distinct spatiotemporal fish diversity dynamics and provides practical monitoring solutions for high-density cascade dam mountain rivers.

In recent years, numerous breakthroughs have been made in the generation and manipulation of structured light fields. For instance, Poincaré beams (PBs), which possess both inhomogeneous polarization distributions and helical wavefronts, allow for independent manipulation of their polarization and phase. These beams exhibit broad application prospects in fields such as laser processing, high-resolution imaging, and optical communications.

A new complete genome for the miniature water lily Nymphaea minuta offers a rare view into how early flowering plants built the genetic systems that support survival, development, and adaptation with unusual precision. 

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is rising worldwide, yet women remain underrepresented in sex-specific analyses. In a new study, researchers used the Global Burden of Disease 2021 database to map CKD trends in women across 204 countries from 1990 to 2021. They found that 359 million women were living with CKD in 2021, a 90.65% increase since 1990, with metabolic disorders and cardiovascular complications closely linked to kidney impairment. The findings call for sex-specific prevention strategies.