A new Perspective in Science Bulletin argues that the persistent gap between climate science and climate action stems from a conceptual blind spot: treating climate and social systems as separate domains rather than as one integrated, co-evolving entity. The authors introduce the Climate-Social Coupling System (CSS) paradigm and, by re-contextualizing the classic Environmental Kuznets Curve, sort national trajectories into “strong,” “weak,” and “de-coupling” states, showing that governance is the decisive, reversible steering mechanism that determines a country’s climate future.

Scientists in China have developed a compact quasi-BIC laser that emits an ultrahigh-purity linearly polarized light. Using dispersion-assisted polarization engineering, the device achieves a polarization extinction ratio of ~300:1 in a 20 by 20 lattice while maintaining single-mode operation and good beam quality.

Sodium-ion batteries have garnered significant attention as vital energy storage solutions owing to their cost-effectiveness and high energy density, yet tracking their interface ion kinetics and achieving precise state of charge (SoC) quantification remain challenging. Scientists from China have demonstrated an implantable multiresonant fiber-optic grating sensor to address these issues. This operando tool rapidly decodes the dynamic nanoscale ion transport at the electrode-electrolyte interface and achieves highly accurate SoC quantification by integrating the optical signal, offering a powerful platform for next-generation battery diagnostics and design.

Computed tomography (CT) is widely used in medical diagnosis and image-guided treatment, but high-density metallic objects such as dental fillings, orthopedic implants, and vascular stents can cause beam hardening and photon starvation, producing severe streak artifacts that obscure surrounding anatomy. Existing methods often restore corrupted projections through interpolation or deep neural networks, but discontinuities between estimated and measured data may introduce secondary artifacts. Supervised approaches also rely on paired metal-corrupted and metal-free images, which are difficult to obtain clinically and may generalize poorly across different metal shapes, anatomical regions, and scanning protocols.

Patients increasingly turn to artificial intelligence for health information. But how reliable are the answers? A new study from Dalhousie University, published in UroPrecision, provides the first systematic evaluation of ChatGPT‑4.0 against Canadian Urological Association (CUA) guidelines.

DNA damage poses a constant threat to genome integrity, especially in germ cells that transmit genetic information to offspring. While most DNA damage response (DDR) mechanisms are ancient and shared across vertebrates, the team discovered that simians (including humans, apes, Old World monkeys, and New World monkeys) possess a unique, recently evolved DDR regulator — SAGE1 — that provides an extra layer of protection to spermatogonia. Through its unique tandem exon repeats (SERs), SAGE1 coordinates multiple key repair complexes including MRN-CtIP, SOSS, and NuA4 to promote accurate homologous recombination (HR) repair while suppressing error-prone non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). This work reveals that simians have acquired an additional regulatory layer atop the conserved DDR machinery, offering new insights into the genetic basis of enhanced germline genome stability in the simian lineage.

Researchers from the South China Botanical Garden (SCBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Uppsala University found that ancient trees are far from genetically uniform. Some preserve rare genetic variation that is poorly represented elsewhere, while others largely harbor genetic variation already found in surviving wild or cultivated populations.

This collection features articles on Nanomaterials published in Smart Materials in Manufacturing. All articles are free to read and download.