A research team led by Professors Weiwei Jin and Wei Huang from China Agricultural University, in collaboration with Tianjin Agricultural University and the University of São Paulo in Brazil, elucidated how two anther-specific plasma membrane hexose transporters, ZmSWEET6a and ZmSWEET6b, coordinately regulate pollen wall development and cellular homeostasis. The study has been published online in The Crop Journal.

International research teams led by China Agricultural University and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have identified and cloned a new semi-dwarfing gene, Sdd1 (semi-dwarf and dense-spike 1), that modulates plant height and spike architecture through a distinct hormonal balancing mechanism—offering breeders a fresh genetic resource to fine-tune wheat architecture.

A research team found that converting rice straw into biochar may be safer and more sustainable than directly incorporating untreated straw into paddy soils. 

Herein, we report a user-friendly electrocatalytic glycosylation strategy that employs stable and readily available acetyl glycosides as glycosyl donors. The reaction proceeds at room temperature and ambient pressure in an undivided electrolytic cell, enabling rapid access to structurally diverse O‑, S‑, and N‑glycosides, as well as disaccharides, with moderate to excellent diastereoselectivity. The lithium perchlorate/acetonitrile electrolyte system was identified as the optimal reaction medium. Mechanistic studies reveal that a Brønsted acid generated in situ at the anode activates the C–O bond of the acetyl glycosides, thereby initiating the glycosylation process. This method features exceptionally broad substrate scope, excellent functional group tolerance, requires only a catalytic amount of charge (0.1 F/mol), and reaches completion within 10 minutes.

Researchers have systematically investigated the thermal response of millimeter-scale hexanitrostilbene (HNS) charges under programmed-heating cook-off conditions. By integrating cook-off experiments with numerical simulations, the study reveals how charge size, heating rate, and packing density jointly regulate ignition behavior through coupled heat transfer and chemical reactions, providing new insights into the thermal safety assessment of heat-resistant energetic materials.

On July 14, 2026, the Forum on Biochar and Carbon Research brought together researchers and members of the public for an online presentation examining three decades of progress in biochar science.

Industrial equipment such as boilers, pipelines, and heat exchangers must be chemically cleaned to remove scale, corrosion products, and organic deposits. However, this maintenance process generates organic cleaning wastewater containing high concentrations of organic compounds, ammonia, dissolved salts, and metal ions. Because this wastewater is difficult and costly to treat, researchers are exploring whether it can be safely destroyed in existing coal-fired boilers.

Soils worldwide are increasingly contaminated by both microplastics and toxic metals. When these pollutants meet, their combined effects are far more complicated than simple addition. A new review reveals that microplastics can change the mobility, bioavailability, ecological toxicity, and food-chain transfer of heavy metals, but the direction and magnitude of these changes differ substantially among metals.

An international team led by Prof. LIU Yi from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences investigated how CH₄ emissions in Siberia are evolving under climate change, showing how atmospheric circulation promotes wildfire activity and methanogenesis and thereby drives the recent sharp rise in CH₄ emissions.