【When Excel Meets AI: The Rise of Self-Thinker Spreadsheets!】

A groundbreaking review by Prof. Jing Zhang & Prof. Yueguo Chen exposes how AI is rewriting the rules of table processing—and why your Excel skills might soon be obsolete!

This study explores liquid metal-based flexible three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs), highlighting their exceptional conductivity, stretchability, and biocompatibility. By leveraging 3D printing and advanced fabrication methods, researchers achieve high-resolution, scalable circuits for wearable and biomedical applications. The work addresses key challenges such as oxidation, interconnect stability, and multilayer integration, paving the way for next-generation flexible electronics.

A research team led by Prof. ZHANG Xin from High Magnetic Field laboratory, the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has revealed how magnetic properties vary in mice under different physiological and pathological conditions.

Using first-principles calculations, a research group led by Prof. WANG Xianlong from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, found that phosphorus doping is an effective way to achieve high-energy polymeric nitrogen with black-phosphorus structure (BP-N) stable at ambient pressure.

Recently, a collaborative research team led by Professor WANG Hui and Professor ZHANG Xin from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully developed a novel carbon-coated nickel ferrite (NFN@C) nanocatalyst with significant potential in cancer therapy. 

Located in a subtropical region facing the South China Sea, during summer Hong Kong experiences high salinity in the warm sea air which corrodes the metal structures of buildings. To address this challenge posed by the humid environment, researchers from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have developed a real-time monitoring system to evaluate the impact of atmospheric corrosion on steel structures and components in buildings. This system has been deployed to monitor the structural corrosion of a newly-built research complex and a housing project. Based on the data collected, targeted protective measures have been proposed to help achieve sustainable building development.

A new smartphone-based Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) positioning technique, aimed at overcoming the challenges of urban canyons, has been developed.

Heat stress has become one of the major threats to agricultural production. With the sharp increase in future food demand, breeding heat-tolerant crop varieties has become an urgent task for ensuring food security. In a recent review article published in aBIOTECH, Xiong et al. summarizes the latest research on the impact of heat stress (HS) on major cereal crops at various developmental stages. The review highlights the use of beneficial natural variants and gene-editing techniques to improve crop tolerance to heat stress, emphasizing the value of alleles associated with thermomemory, combined stress tolerance, and the balance between stress responses and growth.

New research has uncovered why different climate models offer varying projections of sea surface temperature changes in the tropical Pacific, a region critical for global climate patterns.