A new study published in Science China Life Sciences reports that Buyang Huanwu Decoction, a traditional Chinese medicine formula, improved motor recovery and reduced acute inflammation in a mouse model of spinal cord injury. The study suggests that its protective effects may be linked to the suppression of microglial activation and the regulation of the complement and coagulation cascades.

Freestanding oxide membranes are promising platforms for flexible electronics, sensors, and heterogeneous device integration, but cracks and wrinkles formed during release and transfer can compromise their performance and reliability. Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have developed a lock-in thermography-based method that converts these hidden structural imperfections into characteristic thermal signatures. The approach enables rapid, wide-area inspection of conductive oxide membranes and provides semi-quantitative information on crack size, crack orientation, and wrinkle morphology.

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction for solar fuel production is a critical technology enabling carbon cycling and efficient renewable energy storage. However, conversion efficiency remains severely limited by bottlenecks such as rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers, high activation barriers for CO2 molecules, and inadequate catalyst stability. To overcome these challenges, this study constructed an in situ ZrO2 nanoparticle protective layer on CdS nanospheres, yielding a ZrO2/CdS-20 (ZOCS-20) core-shell composite photocatalyst. Under light conditions, this catalyst demonstrated exceptional performance, with a CO production rate of 330.23 µmol/(g·h) and near 100% CO selectivity. Systematic characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the underlying enhancement mechanism. The core-shell heterostructure suppresses charge recombination through interfacial engineering, significantly improving charge separation efficiency and carrier transport kinetics while enhancing material stability. Crucially, strong electron coupling at the ZrO2/CdS interface shifts the d-band center of catalyst toward the Fermi level, strengthening CO2 chemisorption and lowering its activation barrier. The optimized electronic interface also reduces the energy barrier for forming the *COOH intermediate, substantially decreasing activation energy of the rate-determining step (RDS) and providing additional thermodynamic driving force. This work elucidates an interface-band synergy enhancement mechanism, offering both theoretical insights and experimental guidance for the design of efficient photocatalytic materials.

The interfacial stress between silicon bottom cell and perovskite top cell remains a critical challenge for flexible perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, leading to interfacial delamination and device degradation. In this work, the effect of the thickness and pyramid size on mechanical properties of silicon wafers are investigated, demonstrating that thinner wafers and smaller pyramids significantly enhance the flexural strength of thin silicon wafers by mitigating stress concentration effects. Based on these findings, a synergistic optimization strategy is proposed that employs precise wet-etching control to fabricate small-sized, high-density, uniform pyramids on 55 µm silicon wafers for efficient and flexible perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. By optimizing the texturing duration, this approach simultaneously enhances the minority carrier lifetime (τ) and achieves an excellent implied open-circuit voltage (iVoc). Furthermore, the uniform submicron-scale pyramid structure promotes high-quality perovskite film formation and improves interfacial contact properties. As a proof of concept, monolithic flexible perovskite/silicon tandem devices fabricated on such uniformly textured pyramids delivered a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 30.04%. These devices promise for low-cost, lightweight and flexible photovoltaic applications.

A research team led by Yan Jiang, Qi Chen and Dongxu Lin from the Beijing Institute of Technology, together with collaborators, has published a comprehensive review on large‑area, high‑performance X‑ray imaging detectors based on metal‑halide perovskites (MHPs). These new detectors promise higher resolution, larger coverage areas, and more affordable production, potentially transforming medical diagnostics, industrial inspections, and security systems.

This work systematically summarizes recent advances in material design, scalable fabrication (including single crystals, films, and wafers), and backplane integration strategies, providing a clear roadmap for transitioning perovskite X‑ray detectors from laboratory‑scale, single‑pixel devices to practical, high‑resolution imaging systems.

A research team has uncovered a previously unknown RNA-based control system that helps tea plants regulate amino acid production, a process central to tea flavor, nutritional value, and quality. 

Red clover is an important forage, horticultural, and ecological crop, but its complex genome has long slowed precise trait discovery and molecular breeding.