Researchers have developed an orally administered chirality-engineered nanozyme that protects the heart from chemotherapy-induced damage by targeting the gut rather than the heart itself. The nanozyme reshapes gut microbiota and host metabolism through the gut-heart axis, significantly alleviating doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity while preserving the anticancer efficacy of doxorubicin. The study highlights stereochemical engineering as a promising strategy for designing next-generation nanozyme therapeutics.

Simultaneously achieving mechanical robustness and autonomous self-healing in ionogels remains a fundamental challenge for durable, skin-like electronics. Conventional approaches often improve mechanical strength by introducing rigid or densely cross-linked polymer networks, but such strategies inevitably restrict polymer chain mobility and hinder dynamic bond reconfiguration required for healing. Here, a zwitterionic side-chain engineered tough ionogel (ZESTI) is developed to overcome this trade-off through molecular-level design. Hydrophilic zwitterions are covalently grafted onto a hydrophobic polyurethane backbone to preferentially interact with the ionic liquid through ion–dipole interactions and thereby regulate its distribution. This architecture simultaneously facilitates dipole–dipole interactions for mechanical reinforcement and ion–dipole coordination for efficient self-healing under ambient conditions. As a result, ZESTI exhibits an exceptional combination of tensile strength (10.40 MPa), stretchability (1606%), toughness (56.03 MJ m⁻³), and ambient self-healing efficiency exceeding 83%, while maintaining high ionic conductivity via enhanced ion hopping. When constructed as a self-reporting packaging interface, ZESTI provides stable protection and state perception under sharp contact and restores signal output after mechanical damage through self-healing. This work offers a generalizable design strategy that reconciles mechanical toughness with dynamic functionality in ionogels, establishing a general design paradigm for next-generation self-sustaining iontronic devices.

Aqueous zinc-iodine batteries (AZIBs) show promise for grid-scale energy storage, but they are hampered by polyiodide shuttling, sluggish iodine redox kinetics, and irreversible active-site poisoning caused by uncontrolled adsorption. We provide a comprehensive screening of M₁ (M₁ = P, S, B) heteroatom dopants, and P is identified as the best candidate for achieving coordination-tuned, moderate adsorption that balances adsorption and catalytic activity while mitigating site poisoning. Using phytic acid as both the P source and an etchant, we create a universal in situ approach to core–shell single-atom catalysts (M₂-P-CSNC, M₂ = Fe, Co, Ni). The unique core–shell structure achieves stable confinement of polyiodides, rapid ion transport, and protection of active sites, while in situ P doping precisely regulates the local electronic environment and d-band center of the Fe–N_x active centers. In situ characterization confirms that Fe–P-CSNC has a strong reversible anchoring ability for polyiodides, which can significantly accelerate redox kinetics. The optimized Fe–P-CSNC/I₂ exhibits almost no capacity decay after 20,000 cycles at a current density of 2 A g⁻¹. This work’s facile heteroatom doping strategy for electronic modulation offers a reference for high-performance catalyst design in conversion-type energy storage systems.

A research team has developed a dual-mode reconfigurable phototransistor based on a PtTe₂/WS₂ van der Waals heterostructure. By modulating the source-drain bias, the device's operating mechanism can be switched between photoconductive (PC) and photovoltaic (PV) modes. The PC mode delivers high photoconductive gain and a responsivity of 1.37 A/W, while the PV mode offers outstanding specific detectivity (9.42×10¹⁴ Jones) and fast response times (rise/fall of ~26 µs/23 µs). Leveraging the combination of light illumination states and bias polarity, the device produces four stable and distinguishable current levels, enabling multiple optical logic gates (XNOR, NOR, XOR) and robust four-state image encryption with a low average pixel correlation coefficient of 0.03. This work provides a versatile, low-power platform for advanced reconfigurable optoelectronics and secure optical communication.

A research team from NVIDIA and Thinking Machines Lab has explored whether the internal responses of artificial-intelligence models can serve as order parameters for physical systems. The study uses a three-dimensional convolutional neural network to analyze crystalline structures under controlled vibrational disorder. By treating the model output as a continuous measure of structural order, the work shows that body-centered cubic crystals lose their specific lattice identity before they lose generic solid-like order. This result suggests a new way to extend classical order-parameter ideas using machine-learned structural signals.

Materials phases are usually described by order parameters. For example, density is used to distinguish liquid and gas phases, while magnetization is used to distinguish ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases. These order parameters are experimentally meaningful variables: they summarize collective order in a material rather than the behavior of a single atom or molecule.

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, September 11, 2026 — NEW HORIZON PRESS LIMITED took part in the ALPSP Annual Conference and Awards 2026, held from 9 to 11 September at The Manchester Deansgate Hotel, joining publishers, learned societies, librarians, funders and technology partners from across the scholarly communications community.

Lodging, the bending and breaking of plant stems, is a primary threat to global rapeseed production, causing significant yield losses and complicating mechanical harvesting.