Scientists have reinvented a 19th-century pesticide breakthrough for modern agriculture. While copper-based bactericides like Bordeaux mixture (copper sulfate + lime) revolutionized crop protection in 1885, their heavy metal pollution and plant toxicity remain unresolved. Now, researchers apply cutting-edge single-atom material technology to create Cu₁/CaCO₃, a next-gen copper bactericide where isolated copper atoms are anchored on calcium carbonate. This atomic-level design delivers the same powerful disease protection while reducing copper residue by 20-fold and minimizing plant damage. More than just a new pesticide, this advancement bridges advanced materials science with sustainable agriculture, offering a blueprint for developing eco-friendly crop protection solutions that address both efficacy and environmental concerns.

Professor Alexander Hoffmann and Genhong Cheng from University of California, Los Angeles, jointly with Professor David Baltimore from California Institute of Technology, published a review article in the newly launched journal Immunity & Inflammation. This article provides a systematic overview of NF-κB, covering its activation mechanisms, gene regulatory networks, physiological and pathological roles. It also summarizes recent advances in therapeutic strategies targeting NF-κB, offering a critical foundation for deeper understanding the pathway’s functions and mechanisms.

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a protective pathway that helps cells manage stress during protein production. Cancer cells exploit this system to survive harsh tumor environments. In bones, they also disrupt the balance of bone-building and bone-resorbing cells, leading to skeletal fragility. Emerging therapies that target the UPR show promise in restoring bone health while selectively killing malignant cells, offering new hope for patients with cancer-associated bone disease.

By integrating 13 published speleothem δ¹⁸O records from the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) region, this study systematically analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics of the 8.2 (8.7–7.7) and 4.2 (4.7–3.7) ka BP abrupt climate events. The results indicate that both the temporal resolution and geographical location significantly affect the ability of the stalagmite δ¹⁸O sequences to record the 8.2 and 4.2 ka BP events. During the 8.2 ka BP event, δ¹⁸O records from both northern and southern sites showed pronounced positive excursions, whereas during the 4.2 ka BP event, δ¹⁸O records from the north and south exhibited contrasting patterns. These findings provide important evidence for understanding the mechanisms of abrupt climate change and for assessing regional climate sensitivity. The related results were published in Science China: Earth Sciences, Issue 9, 2025.

A large-scale metagenomic study of 2,561 gut samples from 14 mammal species on the Tibetan Plateau reconstructed 112,313 metagenome-assembled genomes representing 21,902 microbial species (86% unclassified) and identified 8,598 nonredundant antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) spanning 28 types. The authors report 334 high-risk ARGs and seven cross-species horizontal gene transfer events involving high-risk ARGs, including three transfers between humans and nonhuman mammals. Additionally, the abundance of ARGs in human gut microbiomes on the Tibetan Plateau was greater than that in those from eastern China, Europe, and the United States, whereas the abundance of ARGs in livestock gut microbiomes from the Tibetan Plateau was lower than that in livestock gut microbiomes from those regions. This study reveals that the gut microbiota of Tibetan Plateau mammals is a largely unexplored resource and a significant reservoir of ARGs, offering crucial insights into microbiome research and demonstrating potential public health implications.

A collaborative team from Peking University and Tsinghua University has advanced quantum annealing for solving the maximum independent set problem. Building on their previously proposed non-Abelian annealing algorithm, the researchers proved its equivalence to the heuristic adiabatic approach experimentally realized on Rydberg atom platforms, while demonstrating clear performance advantages. Numerical simulations showed that the non-Abelian paths boost success probabilities by over 50% compared with conventional methods, and remain more robust against qubit-flip errors. Analytical results further revealed that this advantage stems from the unique structure of the non-Abelian adiabatic path, which provides a tighter bound in the adiabatic condition. The work, published in National Science Review (2025), establishes a powerful framework for quantum Hamiltonian algorithms and highlights the importance of global path design for achieving genuine quantum advantage.

Recently, a research team in the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed that one-time nitrogen (N) application, a labor-saving practice favored by many farmers, increases both soil and canopy ammonia (NH₃) emissions in maize fields, while reducing grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency.