News from Science China Press

A new study published in National Science Review reveals the dual effects of urban greenery on compound heat-ozone pollution risks across Northern Hemisphere cities. While urban greening is widely promoted as a nature-based method to cool overheated cities, complex interactions between urban meteorology and atmospheric chemistry can create important trade-offs for ozone control. The findings call for integrated urban greening strategies that jointly enhance climate resilience, air quality, and public health.

A Nankai University team designed azaphenanthrene-fused non-fullerene acceptors and tuned their central cores with fluorine, chlorine, or bromine. Increasing halogen size progressively enhanced crystallinity and packing order. The brominated acceptor CHNBr achieved a fill factor of 78.84%, enabling binary organic solar cells to exceed 20% power conversion efficiency.

Researchers report a programmable mid-infrared photothermoelectric detector based on a suspended nanometer-thick SrTiO₃ membrane. It responds in about 10 microseconds, reaches about 50 volts per watt through dual-gate control, and supports 40 measured response states. A 3-by-3 array further demonstrates programmable infrared image preprocessing and attention-guided thermal target enhancement.

A recent study published in National Science Review, based on Chang'e-6 (CE6) farside samples, has shown that the lunar mantle lacks a clear compositional dichotomy. The farside anorthositic crust is more magnesian, whereas late-stage products of the lunar magma ocean appear thinner on the farside. To reconcile these hemispheric variations spanning from the mantle to the crust, a coherent model of lateral thermal convection within the magma ocean of the tidally-locked Moon has been proposed.

Ag-modified In₂O₃ (Ag-3/In₂O₃) catalyst converts methane to methanol and formaldehyde with 100% liquid-product selectivity under mild photo–thermal conditions (150°C, Xe lamp irradiation). Producing 6544 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹, it outperforms pure photocatalysis by 2.6 times. The catalyst’s unique band structure prevents formation of over-oxidizing hydroxyl radicals, while weak product adsorption avoids deep oxidation. This design eliminates CO₂ emission—a breakthrough for sustainable natural gas utilization.

Titanium is widely used in marine engineering and biomedical implants because of its excellent corrosion resistance. Researchers have discovered that marine electroactive bacteria can weaken titanium’s protective oxide layer through flavin-mediated extracellular electron transfer. The findings reveal a previously unknown bioelectrochemical corrosion pathway and provide new insights for designing titanium materials with improved resistance to microbiologically influenced corrosion.

Instead of being discarded after seawater desalination, concentrated brine can gain a second life as a chemical feedstock. Researchers have developed a solar-driven offshore continuous-flow platform that couples freshwater production with selective methane conversion by directly reusing desalination brine as the chlorine source. The integrated system simultaneously produces freshwater and chloromethane, offering a strategy for the in situ utilization of offshore natural gas resources and introducing a new approach to solar-driven offshore chemical manufacturing.

This new review interrogates how bacterial persisters survive antibiotic exposure and drive the development of chronic, recurrent, and difficult-to-treat infections. The work distinguishes the difference among persistence, tolerance and resistance. It further synthesizes current understanding of persister pathobiology, as well as interactions between persister populations, the host, and co-occurring pathogens. Additionally, this review outlines emerging persister detection methods and promising therapeutic strategies to eradicate persister cells, including combination antibiotic therapies, metabolic targeting interventions, and host-directed anti-persister approaches.