News from Science China Press

A recent study published in National Science Review has revealed a hidden population of high-frequency magnetohydrodynamic waves in the Sun’s polar corona. Using high-resolution Solar Orbiter observations, researchers found that these waves carry substantial energy, offering new clues to coronal heating and the acceleration of the fast solar wind.

Since the discovery of RNA splicing in the mid-1970s, splicing regulation has remained a central focus in molecular biology. Approximately 50% of human diseases are associated with splicing abnormalities. In eukaryotes, 70% to 90% of genes complete splicing during transcription, a process termed co-transcriptional splicing. However, the precise mechanisms coupling splicing with transcription remain incompletely understood. Moreover, the conceptual and functional boundaries between co-transcriptional and alternative splicing continue to confuse many researchers. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms and downstream functions of co-transcriptional splicing thus stands as a key frontier in the field.

Recently, a team led by Yajing Hao (China National Center for Bioinformation / Beijing Institute of Genomics, CAS) and Xiang-Dong Fu (Westlake University) published a review entitled "Hierarchical regulation and molecular functions of co-transcriptional splicing" in Science Bulletin. The article covers detection technologies, quantitative metrics, regulatory mechanisms, functional consequences, and disease associations, highlighting that co-transcriptional splicing is an active and hierarchically regulated hub of gene expression. The review also notes that many mechanisms remain debated, and systematic elucidation will open new opportunities for translational research.

A new Perspective in Science Bulletin explains why computational pathology must move beyond accurate algorithms. To help in real hospitals, AI tools need to be interpretable, reportable, cost-aware, and tested in routine clinical workflows.

A recent study published in National Science Review has revealed global inequalities in lake water quality through the development of GlakeWQ, the first satellite–machine learning framework enabling consistent assessment across countries. Mapping 16,409 lakes in 145 countries, the framework shows that only about two-thirds of lakes meet sustainable water quality standards, leaving approximately 1.15 billion people exposed to potential water quality-related health risks and highlighting the urgent need for equitable freshwater management.

How much load can a crumpled sheet bear, and does size matter? A new study of two-dimensional macromolecules, a class of ultrathin sheet-like materials, shows that at equal packing density smaller sheets carry higher compressive loads than larger ones. Coarse-grained simulations and compression tests on paper, aluminum foil, PDMS, and silicone rubber reveal a universal “smaller is stronger” rule rooted in denser internal ridge networks, offering a new design principle for lightweight, high-strength structural metamaterials.

A new Perspective in Science Bulletin argues that AI tools for intracranial aneurysm detection should be evaluated beyond test-set accuracy. The authors propose a four-stage pathway covering lesion-level validation, reader performance, prospective implementation and post-deployment surveillance to assess whether AI can deliver real clinical benefit.

Monitoring COVID-19 NAbs dynamics remains dissolved as the lack of analytical strategies deployable in most practice, as stably remaining protein activity seems particularly difficult. We engineer selenium nanoparticles for LFIA that preserves protein activity and enhances stability. NAbs levels decrease with age and over time after infection, and they drop sharply with neurological and hematological diseases according to 1,328 samples. Our work provides a reliable and universally platform for next-generation point-of-care immunity monitoring and vaccine evaluation.

Anti-angiogenic therapies targeting VEGF signaling have limited clinical efficacy due to inevitable resistance. Researchers constructed a pancancer single-cell atlas of 1.24 million cells across 13 cancer types, revealing that pericytes (PCs) and PC-derived PGF/ANGPT2 are more prominent pro-angiogenic regulators than the classical VEGFA-centric model. Tumor-educated MCAM+ immature PCs (imPCs) were identified as the primary source of PGF/ANGPT2, driving alternative angiogenesis and anti-VEGFR resistance. Combining anti-VEGFR with MCAM-targeting antibody-drug conjugates achieved superior tumor control through dual EC/PC inhibition.