Some proteins can survive drying out, returning to function when water is re-introduced. Revealing the chemical rules behind this ability could lead to longer-lasting medicines and drought resistant crops.

A pioneering two-year field study has revealed that biodegradable microplastics, often hailed as eco-friendly alternatives to conventional plastics, are quietly reshaping the chemistry of farmland soils in unexpected and complex ways. Published on August 22, 2025, in Carbon Research as an open-access original article, this research was co-led by Dr. Jie Zhou from the College of Agriculture at Nanjing Agricultural University, China, and Dr. Davey L. Jones from the School of Environmental and Natural Sciences at Bangor University, UK—a powerful Sino-British collaboration bridging soil science, microbiology, and climate resilience. The team investigated how polypropylene (PP)—a common conventional plastic—and polylactic acid (PLA)—a widely used biodegradable plastic—affect soil organic carbon (SOC) in real-world agricultural conditions. Both were added at realistic concentrations (0.2% w/w) to topsoil (0–20 cm), with an unamended plot serving as control. While neither plastic changed the total amount of carbon stored, the story beneath the surface was dramatically different.

Researchers from Shandong Normal University and the Australian National University have developed a new class of metasurfaces that integrate coupled-resonator optical waveguide physics into planar structures. The design produces photonic flatbands with ultrahigh quality factors and enables chiral responses to circularly polarized light, overcoming long-standing challenges in metasurface engineering. Verified through both simulations and experiments, the approach demonstrates multifunctional high-Q metasurfaces that can uniformly trap and control light across wide angles. The findings open pathways for applications in quantum optics, sensing, communications, and flat-optics devices.

Researchers have developed an optical "knob" using Poincaré sphere engineering to continuously tune topological states in ferroelectric materials. Unlike prior methods relying on abrupt electrical or mechanical changes, this approach manipulates structured light’s orbital angular momentum to smoothly create and control skyrmions, antiskyrmions, and hybrids on ultrafast timescales, promising new routes for dynamic, precise topological control in nanoscale memory and photonic devices.

MIT chemists designed a fluorescent molecule they hope could be used for applications such as generating clearer images of tumors. The dye is based on a borenium ion — a positively charged form of boron that can emit light in the near-infrared.

To increase energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of hydrogen fuel production, Fanglin Che, associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is leveraging the power and potential of machine learning and computational modeling. The multi-university team she leads has completed a research study that was just published in Nature Chemical Engineering.

Scientists report the first direct real-time measurement and control of quantum uncertainty dynamics using ultrafast squeezed light pulses. This attosecond-resolved breakthrough not only advances fundamental quantum physics but also demonstrates petahertz-scale secure communication protocols, paving the way for next-generation quantum technologies in secure communication, quantum computing, and ultrafast spectroscopy.