A Harvard study shows that snakes “stand” by focusing bending and muscle activity in a small region near their base.

In a gift that supports basic research toward a clean geothermal resource that could transform the world’s energy transition, Quaise Energy has given $750,000 to Oregon State University (OSU). The gift will help OSU scientists recreate in the lab the conditions found miles underground common to the superhot rock which, if tapped, could  power the world, according to Carlos Araque, CEO of Quaise and a co-founder. The goal is to learn ever more about this geothermal resource, which is not easy to study in the field.

Deep-sea waters are warming due to heat waves and climate change, and it could spell trouble for the oceans’ delicate chemical and biological balance. A new study demonstrates that the microbes may already be adapting well to warmer, nutrient-poor waters. Researchers predict that these surprisingly adaptable archaea will play an important role in reshaping ocean chemistry in a changing climate. 

By combining solution chemistry and on-surface reactions on metal substrates, the team has constructed a phthalocyanine pentamer—a novel nanoarchitecture that integrates relevant electronic and magnetic properties into a single molecule. The CiQUS study has been recognized as a Very Important Paper and featured on the cover of Angewandte Chemie.

Bioorganic coatings are being increasingly used to promote mineralization on inorganic nanoparticles for bone repair, sensing, and environmental technologies. Researchers at Jeonbuk National University studied how two coating materials, zein and polydopamine, affect calcium phosphate formation on titanium dioxide nanoparticles in real time. They found that the coating's surface chemistry significantly affects initial nucleation and subsequent crystal growth, with polydopamine-coated particles accumulating about 37 percent more mineral mass than zein-coated particles.

This work demonstrates that the synergistic regulation of moisture and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) additive enables methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI₃) films with unprecedented amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) threshold of 8.987 μJ cm⁻² under nanosecond pulse excitation-the lowest value reported to date. Our findings transform moisture from a degradation agent into a crystallization promoter, establishing a materials design paradigm for perovskite lasers that concurrently deliver ultralow operational thresholds and robust stability.

Rice researchers have developed a process to use PFAS to extract lithium from high-salinity brine pools, described in a study recently published in Nature Water.