University of Missouri researchers are turning  a variety of purple colored corn traditionally grown in South America into an effective natural alternative to artificial food dyes. Unlike artificial dyes, which are petroleum-based and added purely for appearance, these natural pigments are rich in antioxidants known for reducing inflammation and supporting heart health.

Michael Hurlston and TRUMPF Named Recipients of the 2026 Optica i4 Prize

A fleeting photoinduced electronic state and the subsequent formation of a photoinduced hidden state in a metal–organic framework were captured in just 30 femtoseconds by researchers at Science Tokyo, Tohoku University, and Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan. By combining ultrafast laser spectroscopy with theoretical analysis, the researchers found that a transient electronic state plays a key role in this process. The findings provide new insights into controlling material properties with light for future applications.

Laser cutting is widely used in the manufacture of semiconductor chips and other precision electronic parts, as it can shape and cut materials without damaging the parts. However, laser cutting requires precision, and measuring the depth of the laser’s penetration during cutting remains challenging. Now, researchers from Chiba University have developed a simple yet effective monitoring technique that uses recoil forces to detect the processing depth and penetration of the laser in real time.

Crystalline organic semiconductors offer excellent charge transport but have been difficult to incorporate into practical OLEDs. Researchers from the University of Toyama developed the first OLED using a non-epitaxial crystalline rubrene thin film. Using a two-step annealing process, they achieved 1,000-fold higher current density and a turn-on voltage of just 1.33 V. This breakthrough demonstrates that crystalline organic semiconductors can be integrated into practical OLEDs, paving the way for a "crystalline generation" of displays.

Complex simulations – the most intricate of their kind to date – reveal how water governs the way protons move through it. They were carried out by an international research team led by scientists of Heidelberg University’s Institute for Physical Chemistry. Using their modeling, the researchers from Cambridge (UK), Bochum, Dijon (France) and Heidelberg were able to trace in full quantum detail the movements of a proton shared among six water molecules. At its core, the work addresses how a proton moves through water: not as a single particle drifting along, but by “hopping” from one molecule to the next.

Researchers at IBEC have discovered that epithelial tissues adapt to prolonged stretching by slowly reorganising their keratin cytoskeleton into large multicellular networks. Using advanced live imaging, engineered tissue models and computational simulations, the team found that this process eventually pushes the cell nucleus out of its surrounding keratin cage. The findings reveal a previously unknown mechanism by which tissues respond to sustained mechanical stress, with potential implications for development, organ physiology and diseases linked to defective keratin organisation.

Researchers have identified a simple form of molecular cooperation that may have helped life's earliest building blocks become more stable and organized. By linking fatty acids, which can form primitive cell membranes, with hydroxy acids, which can form short polymers, the team showed that short oligomers can grow directly on amphiphilic molecules, creating hybrid lipid–polymer structures that assemble more readily and resist breakdown in water.. The findings suggest that cooperation between simple molecules may have been a key step in the transition from non-living chemistry to the first living systems. The work could also inspire new approaches in green chemistry and sustainable materials.

Physicists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), the Technical University of Darmstadt, Sapienza University in Rome and the University of Camerino (both Italy) have calculated the fundamental laws of thermodynamics for a gas made up of spinning particles. In the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they demonstrate that the pressure of this gas is similar to that of a normal gas, but at an elevated temperature. In addition, localised surface currents arise, which can be utilised for targeted particle transport.