Researchers from the Freunberger group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have unveiled pivotal insights into the redox chemistry of oxygen and reactive oxygen species (ROS). While some ROS play essential roles in cell signaling, the particularly harmful singlet oxygen damages cells and degrades batteries. For the first time, the team uncovers a way to tune it. The results, published in Nature, could have broad applications, including in energy storage processes.

In a discovery that bridges a century of physics, scientists have observed a phenomenon, once thought to be the domain of inorganic metal oxides, thriving within a glowing organic semiconductor molecule. This breakthrough, led by the University of Cambridge, reveals a powerful new mechanism for harvesting light and turning it into electricity. This could redefine the future of solar energy and electronics, and lead to lighter, cheaper, and simpler solar panels made from a single material.

A new AI can fill in missing sensor data for fusion systems, offering even more detail than the real-world sensor could have provided. The AI, known as Diag2Diag, could prove essential for commercial fusion energy production by helping to reduce costs and ensure reliability. Diag2Diag also provided new support for a leading theory about controlling plasma disruptions, bringing us closer to using fusion to generate electricity for the power grid. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton University were part of an international team behind the research, which was recently published in Nature Communications.

As city dwellers may know, escaping to the beach can provide a much-needed change of scenery or a mental reset. Historically, some doctors even prescribed trips to the sea to treat diseases. And now, research published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters provides another reason to visit the coast. A pilot study found that urban air contained pathogenic strains of Candida yeast that were absent in coastal air samples, revealing a potential transmission method.

Scientists digging through data collected by the Cassini spacecraft have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is a clear sign that complex chemical reactions are taking place within its underground ocean. Some of these reactions could be part of chains that lead to even more complex, potentially biologically relevant molecules.

Published today in Nature Astronomy, this discovery further strengthens the case for a dedicated European Space Agency (ESA) mission to orbit and land on Enceladus.