Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a unique phenomenon that occurs during crystallization. In a new study, a group of researchers from Doshisha University, Japan, have investigated the non-equilibrium phase behavior of localized LLPS driven by initial solute concentration and antisolvent addition rate in a ternary water/ethanol/butylparaben system. The present findings provide insights that may help regulate LLPS in turn potentially paving the way for improved product quality in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and food industries.

The problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has many health experts worried. As disease-causing bacteria adapt to some of our ways to reduce them, especially with antibiotics, it presents an arms race which we appear to be losing. Researchers seek to improve the situation by looking at how bacteria adapt to antibiotics. For the first time, researchers including those from the University of Tokyo, through massive data analysis, discovered two different strategies bacterial plasmids may use to share their antimicrobial resistance with other bacteria. Computational analysis could help identify and forecast risks, and future lab experiments may aid researchers narrow down key areas for further investigation. 

A research team led by Prof. Dan Li at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed the Regional Integrated Earth Model System version 4.0 (RIEMS4.0). The team's recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres provides new, mechanistic insights into how regional air-sea coupling shapes the East Asian summer climate, representing a significant advancement in the realism of regional climate simulations.

The researchers revealed how nuclear clustering in the hypernucleus $_{\Lambda }^{21}Ne$ disappears as temperature increases, employing the finite-temperature Skyrme–Hartree–Fock method. This work provides broader insight into how thermal effects influence the structure and behavior of hot nuclear systems.

Professor Pan Xu's research group at Southeast University reported a photocatalytic hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) strategy, successfully achieving the deconjugated olefin isomerization reaction of α,β-dehydroamino acids. This resulted in the efficient synthesis of β,γ-dehydroamino acids, which are difficult to prepare using traditional methods, under mild conditions. The reaction uses decatungstate (TBADT) as a photocatalyst, selectively extracting the γ-C–H bond of the substrate under 390 nm illumination to form a delocalized allylic radical. Subsequently, through hydrogen atom transfer and tautomerism steps, the reaction drives the reverse thermodynamic double bond isomerization. This method exhibits good substrate applicability, excellent (E)-selectivity, and 100% atom economy, providing a new route for the synthesis of β,γ-dehydroamino acids and their derivatives, and showing significant application potential in medicinal chemistry and natural product modification. The article was published as an open access Research Article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

Researchers in James Tour’s lab at Rice University showed that Thomas Edison’s original carbon-filament light bulbs could have inadvertently produced graphene more than a century ago. By recreating Edison’s 1879 design and applying modern analysis, the team demonstrated that briefly heating carbon filaments can form turbostratic graphene, linking historic experiments to cutting-edge materials science.

Miho Yanagisawa, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo; Hiroki Sakuta, a project assistant professor; Arash Nikoubashman, a Heisenberg Professor at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden; and their colleagues have identified a new physicochemical principle governing liquid–liquid phase separation in polymer solutions. Their research demonstrates that during the separation of a polymer mixture into two fluid phases, coexisting ions are unequally distributed between the phases. Using an established aqueous two-phase system composed of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and dextran (Dex), the researchers discovered that positively charged ions preferentially accumulate in the Dex-rich phase due to its slightly more negative charge than PEG. This ion partitioning drives the selective localization of negatively charged biomolecules within the Dex-rich phase. The study provides the first direct quantitative evidence of ion accumulation in liquid–liquid phase-separated systems. It offers new insights into molecular selectivity relevant to intracellular phase separation and biomolecular separation technologies.

A pioneering open-source modeling framework is enabling mapping of high-resolution, stakeholder-informed pathways to net-zero emissions for nations worldwide. Researchers at Princeton University describe a new standard for decision-support modeling, drawing from their experiences leading the influential Net-Zero America project and catalyzing an expanding global network of "Net-Zero X" studies.