Solar interfacial evaporation has undergone rapid development in recent years, yet its overall performance has reached a plateau due to limited advances in solar-thermal materials. Herein, we propose a synergistic nano-confinement and physical-field–modulation strategy that enables concurrent acceleration of solar-driven evaporation of water and on-site remediation of organic pollutants. Implemented in hollow mesoporous carbon nanocages integrated with Fe–N₄ catalytic sites and inner wall plasmonic Au nanoparticles, the system couples mesoporous confinement with localized thermal and pressure perturbations to transform bulk water into thermodynamically activated intermediate states and substantially reduce the effective vaporization enthalpy. This integrated framework delivers high evaporation rates of 2.56 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ in planar devices and 6.84 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ in 3D architectures under one-sun irradiation, with a kinetic enhanced Hertz–Knudsen–Schrage–derived evaporation coefficient. Simultaneously, the Fe–N₄ sites enable non-radical peroxymonosulfate activation for ultrafast degradation of bisphenol A, achieving a rate of 182.5 L g⁻¹ min⁻¹. This work establishes an ingenious strategy for coupling water-state regulation and catalytic pollutant degradation to break the performance bottleneck of solar-thermal purification.

Photodynamic therapy is attractive but often compromised by tissue hypoxia. We report a photosensitizer homodimer fission mechanism that produces photosensitizer radical ion pairs without exogenous redox substrates. These pairs enable coupled water oxidation and oxygen reduction, establishing a self-oxygen-supplying reactive oxygen species (ROS) cycle. By sustaining ROS generation under hypoxia, this strategy offers a new route to overcome the longstanding oxygen limitation of conventional photodynamic therapy.

Researchers from Rutgers, IBM and collaborating institutions have shown that a quantum computer can check what is happening inside it and respond while it is running, repeatedly resetting parts of the system to bring chaotic behavior under control.

The advance is a critical step toward building larger, more reliable quantum computers. 

Today’s quantum computers operate according to the unusual rules governing atoms and other extremely small particles. They could one day solve problems beyond the reach of conventional computers — designing better batteries and cleaner industrial catalysts, simulating molecules and materials too complex for today’s computers, and running certain artificial intelligence programs.

In a study published in Nature Physics, researchers from Rutgers, International Business Machines Corp., and collaborating institutions showed that a quantum computer can repeatedly check and reset parts of itself while running. The experiment is among the largest demonstrations to date of real-time quantum feedback control, a capability considered essential for future quantum computers that will be fault tolerant. 

A team of engineers has designed a new line of multicolored tattoo inks that switch on and off with different kinds of light. Described in a study publishing October 9 in the Cell Press journal Matter & Light, the technology could one day help people hide their tattoos when they have an important business meeting. They could even doodle on their own skin using a simple laser pointer.   

A high-entropy lanthanoid oxide catalyst overcomes the challenges associated with oxidative coupling of methane (OCM), revealed Institute of Science Tokyo scientists. Using lanthanoid acetates and aspartic acid, they developed a high-entropy lanthanoid oxide, (LaSmEuGdDy)₀.₄O₃, via a sol–gel method. The high entropy catalyst was characterized by enhanced durability. The catalyst lowered OCM onset temperature and improved C2 hydrocarbon yield. Going beyond conventional catalysts, this finding may open a new avenue for selective heterogeneous catalysis.

In optical fibers, chips and other light-guiding devices, minor defects can scatter photons and disrupt their path. A new study demonstrates a way to reveal properties which, in certain systems, help light wave behavior withstand such flaws. The method could help speed up the search for new kinds of electronics and optical technologies, and contribute to more reliable quantum devices.

Physicists in the Department of Physics, University of Oxford, have used a hybrid quantum computer, formed by qubits and quantum oscillators, to observe the Aharonov-Bohm effect in a quantum simulation. The effect is a quantum phenomenon in which a particle can acquire a measurable phase by travelling around a magnetic flux, even though it never passes through a region where a magnetic field is present.

A novel nanovesicle-based platform developed at Institute of Science Tokyo can measure hydrostatic pressure by converting pressure-induced molecular changes into fluorescence signals. The researchers developed pyrene-modified polyionic complex vesicles and demonstrated that variations in the vesicles’ membrane stiffness regulate their pressure sensitivity. Softer vesicles showed strong sensitivity in the 0.1–50 MPa range, while stiffer vesicles showed pressure-dependent changes in fluorescence lifetime. These findings enable the investigation of hydrostatic pressure-dependent phenomena in diverse inaccessible environments.