Heat stress limits the performance of biofertilizer microbes in hot climates. Researchers at QST combined adaptive laboratory evolution with repeated, precisely dosed gamma irradiation to rapidly generate Bradyrhizobium strains that thrive at higher temperatures, suggesting a faster, non‑transgenic route to robust industrial microorganisms with broad sustainability benefits for agriculture, biomanufacturing, and renewable fuels.

An international research team led by scientists from the University of Rostock, CNRS-École polytechnique in France, and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf has discovered a previously unknown form of superionic water for the first time: The researchers have succeeded in experimentally discovering an exotic, highly electrically conductive phase at the European XFEL X-ray laser near Hamburg and the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC in the USA. It may occur inside ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune.

A stable "exceptional fermionic superfluid," a new quantum phase that intrinsically hosts singularities known as exceptional points, has been discovered by researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo. Their analysis of a non-Hermitian quantum model with spin depairing shows that dissipation can actively stabilize a superfluid with these singularities embedded within it. The work reveals how lattice geometry dictates the phase's stability and provides a path to realizing it in experiments with ultracold atoms.

Gas and dust flowing from stars can, under the right conditions, clash with a star’s surroundings and create a shock wave. Now, astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have imaged a beautiful shock wave around a dead star — a discovery that has left them puzzled. According to all known mechanisms, the small, dead star RXJ0528+2838 should not have such structure around it. This discovery, as enigmatic as it’s stunning, challenges our understanding of how dead stars interact with their surroundings.

A multiscale cellulose hydrogel reported in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts delivers 10.27 mS cm^-1 ionic conductivity and a 0.84 Zn²⁺ transference number while suppressing dendrites and hydrogen evolution. The separator-free, biodegradable film cuts separator cost twelve-fold and enables flexible pouch cells that survive 2 kg bending loads, offering a scalable path for safe, low-cost aqueous zinc-ion batteries.

Researchers have developed formamidinium (FA)-alloyed cesium lead iodide perovskite nanoplatelets that combine improvements in phase stability with linearly polarized red emission. By precisely controlling A-site composition and surface ligand interactions, the team achieved uniform, well-oriented superlattices that maintain optical performance under ambient conditions. This breakthrough provides a new route toward stable, directionally controlled light sources for advanced photonic and display technologies.