Osaka Metropolitan University researchers developed a silica capsule–based technology that enables easy separation and reuse of colorants from plastics, overcoming limitations of conventional recycling. This approach allows repeated upcycling into high-quality, vividly colored materials with significantly lower energy consumption.

Single ions trapped in miniaturised chip traps can be used for quantum computers and quantum sensors. So far, however, stray electromagnetic fields on the chip have made reliable application difficult.

Researchers have now developed a technique whereby a single ion can be positioned anywhere above the chip and can very precisely measure these fields at any point.

In the future, surface materials for chips can be better characterised in this way and manufacturing processes can be optimised.

Researchers at Ehime University developed a molecular design strategy that imparts degradability to carbon–carbon backbone polymers by incorporating alkoxycarbonylmethylene (ACM) units. These units act as degradation-inducing sites, enabling backbone cleavage under mild basic conditions. The approach was successfully applied to polystyrene and PMMA derivatives, which became degradable while retaining or improving key thermophysical properties. This work provides a promising route toward sustainable plastics with controlled end-of-life degradation and improved environmental compatibility.

Fast electron beams can make nanostructures emit light, but actively controlling where that light goes is challenging. Scientists at the University of Southern Denmark and collaborators developed a theory for programmable metasurfaces that steer this cathodoluminescence (electron-induced light) on demand. By tuning individual elements made from graphene or phase-change materials, the approach could enable reconfigurable nanoscale light sources and advanced spectroscopy tools spanning terahertz to visible frequencies.

We report a novel marine polysaccharide-based biomimetic bilayer scaffold, d-ACT@MIC/SIM, featuring a dense upper layer serving as a barrier layer and a porous lower layer mimicking the native bone matrix microenvironment. This sophisticated architecture, coupled with the programmed co-delivery of minocycline and simvastatin, endowed the scaffold with a multifaceted therapeutic armamentarium. In vitro assessments identified its significant antibacterial efficacy and osteoinductive potential. Animal experiments further validated its capacity to suppress inflammatory cytokine expression and facilitate alveolar bone regeneration. The integrated strategy of a structurally biomimetic, dual drug-releasing scaffold thus offers a significant advancement over conventional therapeutic modalities for periodontitis by concurrently addressing infection, inflammation, and tissue regeneration. As such, this innovative bilayer asymmetric bionic drug-carrying scaffolds emerge as a compelling and prospective therapeutic option for advancing periodontitis treatment.

Researchers developed a photonic spiking hashing framework that uses a DFB-SA laser to generate robust binary codes for similarity retrieval. By introducing a hardware-aware quantization margin loss, the system reduces noise-induced bit flips near the threshold boundary. Hardware-in-the-loop experiments on image and text datasets produced error-free binary outputs in the tested queries while maintaining high retrieval accuracy.

In a recent study published in the journal PLOS Water, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin took a closer look at the water quality in Austin's Colony neighborhood, which has long faced issues with discolored and hard water. The researchers found evidence of contamination, with some samples exceeding state regulatory standards for lead, arsenic and other contaminants.