Published in ACS Catalysis on December 21, 2025, the article introduces ChemOntology, a new artificial intelligence system that rapidly explores and analyzes chemical reactions using human-like intuition.

Cities are growing. Forests are shrinking. But what’s happening beneath our feet—in the soil of the very trees that line our streets and parks—may be even more critical to the planet’s future than we realize.

Due to the unique conditions of the space environment and abundant resources, the field investigation and study of the Moon, Earth’s sole natural satellite, represent a crucial milestone in China’s forthcoming deep space endeavors. The successful collection of lunar soil by the Chang’E-5 mission signifies the next phase of the lunar exploration program, which aims to establish a preliminary research station on the lunar south pole. Highly adhesive fine dust particles with an adhesion strength of 0.1 to 1.0 kN/m², which originate from the regolith, disperse throughout the lunar surface. These particles exhibit a lasting attraction and subsequent persistent adhesion to the surface of spacecraft or spacesuits. The accumulation of highly adhesive dust on spacecraft presents a serious issue to hinder long-term extravehicular activity and the establishment of a permanent station on lunar surface. In contrast to the immediate physical damage caused by hypervelocity (> 1.0 km/s) impacts, this adhesion observed at low- velocity (0.01 to 100 m/s) collisions can more unobtrusively and mortally degenerate the performance of equipment. In recent years, many interaction models have been developed to forecast the adhesion and ejection dynamics of lunar dust on various surfaces. Most researches on the electrostatic force applied on dust particles near the surface use point-charge approximation. Although this simplification makes the simulation easier, the error can be large due to the polarization of dust induced by the image charge.

Researchers report a stacked tunable metasurface that integrates sharp frequency filtering with polarization and spectral reconfigurability, overcoming a trade-off between high selectivity and rich tunability in metasurface designs. Microwave experiments demonstrate steep bandpass responses, strong out-of-band suppression, and dynamic multi-channel operation. This work offers a promising framework for addressing key demands for reconfigurability, multiplexing, and interference immunity in modern electromagnetic systems.

 

Carbon-based batteries could become safer, more durable, and more powerful by following this new method that fundamentally redesigns how fullerene molecules are connected.

Biochar can help turn agricultural waste into clean hydrogen fuel while cutting carbon pollution, according to a new study in the journal Biochar. Researchers report that a simple two stage catalytic system using corn straw, biochar, and nickel based catalysts more than doubled the hydrogen content of the gas produced during biomass pyrolysis and sharply reduced the carbon deposits that normally deactivate catalysts.

Local reaction-global diffusion enables the effective in-situ Mg-vacancy elimination during spark plasma sintering, promoting the remarkable enhancement in carrier mobility and figure-of-merits with record-high power factors. This unlocks the potential in high-performance thermoelectric power generation and cooling applications of Mg₃(Sb,Bi)₂-based thermoelectrics.

What if we could design a material that acts like a molecular “sniper,” zeroing in on a single harmful antibiotic in water—while ignoring everything else?

That’s no longer science fiction. Thanks to researchers at Universiti Sains Malaysia, a new class of smart adsorbent is turning this idea into reality.