Hydrogen peroxide is a widely used chemical essential to water treatment, disinfection, and green manufacturing, yet its conventional production relies on energy-intensive and centralized processes. Recent research highlights an emerging electrochemical route that generates hydrogen peroxide directly from oxygen and water under ambient conditions. Central to this approach is the use of noble metal-free single-atom electrocatalysts, where isolated metal atoms embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon precisely steer oxygen reduction toward the desired two-electron pathway. By combining atomic-scale catalyst design with advanced reactor engineering, this strategy offers a cleaner, safer, and more flexible way to produce hydrogen peroxide on demand, opening new possibilities for decentralized and sustainable chemical manufacturing.

Breaks MOCVD’s bottleneck in high-strain quantum well epitaxy, significantly boosts 1.2 μm VECSEL performance. Atomic-scale characterization clarifies the strain compensation’s indium segregation suppression mechanism. 590 nm second harmonic output: near diffraction limit, brightness >1.65 GW·cm⁻²·sr⁻¹. Paves a new way for ultra-high-brightness yellow lasers, accelerating VECSEL’s lab-to-commercialization transition.

Programmable optical particle transport based on structured light plays a crucial role in microscale manipulation. Scientists in China have developed a multi-prior physics-enhanced neural network (MPPN-RW) that enables high-fidelity generation of arbitrary optical conveyor belts without training data. This technique allows precise and stable transport of microparticles along complex trajectories, offering new opportunities for optical micromanipulation, targeted delivery, and reconfigurable light-field engineering.

This study demonstrates an experimentally feasible scheme to achieve robust strong coupling between a single quantum dot and a plasmonic nanocavity integrated with a one-dimensional photonic crystal cavity. A Rabi splitting exceeding 170 meV is observed in dark-field scattering spectra. We further demonstrate that the stronger localized electric field within the hybrid cavity not only enhances the coupling strength but also, owing to the more uniform field distribution, reduces the sensitivity of the coupling strength to the quantum dot position within the cavity, thereby improving the uniformity of the device's coupling performance. The robustness of such a strongly coupled system will advance the development of room-temperature quantum devices based on single emitters for potential applications.

Confronting the central challenge of how necroptosis reconciles high sensitivity to stimuli with robustness against intrinsic noise in complex living systems, this study systematically dissect the underlying design principles that govern cell-fate decisions. By integrating biophysical modelling with large-scale topological screening, we resolve the intricate biochemical reaction network into a minimal set of organizing rules. Our analysis identifies the incoherent feedforward loop (IFFL) as the core functional motif driving the observed dynamics. This topology endows the system with a distinctive bell-shaped input–output response, scale invariance, and the capacity to switch precisely between apoptotic and necrotic fates. Beyond elucidating the dynamical logic of cell death signalling, this work reveals, from a physics-informed perspective, a unifying “complexity-to-simplicity” design principle that may underlie the evolutionary construction of sophisticated signalling networks. It further provides a conceptual framework for understanding how dysregulation of cell-fate decisions contributes to pathological processes such as inflammation and tumorigenesis.

A new review shows how PEDOT:PSS, a flexible conductive polymer, enables tactile sensors that mimic human touch. These sensors detect pressure, strain, and temperature, opening doors for smarter healthcare monitoring, robotics, and wearable electronics.

Liver organoids, three-dimensional structures derived from stem cells or hepatic progenitors, have emerged as a transformative technology. Unlike traditional two-dimensional cultures or animal models, organoids faithfully recapitulate the complex architecture and functionality of native liver tissue. This review summarizes recent advancements in liver organoid technology, detailing their development, classification, and key applications.

Dissolved organic matter, a complex mixture of carbon-containing molecules found in soils, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and sediments, plays a central role in how carbon moves through the environment. It can feed microbes, bind pollutants, influence nutrient availability, and affect how much carbon is stored or released as carbon dioxide. Yet scientists are still working to understand why some dissolved organic matter is quickly consumed by microbes, while other portions persist much longer.

Researchers have developed a new biochar-based composite that can capture uranium from water while also converting part of it into a less toxic chemical form, offering a potential strategy for recovering uranium from seawater and supporting future nuclear energy resources.