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Chemistry & Physics

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 6-Oct-2025 21:11 ET (7-Oct-2025 01:11 GMT/UTC)

From glacier to gorge: Peking University study maps the hidden life of river carbon along the upper Yangtze

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

It begins as a trickle high on the Tibetan Plateau—icy, remote, and pure. By the time it reaches the Three Gorges, the Yangtze River has grown into a force of nature, carrying not just water, but the chemical fingerprint of an entire continent. Now, a groundbreaking study from Peking University reveals the invisible story hidden in the river’s flow: the molecular evolution of dissolved organic matter (DOM) along a 3,500-kilometer stretch of the upper Yangtze—the world’s third-longest river. Published on August 11, 2025, in Carbon Research as an open-access original article, this research was led by Dr. Dongqiang Zhu from the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Earth Surface Processes at Peking University, Beijing. Using a powerful suite of analytical tools—including fluorescence spectroscopy, lignin phenol markers, and ultra-high-resolution Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS)—Dr. Zhu’s team traced how organic carbon changes as it travels from the river’s high-altitude headwaters to its densely populated downstream reaches. And what they found is a dynamic, ever-changing mosaic of carbon chemistry shaped by glaciers, grasslands, wildfires, forests, and sunlight.

Journal: Carbon Research

Rice membrane extracts lithium from brines with greater speed, less waste

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of researchers at Rice has developed a new membrane that selectively filters out lithium from brines, offering a faster, cleaner way to produce the element at the heart of nearly every rechargeable battery.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Interior

Researchers develop molecular qubits that communicate at telecom frequencies

University of Chicago
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of scientists from the University of Chicago, the University of California Berkeley, Argonne National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has developed molecular qubits that bridge the gap between light and magnetism—and operate at the same frequencies as telecommunications technology.

Journal: Science

MIT researchers find a simple formula could guide the design of faster-charging, longer-lasting batteries

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study could guide the design of more powerful and faster charging lithium-ion batteries. MIT researchers measured lithium intercalation rates in a variety of battery materials, and used those data to develop a new model of how the reaction rate is controlled.

Journal: Science
Funder: Shell International Exploration and Production, Toyota Research Institute through the D3BATT Center for Data-Driven Design of Rechargeable Batteries

Phosphine detected in the atmosphere of a low-temperature brown dwarf

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected the molecule phosphine beyond our Solar System, according to a new study, finding it in the atmosphere of the cold brown dwarf Wolf 1130C. The presence of the phosphorus-containing molecule phosphine (PH₃) is well established in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as in some giant stars. Although models predict that PH₃ should be similarly common in gas giant exoplanets and brown dwarfs, searches for the molecule in the atmospheres of those objects have shown it to be in very low abundance, if not totally absent. Using the JWST NIRSpec instrument, Adam Burgasser and colleagues obtained high-resolution spectra of the cold, metal-poor brown dwarf Wolf 1130C. Within these observations, Burgasser et al. identified multiple absorption lines of PH₃, indicating an abundance of 0.100 ± 0.009 parts per million – an amount comparable to Jupiter and Saturn and far higher than previous limits for other exoplanets or brown dwarfs. Comparison with atmospheric models shows the properties can be reproduced if there is strong vertical mixing of an atmosphere with low abundances of elements heavier than helium. “The inability of models to consistently explain all these sources indicates an incomplete understanding of phosphorus chemistry in low-temperature atmospheres,” write the authors. “We therefore caution against the use of phosphine as a biosignature until these discrepancies are resolved.”

Journal: Science

USF study: Ancient plankton hint at steadier future for ocean life

University of South Florida
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study shows that warming in the tropical Pacific — home to some of the world’s most productive fisheries — may not trigger the severe declines predicted by earlier models. Instead, the region’s fisheries could remain productive even as ocean temperatures rise.

Journal: Science

Press registration and scientific program now available for plasma physics meeting

American Physical Society
Meeting Announcement

Hundreds of physicists from around the world will convene to present new research at the 67th annual meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics. The conference will be held online and in person at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California Nov. 17-21.

Meeting: 67th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics

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