This study constructed a Household Heating Burden index to reveal the prevailing unaffordability of rural residential clean heating in 2020 both with and without regional subsidies based on a high-resolution township-level clean heating retrofitting dataset. Phasing out operating subsidies for rural clean heating in northern China would raise household heating spending by 36.2% on average, adding about 523.3 CNY per household. The burden would fall most heavily on lower-income households in parts of Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi. Carbon-credit revenues from clean heating under China's voluntary emissions reduction system could offset only a limited share of those added costs, but distributed rooftop photovoltaics show stronger promise. In some areas, rooftop solar could compensate for roughly one-third to nearly two-thirds of the extra heating expense, suggesting that tailored subsidy phase-out plans combined with rural solar deployment could make clean heating more economically sustainable.

KAIST Develops Electrode Technology Achieving 86% Efficiency for Converting CO₂ into Plastic Precursors

In the process of converting carbon dioxide into useful chemicals such as ethylene—a key precursor for plastics—a major challenge has been the flooding of electrodes, where electrolyte penetrates the electrode structure and reduces performance. KAIST researchers have developed a new electrode design that blocks water while maintaining efficient electrical conduction and catalytic reactions, thereby improving both efficiency and stability.

KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 6th of April that a research team led by Professor Hyunjoon Song from the Department of Chemistry has developed a novel electrode structure utilizing silver nanowire networks—ultrafine silver wires arranged like a spiderweb—to significantly enhance the efficiency of electrochemical CO₂ conversion to useful chemical products.

In electrochemical CO₂ conversion processes, a long-standing issue has been flooding, where the electrode becomes saturated with electrolyte, reducing the space available for CO₂ to react. While hydrophobic materials can prevent water intrusion, they typically suffer from low electrical conductivity, requiring additional components and complicating the system.

To overcome this, the research team designed a three-layer electrode architecture that simultaneously repels water and enables efficient charge transport. The structure consists of a hydrophobic substrate, a catalyst layer, and an overlaid silver nanowire (Ag NW) network, which acts as an efficient current collector while preventing electrolyte flooding.

At the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), researchers resemble blacksmiths as they toil with bacteria. When placed in water, E. coli help form gel-like aggregates and, as now demonstrated by the Materiali Molli Lab, rotate tiny hockey puck-like discs by generating torque. Published in Nature Physics, this insight adds to the understanding of bacteria in confined spaces and could lead to the creation of soft materials.

Researchers investigated how the η′ meson behaves inside atomic nuclei and found evidence that it may form bound states known as η′-mesic nuclei. Using high-energy particle experiments and sophisticated data analysis, the team observed signals consistent with theoretical predictions and measured a possible change in the particle’s mass in nuclear matter. These findings provide new insight into the structure of the vacuum and the origin of mass.

POSTECH and Stockholm University observe water’s liquid-liquid critical point, published in Science, following the team’s 2017 and 2020 papers in the same journal. Ten years of persistent research leads to a discovery that could rewrite textbooks

Antibiotic pollution is emerging as a serious global threat, contaminating water systems and contributing to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria. Now, researchers have developed a powerful artificial intelligence tool that can predict how effectively biochar materials break down antibiotics, offering a faster and smarter way to design environmental cleanup technologies.

Biochar, a carbon-rich material made from agricultural waste, has long been valued for improving soil and capturing carbon. Now, a new review highlights a less visible but potentially transformative property that could redefine its role in environmental technology: its ability to move electrons.

Urban green spaces such as parks, gardens, and residential lawns play an essential role in supporting biodiversity, storing carbon, and improving human well-being. However, rapid urbanization is degrading these soils, reducing their fertility and disrupting natural nutrient cycles. A new study reveals that combining biochar and compost can restore soil health, but only under the right conditions, and fungi play a decisive role in determining success.

A new study demonstrates that agricultural waste can be transformed into a powerful, eco-friendly catalyst that dramatically improves the removal of stubborn chemical pollutants from water. Researchers developed a nitrogen-doped biochar made from cotton hulls that enhances ozone-based water treatment efficiency by more than 100 times, offering a promising solution for tackling emerging contaminants.