Air pollution is a major environmental challenge of this century. In a recent Journal of Environmental Sciences review paper, scientists from the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have highlighted potential technologies for direct purification of air pollutants in the environment, including photocatalysis and ambient non-photocatalytic approaches. They also propose the novel concept of an ‘Environmental Catalytic City.’

In an effort to create simpler next-generation lighting solutions, researchers from the University of Turku in Finland have developed a colour-tunable white OLED. It is a top light-emitting device that produces white light from a single organic layer and two standard aluminum electrodes, eliminating the need for scarce indium tin oxide. This streamlined design replaces the need for complex organic stacks with smart optics, which promises to lower manufacturing costs and reduce reliance on scarce materials.

A team of researchers from the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) and Tokyo Metropolitan University has developed a protein-based gel that replicates the softness and fibrous structure of native skeletal muscle tissue. This innovation enables the cultivation of muscle cells with slow-twitch characteristics, offering new possibilities for treating muscle loss, enhancing metabolic function, and developing next-generation biomedical devices.

Scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography have described a new way to produce large amounts of xanthommatin, a natural pigment, in a bacterium for the first time. Xanthommatin is the natural chemical compound used by octopus, squid and other cephalopods to change the color of their skin. Researchers in the Moore Lab at Scripps have found their nature-based approach to produce up to 1,000 times more xanthommatin material than traditional methods. This breakthrough opens new possibilities for the pigment’s use in a wide range of materials and cosmetics — from photoelectronic devices and thermal coatings to dyes and UV protectants.

Investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine have developed a versatile and non-toxic technology for controlling the activity of any gene in a cell.