30 April 2026 / Kiel / Mindelo. Tomorrow, fourteen Master’s students in the West African Master’s programme ‘Climate Change and Marine Sciences’ will begin their two-week training and research voyage aboard the research vessel POLARSTERN. Travelling from Mindelo in Cabo Verde to Bremerhaven, Germany, they will carry out physical, biogeochemical and biological measurements together with ten experienced scientists. This is the fourth time that the Floating University is taking place under the leadership of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. This initiative significantly contributes to the goals of the UN Decade of Ocean Science and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) as part of the WASCAL programme (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use).

In collaboration with colleagues, experimental and theoretical physicists from Heinrich Heine University (HHU) Düsseldorf and Forschungszentrum Jülich have gained important insights into laser–plasma accelerator technology. As they report in two papers published in Reports on Progress in Physics and High Power Laser Science and Engineering, the polarization state of accelerated particles is preserved during this process. This finding is significant for a range of applications, including controlled nuclear fusion.

Announcing a new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI  10.29026/oea.2026.250249.

Hole-collecting monolayers (HCMs) have pushed perovskite solar cells to record efficiencies, yet the fundamental mechanisms of electronic behavior and how they work at the molecular scale remain elusive. In a recent study, researchers from Japan developed the first universal model for energy level alignment at electrode/HCM/perovskite interfaces. Using fundamental energy parameters, their model successfully predicts which HCM configurations can achieve efficient charge collection, enabling the rational design of next-generation solar cells with improved performance.

Photreon, a start-up project at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), aims to boost the hydrogen economy with mass-produced photoreactor panels that require no electrolyzers, consume no electricity, and do not need a grid connection. With the panels, hydrogen can be produced cost-effectively in a scalable manner from sunlight and water – suitable for both distributed applications and large-scale systems in sunny regions. During the Hannover Messe, April 20–24, 2026, photreon will be presenting at the KIT booth (Hall 11, Booth B06).

Professor Wenkun Zhu and Professor Tao Chen’s research group at Southwest University of Science and Technology has published a research article in Science Bulletin demonstrating the development of an atomically dispersed U−O−Ti bimetallic photoanode material (U/TiO₂ NRA). Utilizing a facile photodeposition method, the team successfully anchored uranium single atoms directly from uranium-containing wastewater onto TiO₂ nanorod arrays rich in oxygen vacancies. The as-fabricated catalyst exhibits exceptional photoelectrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, offering a novel strategy for both the high-value utilization of depleted uranium resources and the design of efficient photoelectrocatalytic materials.

Conventional spontaneous Raman spectroscopy of interfacial molecules typically requires plasmonic or electronic enhancement, limiting accessible systems. A nonlinear coherent Raman method now enables direct, high sensitivity detection without such requirements. A time-frequency engineered optical design suppressed strong substrate background signals by four orders of magnitude, allowing Raman detection of ångström scale ultrathin interfacial molecular layers. This method opens new opportunities for real-time operando observations in electrochemistry, catalysis, adhesion, and molecular devices.