Improving biodiversity and maintaining yields at the same time? For many, this sounds like a contradiction in terms. However, a new study by the University of Würzburg shows that both are possible under the right conditions.

Scientists have reinvented a 19th-century pesticide breakthrough for modern agriculture. While copper-based bactericides like Bordeaux mixture (copper sulfate + lime) revolutionized crop protection in 1885, their heavy metal pollution and plant toxicity remain unresolved. Now, researchers apply cutting-edge single-atom material technology to create Cu₁/CaCO₃, a next-gen copper bactericide where isolated copper atoms are anchored on calcium carbonate. This atomic-level design delivers the same powerful disease protection while reducing copper residue by 20-fold and minimizing plant damage. More than just a new pesticide, this advancement bridges advanced materials science with sustainable agriculture, offering a blueprint for developing eco-friendly crop protection solutions that address both efficacy and environmental concerns.

Professor Alexander Hoffmann and Genhong Cheng from University of California, Los Angeles, jointly with Professor David Baltimore from California Institute of Technology, published a review article in the newly launched journal Immunity & Inflammation. This article provides a systematic overview of NF-κB, covering its activation mechanisms, gene regulatory networks, physiological and pathological roles. It also summarizes recent advances in therapeutic strategies targeting NF-κB, offering a critical foundation for deeper understanding the pathway’s functions and mechanisms.

Researchers from the Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), one of the centers under the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan, report an inexpensive iron hydroxide catalyst that could support the use of sodium borohydride as a hydrogen storage material.

Scientists at the Department of Applied Physics II of the University of Malaga have participated in the design of a new technology that controls fluids and particles in three dimensions through virtual thermal barriers generated using light.

"Forever chemicals" are notoriously difficult to detect, but a collaboration between the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and Argonne National Laboratory has yielded a novel detection method. The method, which they plan to share via a portable, handheld device, uses unique probes to quantify levels of PFAS “forever chemicals,” some of which are toxic to humans.

Researchers from The University of Osaka, AIST, Okayama University, and the University of Tokyo applied an innovative computational-analysis technique to clarify the atomic structure of soft, easily deformable regions in amorphous silicon. They discovered that these regions combine medium-range order with local disorder, a finding that will guide the design of more durable amorphous materials.