Researchers found that a small change in 3D-printing settings can help produce better-fitting permanent dental crowns. Crowns printed at moderate angles performed best overall. Thinner layers improved accuracy and fit, while thicker layers produced more consistent results across repeated prints.

Quantum particles in imperfect or quasiperiodic environments may spread, become localized, or enter critical states with fractal wave functions. These behaviors can combine into seven fundamental localization phases, but a unified framework for all of them has been missing. A team led by Prof. Xiong-Jun Liu at Peking University has now developed a generic spin-1/2 quasiperiodic system that captures all the fundamental phases, proves three theorems, constructs new exactly solvable models, and proposes the implementation with ultracold atoms in optical Raman lattices.

What if some of the most important scientific discoveries are already hidden in data collected years ago? Researchers at Tohoku University are exploring how AI and data-driven science can reveal new insights from past experiments and scientific literature. Their review highlights how old data could help accelerate discoveries in chemistry and materials science. 

Cadmium contamination in paddy soils is a serious global food safety concern, threatening the health of millions who rely on rice as a staple. While cleaning up contaminated soil is often impractical, a team of scientists has demonstrated an effective and agronomically simple alternative: spraying rice leaves with a solution of tiny, engineered carbon dots (CDs).

In a field experiment on moderately cadmium-contaminated soil, researchers from the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences and Jiangnan University applied CDs to rice canopies. The application produced remarkable results. The higher-dose treatment not only reduced the cadmium accumulated in the rice grains by 46% but also increased the overall grain yield by 18%, all without harming the grain's nutritional quality.