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

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.

In a paper published in National Science Review, a research team led by Prof. Hao Sun at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has clarified how fluorinated electrolyte additives function in rechargeable sodium-chlorine (Na-Cl₂) batteries. The study found that these additives do not primarily protect the anode by forming a solid electrolyte interphase, as previously believed. Instead, they to spontaneously react with electrolyte components to generate aluminum fluoride (AlF₃) catalyst in situ at the cathode, accelerating the NaCl/Cl₂ redox reactions. Based on this mechanism, the team designed a polymerized ionic liquid cathode catalyst for the cathode, achieving an exceptional rate capability of 30,000 mA g⁻¹ and stable cycling performance over 300 cycles. This work establishes a new design principle to linking anode additives to cathode catalysis, advancing the development of next-generation high-energy, ultrafast-charging batteries.

Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) linguists have analysed murals in Lithuania’s second-largest city as elements of a “linguistic landscape” – a concept that views language as both visual and spatial. Their study reveals that street art in Kaunas acts as a form of cultural activism and collective memory, blending languages, images, and historical narratives.

Prof. Guoying Gu team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University unveiled millimeter-scale soft robots today, solving a minimally invasive surgery hurdle: navigating narrow body orifices. They modified silicone with accelerators/thickeners to fix traditional bubble casting’s interfacial instability, making 1–3mm robots in 30 minutes via mini bubble casting. These robots can retrieve clots and check lungs; next, they’ll add sensors and hydrogel drug coatings for "in-body pharmacies."

Physicists at Umeå University, in collaboration with researchers in China, have developed a laser made entirely from biomaterials – birch leaves and peanut kernels. The environmentally friendly laser could become an inexpensive and accessible tool for medical diagnostics and imaging.