Search

The vacuum process is scalable and solvent free, yet all-vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells still trail solution-processed counterparts. Facet-directed co-evaporation yields (100)-oriented mixed-halide wide-bandgap films for efficient, stable single-junction cells and perovskite–silicon tandem cells.

A high-temperature immiscible blend of two dipolar polymers that self-assemble into three-dimensional all-polymer nanocomposites allows markedly enhanced dielectric and energy storage performances over a broad temperature range.

The acetyl-CoA pathway is the most ancient CO₂ fixation pathway in nature. Here, the authors show that metals selectively reduce CO₂ to the intermediates and end-products of the acetyl-CoA pathway, which is consistent with a prebiotic origin of this pathway.

Thermal imaging lenses are typically made from expensive materials such as germanium and silicon. Here, the authors synthesise a sulfur-based polymer with high mid-wave infrared and long-wave infrared transparencies, presenting a high-performing, low-cost alternative to traditional thermal imaging lens materials.

ATF6α activation in human and preclinical models of hepatocellular carcinoma is significantly associated with an aggressive tumour phenotype characterized by reduced survival, glycolytic reprogramming and local immunosuppression.

Viral ribonucleoprotein–viral protein networks form pre-replication centres that nucleate viral factories and drive respiratory syncytial virus replication.

In this study, authors use molecular dynamics simulations to explore why Tantalum (Ta) and Zirconium (Zr) have different glass-forming abilities. It is shown that Ta’s lower critical cooling rate is due to stronger competing ordering effects and local icosahedral structures, which influence crystallisation pathways.

Neuroinflammation triggers DNA damage and subsequent parthanatos-mediated neuron death. Inhibiting parthanatos in a mouse model of autoimmune inflammation is neuroprotective and reduces disease-associated paralysis.

This work introduces a solvent-free method to directly synthesise MOF glasses without needing a crystalline precursor, enabling device integration, magnetic studies, and functional tuning.

In this work, researchers build a scalable photonic Chern insulator by twisting a fibre during fabrication, breaking an effective time-reversal symmetry and inducing a pseudo-magnetic field. The team reveals a ‘Goldilocks’ regime that guarantees topological protection against fabrication-induced disorder of any symmetry class in the fibre cross-section.

Authors study links between amyloid secondary nucleation and growth defects, demonstrating these sites on Aβ40/Aβ42 fibrils are rare compared to the number of protein molecules. Re-analysis of published data suggests that defects may also drive secondary nucleation generally.

Taniuchi and colleagues show that differential phosphorylation of the terminal Y residue in Runx proteins connect MHC restriction with the helper versus cytotoxic T cell lineage choice.

Mouse models show that lymphoedema caused by impaired lymphatic drainage is ameliorated by removal of cholesterol deposits, which promotes the regeneration of lymphatic vessels.

How the brain supports speaking and listening during conversation of its natural form remains poorly understood. Here, by combining intracranial EEG recordings with Natural Language Processing, the authors show broadly distributed frontotemporal neural signals that encode context-dependent linguistic information during both speaking and listening..

Native state proteomics of PV interneurons revealed unique molecular features of high translational and metabolic activity, and enrichment of Alzheimer’s risk genes. Early amyloid pathology exerted unique effects on mitochondria, mTOR signaling and neurotransmission in PV neurons.

Jacquemyn et al. identify key lipid determinants controlling ectosome shedding from neurons. They find that ectosomes are a major route for the intercellular transport of misfolded α-synuclein, with relevance to Parkinson’s disease pathology.

It is commonly believed that pressure-induced crystallization in Ce-Al amorphous alloy is caused by Ce 4f orbital delocalization. Here, Wu et al. propose an alternative mechanism, whereby the crystallization is driven by a steric effect of dominant packing of cerium atoms at high pressure.

Self-DNA has been implicated in the activation of cGAS/STING/IFN-I responses in autoimmunity and inflammatory diseases. Here the authors show that macrophage uses a process termed ‘nucleocytosis’ to extract nuclear DNA from lysosome-impaired, dying target cells, thereby activating downstream cGAS-STING signaling and IFN-I production.

Aqueous two-phase systems have potential as biomimetic materials, but often lack stability and are prone to collapse. Here, the authors use interfacial assembly of chitin nanofibres and cellulose nanocrystals to prepare a biobased system with permeability and switchable motility.

Aperiodic composite crystals were discovered that emulate 2D moiré materials, demonstrating a potentially scalable approach for producing moiré materials for next-generation electronics and a generalizable approach for realizing theoretical predictions of higher-dimensional quantum phenomena.

It is crucial to avoid crystallization in metallic glasses, which show appealing mechanical properties associated with their amorphous structures. Sohnet al. identify unusual nucleation kinetics in metallic glass nanorods, which exhibits a crystallization temperature minimum at a certain diameter.

The fragility describes the degree of slowdown in material dynamics as approaching glass transition temperature, but its molecular origin remains unclear. Here, Yildirim et al.show a strong correlation between temperature-dependent spatial distribution of molecular rigidity and the fragility index.

The transcription factor ATF4 and its effector lipocalin 2 (LCN2) have a key role in immune evasion and tumour progression, and targeting the ATF4–LCN2 axis might provide a way to treat several types of solid tumour by increasing anti-cancer immunity.

Muscularis macrophages, housekeepers of enteric nervous system integrity and intestinal homeostasis, modulate α-synuclein pathology and neurodegeneration in models of Parkinson’s disease, and understanding the accompanying mechanisms could pave the way for early-stage biomarkers.

Electron transfer in molecular wires is typically dominated by tunnelling at short lengths. Now it is shown that conjugated molecular wires anchored to indium tin oxide electrodes exhibit a hopping mechanism even at 1-nm lengths, enabling charge extraction in tin perovskite solar cells and improved device performance.

The nanoscale manipulation of the shape and composition of metallic glasses is challenging. Here, the authors employ a multitarget carousel oblique angle deposition strategy to synthesize metallic glass nanoarchitectures, and demonstrate applicability to a range of glass-forming alloys.

Understanding how biosilica forms is crucial to our knowledge of this important biomaterial. Now, the role of collagen as structuring agent for the metre-long spicules of a primitive glass sponge has been revealed and found to have an unusual peptide motif.

Here, the authors report on the thermal and mechanical properties of Ruddlesden-Popper phases (Ban+1ZrnS3n+1, n = 2 and 3) of a perovskite chalcogenide (BaZrS3) that push to extreme limits and defy the century-old relation between thermal conductivity and interatomic bond strength.

Astrocytes in the basolateral amygdala dynamically track fear state and support fear memory retrieval and extinction.

Under total internal reflection light acquires a phase shift that depends on its polarisation. Here, the authors show that this effect can be harnessed to generate so-called vector vortex beams—light with polarization and phase singularities—when white light is back-reflected from a glass cone

Circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters are key drivers of metastasis, yet their formation in tumors lacking classical adhesion molecules is unclear. Here, the authors discover that hyaluronic acid promotes homotypic and heterotypic CTC clustering by initiating early cell contacts and stabilizing mature interactions.

Glass-to-glass transitions can help understanding the glass nature, but it remains difficult to tune metallic glasses into significantly different glass states. Here the authors demonstrate the high-entropy effects in glass-to-glass transitions of high-entropy metallic glasses.

Reliably probing rejuvenation and memory effects in spin glasses by means of simulations is difficult. Now, a state-of-the-art numerical study shows that at least three different length scales play a crucial role in aging dynamics of spin glasses.

Mucosal administration of a multivalent, adjuvanted vaccine against Clostridioides difficile promoted bacterial clearance and protected against morbidity, mortality, tissue damage and recurrence in mice.

GeTe is a ferroelectric semiconductor with broken inversion symmetry, which leads to a large spin-orbit interaction. When doped with small amounts of manganese, it becomes magnetoelectric. Here, Krempasky et al show that the ferrimagnetic ordering of Mn-doped GeTe can be switched with unusually small currents under specific resonant conditions, orders of magnitude smaller than typical for spin-orbit torque based switching.

Mechanical relaxation processes in glasses can provide information on the structural and mechanical properties of glasses. Here, the authors observe a fast secondary relaxation process in La-based metallic glasses, providing information on the inelasticity of metallic glasses.

Using two newly developed immunoassays tested in three clinical cohorts, this study highlights CSF DOPA decarboxylase as a promising biomarker for differentiating dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease from Alzheimer’s disease and controls.