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This study reports on a closed-loop approach combining multiscale simulations, interpretable machine learning, experiments and techno-economic analysis for systematic plasma catalyst design, showing that alloys from noncritical minerals can potentially replace costly noble metals such as ruthenium for hydrogen production from ammonia decomposition under plasma conditions.

An efficient and durable alternative catalyst to iridium oxide is essential for acidic oxygen evolution. Here, the authors report a catalyst based on RuO₂ co-doped with tantalum and boron, creating Ru-O-Ta frameworks and Ru-O-B active sites that stabilize the catalyst and enhance performance.

Conventional silicon-based transistors, which sit at the heart of every computer, are fast approaching the limit of miniaturisation. Here, Meng et al demonstrate a field-effect transistor composed of a single rutheniumdiarylethene molecule with large on/off ratio.

Water electrolysis can produce clean hydrogen, but it is limited by the slow anodic oxygen evolution reaction. Now, a local electronic manipulation strategy for stabilizing high-valence Ru single site catalysts has been developed. The catalyst demonstrates efficient bifunctional activity for water electrolysis.

The Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative recruited and genotyped more than half a million Taiwanese participants, almost all of Han Chinese ancestry, and performed comprehensive genomic analyses and developed polygenic risk score prediction models for numerous health conditions.

Stabilizing high oxidation state of Ru centers is important to achieve stable performance for acidic oxygen evolution reaction. Here the authors report two-dimensional ruthenium-iridium oxide for enhanced stability and activity for acidic water oxidation in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer.

Atomically precise control over elemental distributions presents a challenge in the preparation of catalytic nanomaterials. Here the authors report Pt-Ru bimetallic dimer structures through atomic layer deposition process and identify the roles of Pt and Ru in hydrogen evolution reaction.

Industrial routes to acetic acid use carbon monoxide for the carbonylation of methanol. Here, the authors report a hydrocarboxylation method that instead uses carbon dioxide and hydrogen for the conversion of methanol into acetic acid.

Hydrogenolysis of waste polyolefins often produces excessive methane under low hydrogen pressure. Here, by using a dilute RuPt alloy, the authors successfully prevent sequential C–C bond cleavage, enabling flexible use of various hydrogen sources for localized plastic recycling.

Viruses such as EBV use various mechanisms to avoid antiviral responses. Here the authors propose that the EBV protein BRRF2 is secreted via extracellular vesicles from NPC cells, disrupts the cGAS-STING pathway, reduces cGAS-DNA phase separation and the subsequent antiviral response.

Here, authors report a Pt-based catalyst resistant to high concentration CO poisoning for fuel cell applications, making it possible to use reformed hydrogen directly as fuel for fuel cells.

A product-oriented strategy that leverages the reactivities of different functional groups in real-life plastic mixtures can be used to obtain valuable products, opening a path for managing end-of-life plastic mixtures.

The rapid Joule heating method has been reported for rational design of bimetallic alloy (RuMo alloy) to improve the electrocatalytic activity and stability of Mo-based cathode for ampere-level alkaline hydrogen evolution.

The anomalous Hall effect is typically associated with ferromagnets and referred to as anomalous due to its persistence even after the applied magnetic field is removed, due to the net magnetization of the ferromagnet. Recently there has been much interest in antiferromagnets that can host an anomalous Hall effect, despite a vanishing magnetization, and here, Wang et al observe an anomalous Hall effect in collinearly antiferromagnetic chromium doped RuO₂.

Local shear stress from an atomic force microscope tip can control the crystal directions in thin oxide films. This approach enables the manipulation of local magnetic anisotropy in ferromagnetic metals.

Experimental evidence demonstrates long-distance remote epitaxial interactions of thin films even through thick amorphous carbon buffer layers and shows that these can be induced through dislocations in the substrate.

Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia has emerged as an alternative strategy for effluent treatment and ammonia production. Here, the authors report a pulsed potential approach to overcome the sluggish reaction kinetics caused by the limited distribution of negatively charged nitrate near the working electrode and the competing side reactions.

Desmocollin 2 (DSC2) binds to the EBV glycoprotein H/glycoprotein L complex and allows for virus entry to epithelial cells, which could be blocked by DSC2-specific antibodies. DSC2 allowed for virus entry independent of Ephrin receptor A2.

Molecular transport junctions show promising applications in the fabrication of computing nanocircuits. Meng et al. design a family of organometallic compounds and use them in logic gates whereby molecular conductivity can be orthogonal and stepwise controlled by light and electrochemical potential.

Zhang et al. delineate the heterogeneity of core regulatory circuitry in glioblastoma and identify HOXB3 condensation as a vulnerability that may be targeted with a therapeutic peptide in mouse models.

It is still challenging to engineer single-atom catalysts for electrocatalytic methanol oxidation. Here, the authors design Pt single atom supported on RuO2 for highly active methanol oxidation in contrast to the inert Pt single atom supported on carbon.

The authors find that electric-field gating-controlled lithium intercalation can switch FeSe reversibly between a nonmagnetic superconducting state and a high-temperature superconducting ferromagnetic state. Further, scanning-SQUID magnetometry reveals that the ferromagnetic domains survive deep in the Meissner state and coexist spatially.

Real-life plastic waste exists as complex mixtures, posing a challenge for efficient upcycling. Now a sunlight-powered thermocatalytic process using a Ni-based catalyst converts a plastic mixture into CH₄, H₂O and HCl. Notably, chlorine poisoning is minimized through temperature modulation driven by the diurnal sunlight cycle.

Enantioenriched cyclobutenes and cyclobutanes are important units in medicinal chemistry, natural products and material science, and are useful intermediates in organic synthesis. Herein, the authors report a cobalt-catalyzed protocol for pathway-divergent enantioselective coupling of alkynes and cyclobutenes.

Efficient production of benzene from lignin is attractive and of great importance, but has not been realized. Here, the authors develop a strategy to transform lignin into benzene over a RuW/zeolite catalyst in water, and the yield of benzene can be as high as 18.8% on lignin weight basis.

Meng et al. demonstrate that RIOK1 phase separation leads to PTEN mRNA sequestration and pentose pathway activation resolving cellular stress in hepatocellular carcinoma. Targeting RIOK1 enhances response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

The stereospecific Z/E isomerization of tetrasubstituted alkenes remains underdeveloped, thus lacking in a stereodivergent synthesis of axially chiral alkenes. Here, authors report the atroposelective synthesis of tetrasubstituted alkene analogues by asymmetric allylic substitution-isomerization, followed by the photocatalyzed Z/E isomerization.

Mitochondrial apoptosis is controlled by BCL2 family proteins, and the BH3-only proteins often act as sensors that transmit apoptotic signals. Here the authors show how the BH3-only proteins BMF and HRK can directly activate the BCL2 protein BAK and interact with BAK through an alternative binding groove.

Polar metals—metals with polar structural distortions—are known not to be magnetic. Here, the authors demonstrate a magnetic polar metal phase in a BaTiO₃/SrRuO₃/BaTiO₃ heterostructure displaying high conductivity and ferromagnetic ordering with high saturation moment.

Ferroelectric control of skyrmion density and stability is realized in a perovskite heterostructure.

Gut microbiota has been reported to influence osteoporosis risk, but the individual species, and underlying mechanisms, remain largely unknown. Here, the authors identify Bacteroides vulgatus and serum valeric acid as potential targets for osteoporosis prevention/treatment.

Spin valves, consisting of stacked magnetic layers with different magnetization are the essential building block of several distinct spintronic devices. Here, Xu, Liu, Zhao, Lin and coauthors propose that some Kagome magnets can exhibit a self spin-valve effect, and experimentally demonstrate this in the Kagome magnet, TmMn₆Sn₆.

Conversion of biomass-derived chemicals to industrially relevant products can allow sustainable production of organic compounds. Here the authors report that aromatic ethers, which can be derived for biomass, can be converted into various cyclohexanones via a bromide salt-modified palladium catalyst.

Ionic substitution is a useful way to manipulate structural, electronic, magnetic phase transitions in strongly correlated materials. Here, the authors report electric-field controlled protonation in SrRuO₃, resulting in a large structural expansion and a ferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic phase transition.

Boron-containing drug candidates have garnered increasing attention due to their pharmacological properties and application in boron neutron capture therapy. Here, the authors report a transition metal-free anti-addition of pinacolborane to alkynes, facilitated by the counteranion effect for the facile construction of bora-butenolide bioisosteres.

Cobalt-based subsurface dopants induce a shift in the rate-determining step of electrochemical CO₂ reduction on copper to the chemical step: OCCO* + H* → OCCHO* + *. Electrochemical production of ethylene over the optimized catalyst is achieved at low voltage and high current in a membrane electrode assembly system.

The impact flux in the inner Solar System just after its formation is studied by looking at the highly siderophile element abundance of Vesta. Results show that leftover planetesimals from the terrestrial planet region have been the major impactor source, indicative of a skewed mass distribution in the primordial inner Solar System.

Three new euharamiyidan species from the Jurassic period of China are described, cementing the alliance with multituberculates and showing that the initial divergence between groups of extant mammals—monotremes on the one side, marsupials and placentals on the other—goes back to the Triassic period.

Designing catalysts with uniform, site-specific selectivity and activity is a significant challenge. This study introduces design principles for topological-single-atom catalysts that utilize electronic shielding to protect surfaces and control reaction pathways, achieving high selectivity without compromising activity.

The functions of microvesicles (MVs) in gastric cancer are less studied compared to other types of extracellular vesicles. Here, the authors report that in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated gastric cancer (EBVaGC), Olfactomedin 4 protein is enriched in secreted MVs to promote EBVaGC progression by inhibiting the Hippo signaling in tumor cells.

Direct capture and conversion of CO₂ from the atmosphere is appealing to realize negative emissions but challenging due to the inherent low CO₂ concentration. Here, authors report a proof-of-concept hybrid electro-thermochemical device for direct CH₄ production from the air.

Direct acylation of sp3 C−H bonds in complex organic molecules is not well established compared to that of sp2 C−H bonds. Here, the authors report the combination of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) and photoredox catalysis for the direct and site-selective acylation of benzylic C−H bonds.

By combining vector magnetometry and magneto-transport measurements of epitaxial films with different crystallographic orientations, an anomalous Hall effect can be measured in collinear altermagnetic ruthenium dioxide with an anomalous Hall conductivity exceeding 1,000 Ω^–1 cm^–1.

Heterocycles containing difluoromethyl groups are molecules with potential application in pharmaceutical, agricultural and materials science. Here, the authors show an organophotocatalytic difluoromethylation of heterocycles using O₂ as green oxidant and preliminarily study the products’ bioactivity.

Axially chiral biaryl amino-alcohols play a pivotal role in organic synthesis and drug discovery. Here, the authors report a cooperative strategy consisting of desymmetrization followed by kinetic resolution to deliver non-classical NOBIN derivatives in high yields and enantioselectivity via NHC catalysis.