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Observations of γ-rays with energies up to 1.4 PeV find that 12 sources in the Galaxy are PeVatrons, one of which is the Crab Nebula.

The authors demonstrate strain-induced morphotropic phase boundary-like nanodomains in lead-free NaNbO₃ thin films, enabling multi-state switching and large enhancements in dielectric susceptibility and tunability over a broad frequency range.

Replacing animal feathers and wool with synthetic materials can ameliorate the ethical and environmental issues associated with the production of clothing designed to retain warmth. Here the authors present synthetic nanofibre textiles that combine wearability, comfort, lightness and thermal insulation.

Thermal lepton pairs are ideal probes for the temperature of quark-gluon plasma. Here, the STAR Collaboration uses thermal electron-positron pair production to measure quark-gluon plasma average temperature at different stages of the evolution.

Cooperative paramagnetism refers to a strongly correlated state without long range magnetic order that occurs in frustrated magnetic systems between the Neel temperature and Curie-Weiss temperature. Here, using resonant elastic magnetic and inelastic x-ray scattering, Terilli et al find a spectrally sharp gapped magnetic excitations that persists above the Neel temperature in Y₂Ir₂O₇, implying a cooperative paramagnetic phase.

Functional materials that act as bio-sensing media when interfaced with complex bio-matter are attractive for health sciences and bio-engineering. Here, the authors report room temperature enzyme-mediated spontaneous hydrogen transfer between a perovskite quantum material and glucose reactions.

The red fluorescent protein mScarlet3-H is bright, photostable and very robust to high temperature, chaotropic conditions and oxidative environments. mScarlet3-H works well in correlative light and electron microscopy, tissue clearing and time-lapse super-resolution microscopy.

Sodium layered metal oxides suffer from irreversible structural deterioration at high voltage in sodium-ion batteries. Here, authors develop a magnesium ion and vacancy dual-doping strategy to enhance the anionic redox reversibility and structural stability of layered oxides.

Hydrogen-doping driven metal to ferroelectric phase transition in a complex oxide NdNiO₃ is demonstrated. Transient negative differential capacitance and implementation of polarization decay into neural network for learning are then presented.

Pyrochlore iridates have been studied for their potential to explore novel phases due to the interplay of correlations, spin-orbit interaction, and more recently dimensionality. Here the authors report a chiral spin-liquid-like state in (111)-oriented Y₂Ir₂O₇ thin films which emerges at a reduced thickness.

Here, the authors sample air and surfaces in hospital rooms of COVID-19 patients, detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in air samples of two of three tested airborne infection isolation rooms, and find surface contamination in 66.7% of tested rooms during the first week of illness and 20% beyond the first week of illness.

Stable and robust topological edge modes are observed at finite temperatures in an array of 100 programmable superconducting qubits because of emergent symmetries present in the prethermal regime of this system.

Battery cathodes tend to degrade severely during high-voltage operations. Here the authors present a cathode design with a structurally coherent architecture, ranging from ordered to disordered frameworks, that addresses this issue.

Despite the growth in science spending and research output in China, young researchers are struggling to prosper, says Chuan-Chao Wang.

Sensitive, biocompatible and stable contrast agents for MRI are in demand. Here, the authors combine gadolinium ions with amorphous calcium carbonate to make stable paramagnetic amorphous carbonate nanoclusters with high MRI contrast and significantly improved biocompatibility over commercial gadolinium-based agents.

The high cost of Pt severely limits fuel cell deployment, but alternative Pt-free catalysts suffer from a low activity and, especially, durability. Now, a low-Pt-content catalyst consisting of Pt and Fe single atoms, dispersed on a nitrogen-doped carbon matrix, and Pt–Fe nanoparticles is shown to exhibit excellent activity and durability in fuel cells.

Electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction into multicarbon products offers a means to close the anthropogenic carbon cycle using renewable electricity. Here, the authors report a cascade AgCu single-atom and nanoparticle electrocatalyst with favorable properties to improve the selectivity of multicarbon products.

A compositionally complex (high-entropy) doping strategy is proposed to fabricate zero-strain high-Ni and Co-free layered cathodes with superior structural and mechanical stabilities and long cycle life.

Beam oscillation is an attractive method to achieve melt pool and microstructure control in laser powder bed additive manufacturing. Here, in-situ X-ray imaging and high-fidelity modeling reveal the unique keyhole dynamics in a kHz laser oscillation mode.

Systems comprising water and hydrophobic cavities, with scales ranging from nanometres to millimetres, are shown to expand upon compression, an unusual mechanical property of technological and biological relevance known as negative compressibility.

PepMLM designs peptide binders against diverse targets using masked language modeling.

Layered Ni-rich oxide cathodes are susceptible to challenges with surface reconstruction and strain propagation, limiting their cyclability. The authors propose a solution involving oriented attachment-driven reactions, utilizing Wadsley–Roth nanocrystals and layered oxide to induce an epitaxial entropy-assisted coating, effectively addressing these issues.

A low-potential dual-side hydrogen production system is more efficient than water splitting but suffers from stability issues. Here, the authors report a self-reactivating PdCu catalyst that operates stably for 120 h, offering an alternative solution for energy-efficient hydrogen production.

A vanadium-based lithium-rich disordered rock salt oxide is shown to work as a low-potential anode with rapid intercalation kinetics for lithium-ion batteries.

An antiviral and antibacterial cotton textile based on a fundamentally different principle of incorporating copper ions into the cotton structure at the atomic level is fabricated with excellent air/water retainability and superior mechanical stability.

The battery performance at the cell level is an integration of contributions from many active particles. Here, the authors present a direct visualization of the active cathode particles that react heterogeneously and asynchronously by using coherent multi-crystal diffraction and optical microscopy.

Iron oxides prevail in the deep Earth, at extreme pressures and temperatures, with different stoichiometries than in ambient conditions. Here, high-pressure synchrotron X-ray spectroscopic measurements reveal the oxidation states of Fe and O in iron superoxide, shedding light on the puzzling chemistry of iron and oxygen in the deep Earth

Diffractive imaging of an important class of battery electrodes during cycling shows that lattice strain is a crucial yet overlooked factor that contributes to voltage fade over time.

Electrochemical degradation is the most critical challenge for Li-rich materials. Here, the authors reveal that manganese related phase reaction inhomogeneity coupling with transition metal rearrangement triggers electrochemical degradation in lithium-rich layered cathode.

Dissolution of manganese from the cathode in lithium manganate based batteries is a major cause for the capacity decay. Here, the authors show a nanoscale surface-doping approach to mitigate the problem and to improve the battery capacity and cycleability.

Understanding mesoscale structure and dynamics in organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors is crucial. Mesoscale strain kinetics and structural hysteresis have been studied, and they uncover the coupling between charge carrier dynamics and mesoscale order in organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors.

Whether a polymorphic transition exists in high entropy alloys or not remains unclear since discovery of these alloys more than a decade ago. Here authors report an irreversible polymorphic transition fromfcc to hcp in the prototype FeCoCrMnNi high entropy alloy and provide evidence for fccphase being more stable than hcp phase only at high temperatures.

The introduction of a coherent perovskite phase into the layered structure of a lithium-ion battery reduces lattice strain and stress to produce a robust crystal structure.

This paper shows that even a pure compound, in this case lead titanate, can display a morphotropic phase boundary under pressure. The results are consistent with first principles theoretical predictions, but show a richer phase diagram than anticipated; moreover, the predicted electromechanical coupling at the transition is larger than any known.

To unlock the potential of Mn-based cathode materials, the fast capacity fading process has to be first understood. Here the authors utilize advanced characterization techniques to look at a spinel LiMn₂O₄ system, revealing that a combination of irreversible structural transformations and Mn dissolution takes responsibility.

Nitrate, a common pollutant in wastewater and groundwater, has been efficiently converted into valuable ammonia products via an electrochemical method using Ru-dispersed Cu nanowire as the catalyst.

Gamma-ray emission up to and above 100 TeV is detected from the supernova remnant G106.3+2.7. The emission above 10 TeV is associated with a molecular cloud rather than the pulsar PSR J2229+6114, favouring a hadronic origin via the π⁰ decay caused by accelerated relativistic protons.

The process of protein crystallization is poorly understood and difficult to program through the primary sequence. Here the authors develop a computational approach to designing three-dimensional protein crystals with prespecified lattice architectures with high accuracy.

Enhancing the intrinsic activity and space time yield of Cu based heterogeneous methanol synthesis catalysts is one of the major topics in CO₂ hydrogenation. Here the authors develop a highly active inverse catalyst composed of fine ZrO₂ islands dispersed on metallic Cu nanoparticles.

A repeated on–off high-temperature shockwave is shown to be a generalizable way of efficiently synthesizing and stabilizing single atoms at high temperatures.

Poor mechanical properties of reduced graphene oxide sheets hinder development of flexible energy storage systems. MXene functionalised graphene oxide with Ti-O-C bonding and additional crosslinking is here reported to dramatically increase toughness for flexible supercapacitors.

The cleavage of C–C bonds in hydrocarbons is traditionally entrusted to precious metal catalysts, whereas common non-reducible oxides are considered unreactive. Now, the authors report nanostructured silica-embedded zirconia nanoparticles that are competent for the hydrogenolysis of polyethylene with remarkable performance.

Lithium manganate is an important cathode material for lithium-ion batteries; however, its capacity-fading mechanism is unclear. Zhan et al. identify the oxidation state of manganese deposited on the anode, which leads to an irreversible rising in anode resistance and consequently a shortened battery life.

Aromaticity predicts the existence of the benzene tetra-anion, although it has not been unambiguously observed. Here, the authors have synthesized a tetra-anionic substituted benzene as a ligand and characterize the six-carbon, 10 π-electron system by structural, spectroscopic and theoretical techniques.

The decomposition of solid state electrolyte material has been well-known in the literature. Here the authors report that the same decomposition process can be leveraged to act as a source of redox mediator that is only activated at certain voltages for application in Li₂S based cathodes.