Reviews & Analysis

A spontaneous Hall effect has been observed in a collinear antiferromagnet at room temperature.

By utilizing the electronic phase transition in YbInCu₄ and the Thomson effect in bulk, 6 K of cooling is achieved at 38 K.

Liquid-crystal-elastomer-based torus microrobots capable of self-sustained rotation exhibit directional locomotion in terrestrial and fluidic environments by harnessing topology-invoked self-regulation and optically controlled friction and drag forces.

Scrutinizing the metal nitride/oxide interface reveals the chemical origin of the enhanced oxygen reduction activity of metal nitrides.

Using focused ion-beam milling and electron backscatter diffraction, lithium and sodium metal anode microstructures in all-solid-state batteries are found to possess large grains that coarsen during electrodeposition.

Lignin is an abundant source of renewable aromatic carbon and is of interest as a feedstock for sustainable fuels. This Review provides an overview of production technologies, jet fuel requirements, effects of lignin chemistry, depolymerization techniques, upgrading of bio-oils and challenges for catalysis using real biomass feedstocks.

Liquid-state lasing has so far relied primarily on organic dyes. Charge management in colloidal quantum dot heterostructures enables optical gain and stable lasing in liquid solutions.

Substrates with concave curvatures resembling those found in the developing embryo mechanically revert mouse and human pluripotent stem cells into a naivety-like state.

Direct visualization of polymer semiconductor structure in electrolyte environments and across length scales facilitates mechanistic understanding of this versatile but complex class of materials.

High-resolution additive manufacturing is a rapidly expanding field in microscale engineering. An approach of direct laser writing of inorganic materials now promises the facile 3D deposition of complex geometries in metals and their alloys.

Cancer-cell-derived extracellular vesicles bind to therapeutics and shuttle them out of the tumour to the liver for destruction.

An ultraflat, single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride film enables the production of wafer-scale, ultrathin high-κ dielectrics for two-dimensional electronics, meeting the 2025 targets set by the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems.

Ions play a key role in governing the viscoelastic properties and mechanical stability of mitotic chromosomes.

Spring-like force sensors bioprinted in the developing neural tube of growing chick embryos enable the measurement of forces generated by embryonic tissues with micrometre-level resolution.

The combination of perovskite-based thin materials and microcavities with tailored optical spin–orbit effects enable on-chip optical polarization functionalities at room temperature and over long propagations.

A technique has been developed for automatically discovering mechanical metamaterials with desired nonlinear dynamic responses.

Twist-angle control of spin–charge interconversion in a graphene/WSe₂ heterostructure is demonstrated.

A microscale kirigami metasheet shows electronically programmable shape morphing with a high degree of freedom and intricate locomotion.

A class of III–V semiconductors with memristive properties has been created by combining computational screening and experimental synthesis. The synthesized compounds have gate-tunable synaptic functions, and could be used to create energy-efficient, reprogrammable logic devices that are compatible with existing silicon technology.

Metastable pentagonal two-dimensional PdTe₂ is grown and stabilized on a Pd(100) surface through lattice-symmetry-driven epitaxy.