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Flicker noise limits the performance of electronics. Here, the authors demonstrate in nanowires of charge-density wave materials (TaSe₄)₂I and NbS₃ that low-frequency electronic noise is suppressed below the limit of thermalized charge carriers in passive resistors.

The antimicrobial resistance crisis calls for development of new classes of antibiotics. Here, authors use genome mining approach to discover a distinct family of ribosome-targeting proline rich antimicrobial peptides.

Among other exotic properties graphene exhibits the highest thermal conductivity observed so far. This is true at least for graphene composed of only ¹²C atoms. However, it is now shown experimentally that regions of ¹³C atoms can substantially reduce the thermal conductivity. Aside from their fundamental importance, these results suggest that thermal conductivity can be tailored by varying the relative amounts of carbon isotopes used.

The ability to propagate heat in a film should improve with increasing thickness. However, graphene has a higher thermal conductivity than graphite, despite having a smaller thickness. The crossover from two-dimensional to bulk graphite is now studied experimentally and explained theoretically. The results may pave the way to thermal management applications in nanoelectronics.

Graphene composites can serve both as efficient thermal insulators at low temperatures and thermal conductors at high temperatures. Here, the authors report the evolution of thermal conductivity of composites with graphene fillers from cryogenic to room temperature.

In nanostructures, phonon confinement could lead to better control of phonon-electron coupling and thermal properties. Here, the authors use light scattering spectroscopy to measure acoustic phonons confinement in individual free-standing nanowires, their energy dispersion and energy scaling.

Electronic and optoelectronic devices based on gallium nitride suffer from self-heating arising as a result of their operation. This study presents and demonstrates a strategy for managing this problem that relies on graphene quilts which dissipate the heat away.

Direct growth of large-area graphene on dielectric substrates is a promising route to wafer scale integration. Here the authors use a rapid thermal annealing process to grow graphene layers on four-inch diameter polycrystalline diamond, eliminating the need for transfer.

A graphene transistor integrated on-chip on a hexagonal boron nitride-capped TaS₂ layer provides a voltage-tunable, low-resistance load for controlling a TaS₂ metal–insulator transition, enabling a compact voltage-controlled oscillator operating at room temperature.

High-resolution (≤1.2 Å) structures of functional states of bacteriorhodopsin reveal the molecular mechanism for generating a membrane proton electrochemical gradient, a key event of cell bioenergetics driving ATP synthesis.

Channelrhodopsins (ChRs) are primary tools for precise optical control over living cells. Structures of a viral ChR, OLPVR1, in closed (1.1 Å) and open (1.3 Å) states reveal the key details of its molecular mechanism.

Rhodopsin genes have been identified in some large double-stranded DNA viruses, but the structure and functions of viral rhodopsins remain unknown. Here authors present crystal structure and characterization of an Organic Lake Phycodnavirus rhodopsin II (OLPVRII) which forms a pentamer and is a weak proton pump.

Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses (NCLDV) that infect algae encode two distinct families of microbial rhodopsins. Here, the authors characterise two proteins form the viral rhodopsin group 1 OLPVR1 and VirChR1, present the 1.4 Å crystal structure of OLPVR1 and show that viral rhodopsins 1 are light-gated cation channels.

Crystal structures of the microbial rhodopsin KR2, a recently discovered light-driven sodium pump, reveal the translocation pathway of sodium ions and shed light on the molecular mechanism of ion pumping.

This Progress Article examines the characteristic features of low-frequency electronic noise in graphene, and discusses the implications and potential applications of such noise in graphene-based electronic devices.

The thermal properties of nanostructures have become a fundamental topic owing to the necessity of heat removal in increasingly smaller electronic devices. Carbon allotropes present a range of intriguing thermal features, with the thermal conductivity spanning five orders of magnitude at room temperature. The topic is reviewed here with particular emphasis on graphene, which exhibits the highest thermal conductivity observed.

Nearly 100 years after the prediction of Brillouin light-scattering spectroscopy, or Brillouin–Mandelstam light-scattering spectroscopy, the effect has proved itself a powerful tool for decades. Now its application to probing confined acoustic phonons, phononic metamaterials and magnons is reviewed.

Noble gases are known to interact with proteins and can be good anaesthetics in hyperbaric conditions. This study identifies argon and krypton binding sites on membrane proteins and proposes as a hypothesis that noble gases, by altering protein/lipid contacts, may affect protein function.