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Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells suffer from instability under rapid thermal cycling. Here, Sun et al. investigate the degradation mechanism, showing that temperature-induced structural strain, phase transition, and increased non-radiative defects drive the degradation processes.

Distinguishing local hydrological, cave internal, and regional monsoon signals in speleothem records resolves disagreements among proxy reconstructions and illuminates the Holocene evolution of summer and winter monsoon in Southeast Asia.

Integrating UV lasers is of interest for portable optical clocks and ion-based quantum computers, but material absorption has impeded progress. Here, authors demonstrate a violet integrated laser using UV-transparent materials with mW-level output, narrow linewidth and precise frequency control.

Spin caloritronics focuses on the interaction of electron spins with heat currents. This Review describes newly discovered physical effects that have re-invigorated the field by stimulating further research into understanding the fundamentals of spin–phonon interactions, and providing new avenues to explore to improve current thermoelectric technology.

Foutel et. al. identify conformational buffering as a mechanism for functional selection in intrinsically disordered protein regions that allows robust encoding of a tethering function by a hypervariable disordered linker through compensatory changes in sequence length and composition.

Using carbon nanotube transistors, stretchable temperature sensor circuits can be designed that suppress strain-dependent errors and achieve a measured inaccuracy of only ±1 °C within a uniaxial strain range of 0–60%

‘Ultrathin’ gold interlayers are shown to form nanoparticles that balance optical losses and electrical contact, enabling efficient perovskite–perovskite integration for scalable and durable triple-junction photovoltaics.

The so-called two-dimensional (2D) layered perovskites possess distinct optoelectronic properties from their 3D counterparts due to their reduced dimensionality. Here Seitz et al. investigate the exciton transport dynamics in 2D perovskites and highlight the impact of the stiffness of the lattice.

Intuitive thermal perceptions during cold-object grasping with a prosthesis can be restored in a phantom hand through targeted nerve stimulation via a wearable thin-film thermoelectric device with high cooling power density and speed.

The structure-function relationships of a β-helix, a folding motif formed by parallel β-strands arranged in a helical repetitive pattern, remain poorly understood and underexploited. Here, the authors reconstitute a protein β-helix by design from an elementary sequence of 18 amino acids, which self-assembles into a self-contained multifunctional motif exhibiting a range of biological functions.

Combining neural manipulation in freely behaving animals, physiological studies and electron microscopy reconstruction in the Drosophila larva identifies a complex multilsensory circuit involved in the selection of larval escape modes that exhibits a multilevel multimodal convergence architecture.

Dou et al. report photo-induced long-lived polar states in octahedral copper-based hybrid perovskites with Jahn-Teller distortion. These states arise from reversible light-induced slow structural deformation induced by polar lattice microstrain formation.

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy can be useful for determining the absolute configuration of chiral molecules, as long as the signal intensities are high enough. Here, the authors establish the absolute configurations of two large chiral porphyrin cages and, notably, discover that host-guest binding enhances their VCD intensities.

Measurements of the spin heat accumulation at the ferromagnetic/non-magnetic interface in nanopillar spin valves show that spin-up and spin-down electrons have different temperatures. This observation is important for the design of magnetic thermal switches and the study of inelastic spin scattering.

Preserving the large power factor of carbon nanotubes is challenging, due to poor sample morphology and a lack of proper Fermi energy tuning. Here, the authors achieve a value of power factor of 14 ± 5 mW m⁻¹ K⁻² originating from the preserved conductivity and the ability to tune Fermi energy.

Adhesives are ubiquitous in commodity products, however it it essential that their synthesis and degradation be sustainable without compromising their performance. Here, the authors report a library of adhesives based on environmentally benign building blocks that perform in both dry and wet environments.

The emergence of relaxation in unitarily evolving systems can be seen as a paradox, but not once the distinction between local and global dynamics is considered. Here, the authors use photons in an integrated optical interferometer to show that, for a system evolving unitarily on a global level, single-mode measurements converge to those of a thermal state.

A deep neural network with ‘knockout training’ is used to model sensorimotor transformations and neural perturbations of male Drosophila melanogaster during visually guided social behaviour and provides predictions and insights into relationships between stimuli, neurons and behaviour.

La-substitution in BiFeO₃ enables an electric field-driven conversion of a multi-domain into a single ferroelectric domain accompanied by a single variant spin cycloid. A single domain multiferroic generates 400% larger non-local inverse spin Hall voltage at the output.

By incorporating germanium, single-photon avalanche diode detectors using silicon-based platforms are applied to infrared light detection. Here, a cost-effective planar detector geometry is presented yielding high detection efficiency suitable for applications such as sparse photon imaging or LIDAR.

The design and optimisation of 3D DNA-origami can be a barrier to rapid application. Here the authors design barrel structure of stacked 2D double helical rings with complex surface patterns.

Engineered living materials (ELMs) are emerging as a field at the intersection of materials science and synthetic biology. Here, the authors describe a photosynthetic ELM composed of genetically engineered cyanobacteria in a hydrogel matrix, capable of bioremediation and inducible cell death.

Natural ecosystems efficiently sequester CO₂, but containing and controlling living systems remains challenging. Here, the authors engineer a photosynthetic living material for dual CO₂ sequestration via biomass accumulation and microbially-induced calcium carbonate precipitation.

Water-soluble supramolecular polymers assemble from individual building blocks, but there is a lack of understanding as to how the properties depend on the components. Here the authors show how the introduction of chiral groups can affect the structural features and dynamic behaviour of the polymer.

Evolutionary eye loss has occurred in multiple phyla in species that inhabit dark environments, but few of those species have been studied thus far. Here they show that cave planarians retain small functional eyes despite their apparent absence, revealing a progenitor depletion mechanism to explain the evolutionary diminution of organ size.

Enzymatic reactions typically occur in aqueous media or with hydrated enzymes. Here, the authors form fluid enzyme-polymer conjugates with sub-solvation levels of water, and demonstrate catalytic hydrolysis in the absence of a solvent at high temperatures.

Controlling RNA and protein condensation is helpful in synthetic biology. Here the authors show programmable assembly of synthetic RNA nanostructures into designer membrane-less organelles that selectively recruit ligands via protein-binding aptamers.