Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02563-9 A third-year PhD student wrote to Nature after finding it increasingly difficult to do more than the minimum required for their degree. Earlier in the programme, they had moved from wet-laboratory research to bioinformatics. The change followed an
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02441-4 A biochemistry graduate student in the United States wrote to Nature with a difficult question. They felt exhausted, disconnected from their project and insufficiently supported by a prominent principal investigator who was rarely available for in-depth mentoring. Moving to
Source: https://www.science.org/content/article/i-thought-i-don-t-know-signaled-scientific-incompetence-now-i-know-different During an interview for a postdoctoral position, Jingkai Lin was given a hypothetical research problem and asked how he would approach it. He did not have a clear answer. Worried
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-026-01615-7 At a glance Oxygen vacancies are frequently used to explain the activity of oxide catalysts, but identifying exactly where a small, dynamic population of vacancies forms remains difficult. Researchers from Fudan University, Tongji University, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-026-00958-8 At a glance A battery electrolyte is more than a liquid that carries ions between two electrodes. Its composition changes the chemical potential of those ions, organizes solvents and anions around them, determines which species react at electrode surfaces and
At a glance The reaction between nitric oxide and carbon monoxide is commonly used to remove both pollutants by converting NO mainly into N₂ and CO into CO₂. Researchers from Nanjing University, Shandong Normal University and the University of California, Riverside show that adding water can redirect this established chemistry
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c08553 At a glance ZnSe shells can improve the emission efficiency, chemical stability and structural uniformity of colloidal quantum dots, but vacancies left by missing zinc atoms introduce hole-trapping states that compete with the desired light emission. Researchers led by Sungkyunkwan University
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c13568 At a glance During electrochemical CO₂ reduction on TM–N₄ single-atom catalysts, CO yield often rises, reaches a plateau and then declines as the applied potential becomes more negative. Researchers from the University of Puerto Rico, MIT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-77944-9 At a glance One-dimensional zeolites can steer methanol-to-hydrocarbons chemistry towards C₃–C₅ alkenes, but their narrow channels are vulnerable to blockage as coke accumulates. Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute and ETH Zurich explored whether a second
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c04230 At a glance Operando small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering follows iridium nanoparticles and titanium-based supports during 3,000 square-wave cycles between 0 and 2.0 V in complete proton-exchange-membrane water-electrolyzer assemblies. The three supports protect
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c17163 At a glance A vanadium redox mediator carries reducing equivalents from an electrochemical cell to a separate PtRu/C hydrogenation zone. This arrangement allows the electrode to regenerate V²⁺ while the catalyst converts lignin-derived phenols without requiring the organic substrate to
Source: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aenm.71632 At a glance A metal–organic framework does not have to remain perfectly ordered to remain useful. Researchers at Adelaide University introduce Ru substitution into Co-MOF-74 to restrict long-range growth while retaining short-range metal–oxygen
Chemistry
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-026-01940-6 At a glance A team led by the National University of Singapore reports a two-stage catalyst reconstruction that separates two electronic functions often pursued together in oxygen-evolution catalysts. Selenium is removed first from a Cr₂O₃/NiSe₂ precursor,
Chemistry
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44286-026-00443-7 At a glance Ingestible electronics can monitor the gastrointestinal tract, communicate wirelessly or deliver electrical therapy, but conventional batteries raise safety and retrieval concerns if a device ruptures or remains in the body. Researchers at MIT, Brigham and Women’s
Chemistry
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-026-01612-w At a glance Where does catalytic activity reside on a platinum nanoparticle while the particle is working? Researchers from the University of Antwerp, Utrecht University and partner institutions in Spain followed the same Pt nanoparticle through activation, deactivation and reactivation
Career
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-77409-z At a glance A light source can appear white without rendering colours well. Producing strong circular polarization across the same broad spectrum adds another design challenge because changing the emitters or layered structure can improve one property while shifting another.
Materials Science
Source: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.75051 At a glance The inorganic core of a colloidal quantum dot can be imaged at atomic resolution, yet the soft and disordered organic ligands surrounding it remain difficult to see directly. These ligands still shape almost every stage of
Materials Science
Source: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.7506 At a glance A team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics has developed an ultrathin metal oxides composite buffer for inverted perovskite solar cells and modules. The process deposits 0.5 nm of Cr
Materials Science
Source: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.75109 At a glance A multi-institutional team led by researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Donghua University has developed a linker-defect strategy for tuning the interface between Pt nanoparticles and a nickel–ferrocene metal–organic framework. Partial replacement
Career
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02608-z UK universities are confronting financial strain, changing student demand and reduced public funding at the same time. A Nature Career Feature by Elliot Yates and Jack Leeming reports that four in ten higher-education institutions are forecast to run a
Career
Source: https://www.science.org/content/article/i-used-keep-my-family-life-private-grad-school-natural-disaster-changed For years, Daniela C. Molina Palacios kept her family life separate from her work in the laboratory. Originally from Venezuela and now an M.D.-Ph.D. student at Dartmouth College,
Career
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02184-2 When Anna Sandak submitted her first proposal to the European Research Council in April 2021, she was seeking support for a new scientific direction. After an interview in January 2022, she learned two months later that the project had been
Materials Science
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c15419 At a glance Metal clusters are often expected to remain as compact units when they land on an oxide surface, especially at room temperature. A team from the University of Trieste, the Italian National Research Council, Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste and the Technical
Chemistry
Source: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.6c05165 At a glance Researchers from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Nanjing Forestry University and Shihezi University developed size-minimized, nitrogen-rich carbon nitride nanosheets for H₂O₂ production from pure water under light and ultrasound. The material, named KCN, combines a much