A nanoparticle adjuvant that safely targets the STING pathway via intranasal administration generates potent mucosal and systemic immunity against diverse coronaviruses in preclinical models and converts existing intramuscular flu vaccines into effective nasal sprays.

Optical multistability comprising three optical states is shown in a compact photonic crystal cavity, enabled by the near-exceptional coupling of high-quality-factor modes.

Programmed synthesis of porous protein crystals enables the immobilization and patterning of diverse materials and molecules with nanoscale spatial precision and allows the controlled, sequential release of biomolecules that guide cell signalling.

A systematic workflow is used to optimize lipid nanoparticle-based prime editing systems that enable efficient editing and disease correction in human cells and mouse tissue, and overcome key limitations of transient delivery.

Using scanning probe microscopy and transport measurements, a correlation between superconductivity and local thermodynamic parameters in magic-angle twisted graphene is observed.

A polymer-based nanoplatform that selectively degrades CD147 in liver cancer cells while sparing healthy tissues reprograms lactate metabolism, enhancing antitumor immunity and improving multiple liver cancer therapies.

A nickel-modified nanopore enables simultaneous, unambiguous identification of amino acids and peptides. Direct analysis or hydrolysis-based sequencing can be used for profiling and reconstruction, and detect single-residue mutations and post-translational modifications.

Vertically aligned boron nitride nanotube membranes enable anomalously ultrafast and highly selective lithium-ion transport.

Nanoparticle-mediated delivery of a small metal-organic molecule induces an innate viral response in cancer cells and B-cell-mediated tumour clearance, opening a cancer immunotherapy approach that connects innate sensing and adaptive immunity.

Aqueous cation transport in boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) is found to be generally enhanced under both concentration gradients and electric fields. BNNTs also transport Li ions fourfold faster than K ions. BNNT membranes may enable ‘blue’ osmotic energy and efficient ion separation.

A small molecule loaded in a lipid nanoparticle triggers a viral defence response and induces a strong B cell-mediated immune response, leading to cancer regression in hard-to-treat tumour models.

Nanoparticles accumulate around micrometastases through the enhanced permeability of adjacent normal vessels, a biomechanical pathway that improves nanoparticle delivery and that can be used for the diagnostics and treatment of early stage metastases.

Operando nanoscale spectroscopy and imaging reveal how hole transfer and reaction intermediates interact to control water oxidation reaction pathways and kinetics across crystal facets of BiVO4.

Highly tunable RNA-based synthetic condensates can be designed and engineered in mammalian cells.

The Perspective highlights key challenges in mechanobiology, including the need to engineer multicellular reference models, develop and refine biophysical methods to manipulate and quantify biomechanical properties across scales and establish theoretical frameworks to interpret complex mechanobiological phenomena.

Redox electrons in lithium-based battery positive electrodes originate from hybridized orbitals. Combined characterization methods show that across the 3d transition metal series, their origin shifts, with conventional electron counting valid in early transition metal compounds and ligand-hole redox dominating in late transition metal oxides.

A catheter equipped with an annular carbon nanotube sensor array enables real‑time, in situ three‑dimensional chemical imaging of cancer biomarkers, mapping the localization of early-stage tumours.

High-performance 2D nanoribbon transistors are achieved with channel width scaling down to below 100 nm.

Monolayer TMD nanoribbon transistors using anchored contacts and multipatterning achieve high on-state currents down to 25 nm widths, positioning them as key building blocks for future gate-all-around nanosheet electronics.

A hydrophobic, electrode‑philic ether additive self‑assembles into a nanoscale liquid electrolyte interphase that decouples interfacial and bulk electrolyte behaviour, suppresses water‑driven parasitic reactions and enables efficient aqueous zinc batteries.

Self-inserting DNA origami tiles form stable nanopores across live neuronal membranes, enabling intracellular-like voltage recordings, small-molecule delivery and access to hard-to-reach dendrites without membrane rupture.

An annular carbon-nanotube nanosensor array integrated onto a medical-grade catheter enables near-infrared, in situ spatial mapping of bladder cancer-associated protein biomarker release in the bladder with 182-fold higher sensitivity than urine sampling.

A time-resolved X-ray technique is developed to reconstruct the full spin dynamics in magnetic materials, enabling direct access to magnon eigenfunctions and revealing hidden non-Hermitian coupling mechanisms.

Nanoplastics research must embrace a chemistry‑led framework and integrate molecular‑level metrics to measure, classify, regulate, and mitigate environmental and health impacts.

Ni-decorated LiBH4 nanocomposites achieve room-temperature hydrogenation of boron, enabled by synergistic catalysis and nanostructuring that promotes H2 dissociation and B–H bond formation, a key step for practical hydrogen storage systems.

Artificial neurons based on printed molybdenum disulfide nanosheet networks achieve multi-order spiking dynamics that operate on physiologically relevant timescales, offering a platform for next-generation biohybrid interfaces.

Glycan atlassing is a method for the detection of the spatial organization of cell-surface glycosylation patterns at nanoscale. It shows that such patterns reflect the functional state of the cell, providing direct evidence that the cell-surface glycome encodes biological information via its spatial organization.

Nonlinear electrical responses reveal quantum geometry and signatures of altermagnetism in ruthenium dioxide thin films.

This Perspective traces the chemical complexity arising from the material properties of nanoplastics and outlines more nuanced analytical characterization approaches to comprehensively probe their environmental fate and biological interactions.

Multiplexed super-resolution microscopy of DNA-barcoded lectins and metabolically incorporated unnatural sugars quantitatively links the nanoscale spatial relationships of glycocalyx organization and cellular state.

A molecular engineering strategy using dipolar self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) establishes interfacial polarity as a descriptor for battery electrode stability. By tuning the electronic structure of the SAM and, thus, nanometric surface environment of the positive electrode, stable operation of high-potential lithium metal batteries is demonstrated and validated through interface-sensitive in situ spectroscopy.

Seawater electrolysis is limited by the challenge of achieving both high catalyst activity and stability. Now, a self-adhesive monolithic electrocatalyst composed of high-entropy oxide sub-nanowires is developed that addresses this trade-off. Combining sub-nanoscale confinement with a high-entropy composition, the catalyst enables efficient lattice oxygen activation while maintaining structural integrity, achieving long-term stable seawater electrolysis.

Tunable polaritonic skyrmions and related topological textures are generated by non-local photonic metasurfaces, enabling reconfigurable nanoscale topologies on a chip.

A high-entropy oxide sub-nanowire monolithic electrocatalyst with intrinsic self-adhesion enables durable seawater electrolysis via lattice oxygen activation, offering a new route to stable hydrogen production.

Modular RNA nanostar motifs spontaneously assemble into programmable synthetic condensates in the nucleus and cytoplasm, with RNA design controlling localization, sequence-specific target recruitment and orthogonal assembly.

Waveguide-integrated InAs quantum dots produce quantum-coherent emission in the O-band with promising optical characteristics for scalable quantum networks.

Decoherence suppression in quantum dots can advance coherent telecom single-photon sources.

Chemical hardness engineering synchronizes the growth of two perovskite layers in tandem solar cells, suppressing composition gradients and defects, and enabling certified efficiencies of 30.3% (rigid) and 28.0% (flexible) with improved stability.

A molecular engineering strategy using self-assembled monolayers to modulate interfacial polarity stabilizes high-potential lithium metal batteries by regulating interfacial solvent interactions and suppressing electrolyte decomposition up to 4.7 V.

Electrodics is the branch of electrochemistry that studies electrode processes, such as charge dynamics, at their interface with the electrolyte. In this Comment, I argue that more emphasis should be placed on characterizing electrodics behaviour to facilitate both conceptual understanding and advancements in energy technologies.

Monoclinic hafnia stabilizes atomically dispersed indium, creating active interfacial sites to advance selective CO2 conversion to methanol.

A single-crystal halide perovskite integrated with a patterned nano-grating shows evidence of polaritonic supersolidity at room temperature.

Used thoughtfully and transparently, generative AI may support, but must not replace, human judgment, expertise, and critical thinking in peer review.

Inspired by biological CaV channels that selectively speed up Ca²⁺ transport by using repulsion between single-file ions, here selective adsorbents are converted into selective membranes for the separation of heavy metal ions, including uranium, rare earth metals, copper and gold.

A nanovaccine that lowers cholesterol in dendritic cell membranes improves how immune cells communicate and activate cancer-fighting T cells, enhancing tumour control in multiple preclinical models.

Nanoscale RuO2 thin films exhibit giant third-order longitudinal electrical transport and Hall effect at room temperature, making it a strong altermagnetic candidate material.

Printed MoS2 memristive networks yield spiking neurons with multi-order complexity. Thermally activated snap-back produces physiological waveforms that stimulate mouse Purkinje neurons, offering a scalable platform for bio-realistic neuromorphic hardware and brain–machine interfaces.