A joint team led by Prof. HUANG Xuejie at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), together with researchers from Huazhong University of Science & Technology and Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering (CAS), has developed an anion-regulation technique that enables intimate contact between the electrolyte and lithium-metal electrode in all-solid-state batteries. The breakthrough removes a key roadblock to commercialization and provides a critical technological step toward practical deployment. The work was published in Nature Sustainability.

Source: Institute of Physics, CAS

The WANG Jinyong research group at Beijing Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine / Institute of Zoology, CAS, has established an integrated protocol that combines CAR engineering of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, large-scale expansion and NK-lineage-directed differentiation to generate iNK and CD19-targeted CAR-iNK cells from umbilical-cord-blood CD34⁺ HSPCs. The platform promises lower production costs for chimeric-antigen-receptor therapies and wider patient access to off-the-shelf cellular immunotherapies. Results appear in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Source: Beijing Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine

Associate Professor ZHANG Xiaoyuan’s team at Tsinghua University’s School of Environment has fabricated a carbon-based dual-face electrocatalytic membrane. Iron and nickel single-atom sites anchored on opposite membrane surfaces generate oxidative and reductive species, respectively, allowing tunable redox sequences that selectively eliminate diverse emerging micropollutants. The study offers new insight into synergistic and antagonistic interactions between reactive species. The findings are reported in Environmental Science & Technology.

Source: School of Environment, Tsinghua University

A collaboration led by Prof. XU Limei, Prof. JIANG Ying, Dr. TIAN Ye and CAS Member WANG Enge at the Center for Quantum Materials(ICQM) , School of Physics, Peking University, has tracked the unique “net-weaving” crystallization of bilayer ice from disorder to order at atomic resolution. Integrating experiment, molecular-dynamics simulation, first-principles calculations and AI-assisted image parsing, the researchers reproduced the structural evolution observed in low-temperature AFM movies, quantified inter-molecular energetics and reconstructed 3-D molecular models from AFM data via machine learning. The work provides a theoretical basis for the controllable growth of low-dimensional materials, atomic-level structure design and the development of functional materials. Results are published in Nature Communications.

Source: School of Physics, Peking University

Scientists at the State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), CAS, have developed a 12.5-km atmospheric component (FAMIL) of the CAS FGOALS-f3 climate-system model and completed AMIP-style experiments for 1979-2021. Comparing high- and standard-resolution runs, they show that differences in moisture supply and vertical motion are the direct causes of divergent extreme-precipitation intensities, underscoring the need for resolution-aware physical parameterizations. All computations were performed on the national major science facility “Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility (EarthLab)”. The study appears in Chinese Science Bulletin.

Source: Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility

Researchers at IAP, CAS, together with 19 domestic and overseas institutes, have quantified observed changes in ocean stratification since the 1960s, projected future trends and synthesized their climatic and ecological impacts. CMIP6 multi-model ensembles indicate that the upward trajectory of global ocean stratification could reverse in the 2050s–2060s under lower-greenhouse-gas-emission scenarios, marking a critical tipping point. The analysis was supported by the Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility among other programs. The findings are reported in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.

Source: Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility