Scientists unlock a massive new ‘color palette’ for biomedical research by synthesizing non-natural amino acids

Peptides have found use in over 80 drugs worldwide since insulin was first synthesized in the 1920s.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers at UC Santa Barbara developed an efficient technique to synthesize non-natural amino acids that are immediately ready for direct use in peptide construction without extra modification steps.
• Methodology: The team utilized gold catalysis to generate stereoselective amino acids from inexpensive chemical ingredients, subsequently assembling them into peptides through a rinse-and-repeat process on a resin scaffold.
• Key Data: While lifeforms naturally utilize only 22 amino acids to build proteins, this breakthrough expands the available biochemical toolkit from a limited 22-molecule palette to potentially hundreds of noncanonical variations.
• Significance: The ability to easily incorporate non-natural amino acids allows drug designers to armor-plate peptide therapeutics against destructive bodily enzymes and force them into specific shapes for superior receptor binding.
• Future Application: Researchers plan to automate the synthesis process to provide non-chemists in drug development and materials research with accessible, low-friction access to these expanded molecular building blocks.
• Branch of Science: Biochemistry, Pharmacology, and Materials Science.
• Additional Detail: Unlike existing approaches that require complex manipulation, this method produces amino acids where the acid group is already primed to react, leaving only the amino group requiring unmasking.

Holistically Improving the Process of Producing Hydrogen from Water

Schematic illustration of the auxiliary-driving effect, highlighting its role in accelerating the HER process.
Image Credit: ©Hao Li et al.

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers developed a novel catalyst combining ruthenium and vanadium dioxide that simultaneously optimizes both water dissociation and hydrogen gas formation in alkaline water electrolysis.
• Methodology: The team employed an auxiliary-driving strategy to engineer the interface between ruthenium active sites and vanadium dioxide, forming conjugated pi-bonds and leveraging a reversible hydrogen spillover process to dynamically adjust electronic structures during the reaction.
• Key Data: The new catalyst demonstrated an overpotential of 12 millivolts at 10 milliamperes per square centimeter and a turnover frequency of 12.2 per second, indicating higher hydrogen evolution activity than conventional platinum-carbon and ruthenium-carbon catalysts.
• Significance: This approach overcomes the kinetic imbalances typical in anion exchange membrane water electrolysis by coordinating multiple reaction steps simultaneously, enabling highly efficient hydrogen production with minimal energy loss.
• Future Application: The highly durable catalyst design has the potential to lower the cost of green hydrogen production, supporting its broader integration into steel production, chemical manufacturing, commercial shipping, and large-scale renewable energy storage.
• Branch of Science: Materials Science and Electrochemistry
• Additional Detail: Device-level performance improvements were confirmed using distribution of relaxation time analysis, and the resulting experimental and computational data have been openly uploaded to the Digital Catalysis Platform.

A 'smart fluid' you can reconfigure with temperature

Temperature and particle concentration control self-assembly into distinct phases.
Image Credit: Ghosh et al., Matter (2026)

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers developed a reconfigurable "smart fluid" composed of nematic liquid crystal microcolloids that can rearrange its internal structure solely through temperature adjustments, effectively preventing irreversible particle aggregation.
• Methodology: The team fabricated porous, rod-shaped silica microrods (2–3 μm long) treated with a perfluorocarbon coating to reduce surface anchoring and dispersed them in a nematic liquid crystal host (5CB), observing phase transitions via tensorial Landau de Gennes modeling.
• Key Data: The microrods measure 200–300 nm in diameter and exhibit stable self-assembly into low-symmetry phases, maintaining fluidity without the distortion-induced clumping typical of conventional colloids.
• Significance: This breakthrough resolves the long-standing challenge of strong surface anchoring in liquid crystal colloids, enabling the creation of complex, equilibrium-ordered states that were previously impossible to stabilize.
• Future Application: These materials could enable reconfigurable optical components for advanced displays, photonic chips for information processing, and responsive biomedical sensors.
• Branch of Science: Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science
• Additional Detail: The study serves as a model system for observing topological solitons and singular defects, offering fundamental insights applicable to magnetism and particle physics.

Rheology: In-Depth Description

Rheology is the branch of physics and materials science that studies the deformation and flow of matter, primarily in liquids, soft solids, and complex fluids that do not follow the simple laws of viscosity or elasticity. Its primary goal is to understand and predict how materials respond to applied forces, stresses, or strains over time.

UrFU Physicists Discovered Snowflake Has Complex & Asymmetrical Shape

The calculations of physicists are fundamental, but they will be useful for metallurgists.
Photo Credit: Rodion Narudinov

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary

The Core Concept: A physical model demonstrating that snowflakes (ice dendrites) formed under terrestrial conditions possess complex, non-smooth, and asymmetrical shapes, refuting the popular notion of perfect geometric symmetry.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike the idealized growth observed in microgravity where crystals form symmetrically in a stationary environment, terrestrial snowflake formation is heavily influenced by gravity and convection (heat transfer). These external forces disrupt the stationary environment, causing the crystal to grow imperfectly and unevenly.

Origin/History: Published by physicists at Ural Federal University (UrFU) in the journal Acta Materialia on February 12, 2026, following a comprehensive analysis of experimental data on ice crystal growth accumulated over several decades.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Convection & Gravity: The primary environmental variables identified as the cause of asymmetry in terrestrial crystal growth.
• Supercooling Dynamics: The relationship between water supercooling and the growth speed/curvature radius of dendrite tips.
• Microgravity Comparison: The use of space-based experimental data to contrast "ideal" stationary growth with "real-world" terrestrial growth.

New Route into 2D Materials: Research Team Produces Ultra-Clean Mxenes with Outstanding Electrical Performance

The image combines a model derived from a scanning electron microscopy image (left) with a snippet of the underlying crystal structure of a studied MXene featuring precisely controlled surface terminations.
Image Credit: © B. Schröder/HZDR

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: A novel "Gas-Liquid-Solid" (GLS) synthesis strategy enables the production of MXenes with unprecedented purity and precisely controlled halogen surface terminations.
• Methodology: Researchers reacted solid MAX-phase precursors with molten salts and iodine vapor to replace aggressive acid etching, effectively regulating the attachment of specific halogen atoms (chlorine, bromine, or iodine) to the material surface.
• Key Data: The resulting chlorine-terminated Ti\(_{3}\)C\(_{2}\) exhibited a 160-fold increase in macroscopic conductivity, a 13-fold improvement in Terahertz conductivity, and a nearly 4-fold rise in charge carrier mobility compared to standard chemically etched samples.
• Significance: This technique eliminates atomic disorder and impurities on material surfaces, significantly reducing electron scattering and resolving a major bottleneck in the electrical stability and performance of 2D materials.
• Future Application: These tailored MXenes are optimized for use in high-performance flexible electronics, next-generation wireless components, electromagnetic shielding, and radar-absorbing coatings.
• Branch of Science: Materials Science and Nanotechnology
• Additional Detail: The method allows for the synthesis of MXenes with dual or triple halogen terminations in controlled ratios, enabling precise tuning of properties such as electromagnetic wave absorption frequencies.

Reshaping gold leads to new electronic and optical properties

In the laser laboratory, Tlek Tapani and Nicolò Maccaferri are testing how porous structures enable gold to absorb more light energy than ordinary gold.
Photo Credit: Mattias Pettersson

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Reshaping gold into a sponge-like nanoporous structure fundamentally alters its interaction with light, drastically enhancing its electronic properties and optical absorption without modifying its chemical composition.
• Methodology: Researchers fabricated thin films of nanoporous gold metamaterial and exposed them to ultrashort laser pulses, utilizing advanced electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to isolate morphology-driven behaviors from intrinsic electronic structure changes.
• Key Data: The electronic temperature within the nanoporous gold film reached approximately 3200 K (~2900 °C), significantly higher than the 800 K (~500 °C) observed in standard solid gold films under identical conditions.
• Significance: This structural modification generates highly energetic "hot" electrons that take longer to cool, enabling light-induced transitions and chemical reactions that are nearly impossible to achieve with unstructured gold.
• Future Application: Optimizing efficiency in hydrogen production, carbon capture, catalysis, energy harvesting, and the development of quantum batteries and smart materials for sustainability.
• Branch of Science: Nanophysics, Material Science, and Ultrafast Optics.
• Additional Detail: The electronic behavior is tunable by systematically varying the filling factor—the ratio of gold to air within the sponge structure—establishing physical architecture as a scalable design parameter for various materials.

Microelectronics: Researchers identify parent compound for chiral materials

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary

The Core Concept: Researchers have identified specific achiral "parent" materials that can be engineered into electronically chiral materials with a single, uniform handedness through targeted structural distortion.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional materials where resistivity increases as they shrink (e.g., copper), these parent compounds utilize specific electronic structures—visualized as "figure eight" shapes on their Fermi surfaces—that can be manipulated. By adjusting electron filling and applying distortion, these achiral precursors transition into chiral conductors that may maintain or even decrease electrical resistance at microscopic scales.

Origin/History: The discovery was announced in January 2026 by physicists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics. The findings were published in Nature Communications (2025) and are central to the new "Centre for Chiral Electronics" (EXC 3112).

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Chirality: The geometric property where an object (or electronic structure) cannot be superimposed onto its mirror image.
• Fermi Surfaces: The abstract boundary in momentum space useful for predicting the electrical properties of metals; here specifically observed as "figure eight" (Octdong) or Spindle-Torus shapes.
• Kramers Nodal Line Metals: The specific class of metallic materials investigated for these tunable electronic properties.

Branch of Science: Condensed Matter Physics, Microelectronics, and Materials Science.

Future Application: Development of next-generation microchips that are significantly faster, more robust, and energy-efficient by utilizing thin layers of materials with uniform electronic chirality.

Why It Matters: As conventional microelectronics approach physical limits where shrinking components causes unmanageable electrical resistance, this discovery offers a viable pathway to bypass those limits, enabling the continued miniaturization and efficiency of computing technology.

UCLA study sets new benchmarks for 3D, atom-by-atom maps of disordered materials

Image Credit: Courtesy of UCLA

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: A new computational framework establishes a benchmark for determining the three-dimensional positions and elemental identities of individual atoms within amorphous, disordered materials like glass.
• Methodology: Researchers combined atomic electron tomography (AET) and ptychography with advanced algorithms to analyze rigorously simulated electron-microscope data, accounting for image noise, focus variations, and atomic thermal vibrations based on quantum mechanical models.
• Key Data: The study demonstrated 100% accuracy in identifying silicon and oxygen atoms within amorphous silica nanoparticles, achieving a positional precision of approximately seven trillionths of a meter.
• Significance: This advancement overcomes the historical limitation of 3D atomic imaging being restricted to crystalline structures, enabling the precise characterization of non-repeating, disordered solids for the first time.
• Future Application: The technique supports the development of advanced materials for ultrathin electronics, solar cells, rewritable memory, quantum devices, and potentially the biological imaging of life-essential elements like carbon and nitrogen.
• Branch of Science: Nanotechnology, Materials Science, and Computational Physics.
• Additional Detail: The research appears alongside a complementary study in the journal Nature, signaling a major shift in the ability to visualize matter at the atomic scale without relying on averaging repeating patterns.

Honeycomb lattice sweetens quantum materials development

In a honeycomb lattice of potassium cobalt arsenate, cobalt spins (red and blue arrows) couple and align. Potassium, arsenic and oxygen are removed to highlight the magnetic cobalt atoms.
Image Credit: Adam Malin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Scientists synthesized potassium cobalt arsenate, a new magnetic honeycomb lattice material where structural distortions cause cobalt spins to strongly couple and align, serving as a stepping stone toward quantum spin liquids.
• Methodology: The team crystallized the compound from a solution of potassium, arsenic, oxygen, and cobalt at low temperatures, subsequently characterizing it via neutron scattering, electron microscopy, heat capacity measurements, and computational modeling.
• Key Data: Theoretical calculations indicated that the material's "Kitaev" interaction is currently weaker than other magnetic forces, causing the spins to freeze into an ordered state rather than forming the desired fluid quantum state.
• Significance: This study establishes a critical experimental platform for generating Majorana fermions, exotic collective excitations theorized to be essential building blocks for stable, error-resistant quantum computing.
• Future Application: Researchers plan to tune the material's magnetic interactions by altering its chemical composition or applying high pressure, aiming to develop robust components for next-generation quantum sensors and computing architectures.
• Branch of Science: Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science, and Inorganic Chemistry.
• Additional Detail: The research supports the global search for "Kitaev materials"—substances with electrically insulating interiors but highly conductive edges—that can resist the loss of quantum properties during environmental interaction.

A Nanomaterial Flex — MXene Electrodes Help OLED Display Technology Shine, While Bending and Stretching

Researchers from Drexel University and Seoul National University have created organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) that could improve mobile technology displays and enable wearable technology.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Drexel University

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers successfully engineered a highly stretchable Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) capable of expanding to 1.6 times its original length (60% elongation) while maintaining functional electroluminescence, overcoming the rigidity of traditional displays.
• Electrode Mechanism: The device replaces brittle indium tin oxide (ITO) components with transparent, flexible electrodes composed of MXene nanomaterials and silver nanowires, which provide high electrical conductivity and mechanical robustness under stress.
• Active Layer Innovation: A specialized "exciplex-assisted phosphorescent" (ExciPh) organic layer was developed to serve as the light-emitting medium, utilizing chemical engineering to facilitate efficient charge transport and exciton formation even during physical deformation.
• Performance Metrics: The OLEDs demonstrate superior stability compared to existing technologies, exhibiting only a 10.6% reduction in performance when subjected to significant strain and retaining 83% of light output after 100 repeated stretching cycles.
• Significance/Application: This technology clears the path for "skin-mounted" displays and deformable optoelectronics, enabling wearable devices that can visualize real-time health data (such as body temperature and blood flow) directly on the skin.

Self-Healing Composite Can Make Airplane, Automobile and Spacecraft Components Last for Centuries

3D printed thermoplastic healing agent (blue overlay) on glass-fiber reinforcement (left); infrared thermograph during in situ self-healing of a fractured fiber-composite (middle); 3D printed healing agent (blue) on carbon-fiber reinforcement (right).
Image Credit: Jason Patrick, NC State University.

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers developed a self-healing fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite capable of enduring more than 1,000 autonomous repair cycles, offering a potential solution to the persistent problem of delamination.
• Mechanism: The system utilizes a thermoplastic healing agent (poly(ethylene-co-methacrylic acid)) 3D-printed onto fiber reinforcements, which is activated by embedded carbon-based heater layers to melt and re-bond cracks.
• Key Data: Experimental testing verified 1,000 fracture-and-heal cycles, with fracture resistance starting at 175% of standard non-healing composites and maintaining approximately 60% strength after extensive cycling.
• Context: Predictive modeling estimates the material could last 125 years with quarterly healing or up to 500 years with annual healing, vastly exceeding the typical 15–40 year lifespan of current FRPs.
• Significance: This technology is positioned to drastically reduce maintenance costs and waste in aerospace and renewable energy sectors, particularly for spacecraft and wind turbines where manual repair is difficult or impossible.
• Critical Detail: The gradual decline in healing efficacy is attributed to the accumulation of brittle fiber micro-debris and waning chemical reactions at the interface, though performance remains statistically viable for century-scale use.

X-raying auditory ossicles – a new technique reveals structures in record time

Scientists at PSI were able to observe the local collagen structures in an ossicle by scanning it with an X-ray beam. The different colours of the cylinders indicate how strongly the collagen bundles are spatially aligned in a section measuring 20 by 20 by 20 micrometres.
Image Credit: © Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Christian Appel

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers refined a "tensor tomography" X-ray diffraction technique that simultaneously detects biological structures ranging from nanometers to millimeters, significantly accelerating the imaging process.
• Methodology: The team used a precisely rotated X-ray beam (approx. 20 micrometers wide) to generate millions of interference patterns around two axes, which software then reconstructed into a 3D tomogram.
• Key Statistic: The optimized process reduced the measurement time for a complete tomogram from roughly 24 hours to just over one hour.
• Context: To validate the method, the team imaged the auditory ossicle (anvil) of the ear, successfully mapping the spatial orientation of nanometer-sized collagen fibers crucial for sound transmission.
• Significance: This drastic reduction in scan time makes statistical studies involving hundreds of samples feasible, aiding biomedical research in areas like bone tissue analysis and implant development.

Local Magnetic Field Gradients Enable Critical Material Separations

A new high-throughput Mach–Zehnder interferometry imaging capability at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, developed for critical minerals and materials extraction research, enables direct spatiotemporal imaging of ion concentrations in magnetic fields and reveals sustained concentration waves and rare earth ion enrichment regions driven by magnetic field gradients.
Photo Credit: Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Rare earth elements (REEs) are crucial for energy-related applications and are expected to play an increasingly important role in emerging technologies. However, these elements have very similar chemical properties and naturally coexist as complex mixtures in both traditional and unconventional feedstocks, making their separation challenging. Researchers in the Non-Equilibrium Transport Driven Separations (NETS) initiative used standard low-cost permanent magnets to induce a magnetic field gradient in solutions containing REEs. They found that these permanent magnets create local magnetic fields strong enough to lead to regions enriched in REE ions, with concentration increases of up to three to four times the concentration of the starting solution. Directly observing magnetic field–driven ion enrichment in real time, without intrusive probes that disturb the system, has long been a challenge. The development of a new high-throughput Mach–Zehnder interferometry imaging capability has now enabled visualization of these dynamics as they unfold.

Scientists develop stronger, longer-lasting perovskite solar cells

Perovskite solar cell
Photo Credit: Xiaoming Chang

Scientists have found a way to make perovskite solar cells not only highly efficient but also remarkably stable, addressing one of the main challenges holding the technology back from widespread use. 

Perovskite has long been hailed as a game-changer for the next generation of solar power. However, advances in material design are still needed to boost the efficiency and durability of solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity. 

Led by Professor Thomas Anthopoulos from The University of Manchester, the research team achieved this by fine-tuning the molecules that coat the perovskite surfaces. They utilized specially designed small molecules, known as amidinium ligands, which act like a molecular “glue” to hold the perovskite structure together. 

New process for stable, long-lasting all-solid-state batteries

An innovative manufacturing process paves the way for the battery of the future: In their latest study PSI researchers demonstrate a cost-effective and efficient way to produce all-solid-state batteries with a long lifespan. The image shows a test cell used to fabricate and test the all-solid-state battery developed at PSI.
Photo Credit: © Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Mahir Dzambegovic

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have achieved a breakthrough on the path to practical application of lithium metal all-solid-state batteries – the next generation of batteries that can store more energy, are safer to operate, and charge faster than conventional lithium-ion batteries. 

All-solid-state batteries are considered a promising solution for electromobility, mobile electronics, and stationary energy storage – in part because they do not require flammable liquid electrolytes and therefore are inherently safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries. 

Two key problems, however, stand in the way of market readiness: On the one hand, the formation of lithium dendrites at the anode remains a critical point. These are tiny, needle-like metal structures that can penetrate the solid electrolyte conducting lithium ions between the electrodes, propagate toward the cathode, and ultimately cause internal short circuits. On the other hand, an electrochemical instability – at the interface between the lithium metal anode and the solid electrolyte – can impair the battery’s long-term performance and reliability. 

Tohoku University and Fujitsu Use AI to Discover Promising New Superconducting Material

The AI technology was utilized to automatically clarify causal relationships from measurement data obtained at NanoTerasu Synchrotron Light Source
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

Tohoku University and Fujitsu Limited announced their successful application of AI to derive new insights into the superconductivity mechanism of a new superconducting material. Their findings demonstrate an important use case for AI technology in new materials development and suggests that the technology has the potential to accelerate research and development. This could drive innovation in various industries such as environment and energy, drug discovery and healthcare, and electronic devices.

The two parties used Fujitsu's AI platform Fujitsu Kozuchi to develop a new discovery intelligence technique to accurately estimate causal relationships. Fujitsu will begin offering a trial environment for this technology in March 2026. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR), Tohoku University , the two parties applied this technology to data measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), an experimental method used in materials research to observe the state of electrons in a material, using a specific superconducting material as a sample.

Membrane magic: Researchers repurpose fuel cells membranes for new applications

Daniel Hallinan Jr. works with perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) polymers in his lab in the Aero-Propulsion Mechatronics & Energy building at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.
Photo Credit: Scott Holstein/FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers are applying fuel cell technology to new applications like sustainable energy and water treatment.

In a study published in Frontiers in Membrane Science and Technology, the researchers examined a type of membrane called a perfluorosulfonic acid polymer membrane, or PFSA polymer membrane. These membranes act as filters, allowing protons to move through, but blocking electrons and gases.

In the study, the researchers examined how boiling these membranes — a common treatment applied to the material — affects their performance and helps them work as specialized tools for different applications.

Scientists create stable, switchable vortex knots inside liquid crystals

Vortex knots inside a chiral nematic liquid crystal
Image Credit: Ivan Smalyukh

The knots in your shoelaces are familiar, but can you imagine knots made from light, water, or from the structured fluids that make LCD screens shine? 

They exist, and in a new Nature Physics study, researchers created particle-like so-called “vortex knots” inside chiral nematic liquid crystals, a twisted fluid like those used in LCD screens. For the first time, these knots are stable and could be reversibly switched between different knotted forms, using electric pulses to fuse and split them. 

“These particle-like topological objects in liquid crystals share the same kind of topology found in theoretical models of glueballs, experimentally-elusive theoretical subatomic particles in high-energy physics, in hopfions and heliknotons studied in light, magnetic materials, and in vortex knots found across many other systems,” explains Ivan Smalyukh, director of the Hiroshima University WPI-SKCM² Satellite at the University of Colorado Boulder and a professor in CU Boulder’s Department of Physics. 

Rice researchers uncover the hidden physics of knot formation in fluids

From left to right, top to bottom: Sibani Lisa Biswal, Fred MacKintosh, Lucas H.P. Cunha and Luca Tubiana.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rice University

Knots are everywhere — from tangled headphones to DNA strands packed inside viruses — but how an isolated filament can knot itself without collisions or external agitation has remained a longstanding puzzle in soft-matter physics.

Now, a team of researchers at Rice University, Georgetown University and the University of Trento in Italy has uncovered a surprising physical mechanism that explains how a single filament, even one too short or too stiff to easily wrap around itself, can form a knot while sinking through a fluid under strong gravitational forces. The discovery, published in Physical Review Letters, provides new insight into the physics of polymer dynamics, with implications ranging from understanding how DNA behaves under confinement to designing next-generation soft materials and nanostructures.

“It is inherently difficult for a single, isolated filament to knot on its own,” said Sibani Lisa Biswal, corresponding author, chair of Rice’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the William M. McCardell Professor in Chemical Engineering. “What’s remarkable about this study is that it shows a surprisingly simple and elegant mechanism that allows a filament to form a knot purely because of stochastic forces as it sediments through a fluid under strong gravitational forces.”