This Perspective proposes nine performance metrics for the assessment of the functionality of shape-morphing devices across material, device and system levels and introduces a mathematical method for evaluating the surface complexity and standard surfaces for assessing the programmability of shape-morphing devices, offering benchmarks for this growing field.

Non-collinear antiferromagnets with chiral spin textures exhibit unexpected charge and spin transport effects with potential applications in spintronics, from magnetic random access memories to racetrack memories and beyond. This Review discusses non-collinear antiferromagnetic materials, their distinctive properties and potential applications.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods continue to make inroads into accelerated materials design and development. This Review focuses on AI-enabled advances in polymer informatics, highlighting practical design protocols and exemplar applications in energy and sustainability, while also addressing challenges to industrial adoption.

Additives are essential to the diverse use of plastics, yet pose risks to health and recycling quality. Collaboration across supply chains, disclosure of composition and risks, and improved additive design can enable more sustainable plastics.

Thin-film solar cells are promising for providing cost-effective and reliable power in space, especially in multi-junction applications. To enhance efficiency, robustness and integration, advancements at the cell level must be combined with improvements in assembly and panel design. Ensuring that solar cells can provide sustained performance is also essential for minimizing space debris.

An article in Nature Communications presents an adaptable and scalable approach to synthesize high-entropy single-atom nanocage catalysts for efficient ammonia electrosynthesis.

An article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society reports porous photocatalytic nanowires that extract record amounts of uranium from seawater, a step closer to tapping the ocean’s vast uranium reserves for nuclear energy.

An article in Nature reports the observation of giant terahertz magnetoelectric oscillations in a van der Waals multiferroic and presents a theoretical model that elucidates their origin.

An article in Science Robotics presents a high-energy-density, picolitre-sized battery.

In her memoir Human Rights and Peace, a Personal Odyssey, Zafra Lerman, an Israeli-American chemist and science diplomat, recounts her remarkable life.