Owing to the many-body nature of quantum materials, a microscopic understanding of the interactions dictating their ground state is essential to control their dynamics. This Review summarizes how THz light is effective for both probing quantum materials and driving them into new types of out-of-equilibrium phases.

Engineered materials with intrinsic chirality can affect biological processes from cell uptake to nerve repair. This Perspective article discusses the design and function of intrinsically chiral carbon dots, metal-based materials and patterned geometries, highlighting the different effects of the two enantiomers on biological responses.

The translation of soft biomedical devices from academia to commercialization remains limited despite the substantial growth of the field over the past decade. To drive the next stage of innovation, it is crucial to identify applications that can be uniquely addressed by soft devices. Neurological surgery presents numerous opportunities for harnessing the potential of soft devices in medical applications.

Two-dimensional perovskites with phase-pure structures have considerable potential for optoelectronic applications because of their reduced defects, flattened energy landscape and enhanced lattice protection. This Perspective article investigates advancing progress on achieving phase-pure perovskite by tailoring the precursor interactions and preparation methods and discusses their prominent optoelectronic properties and applications.

A paper in Nature Nanotechnology reports the room-temperature generation and control of meron–antimeron pairs in an antiferromagnet by means of electrical pulses.

An article in the New Journal of Chemistry reports the synthesis of a chiral metal–organic framework that can be used to separate limonene enantiomers.

An article in Nature Chemistry reports the use of a single-molecule junction to monitor the individual steps of a Michael reaction in real time through the chirality-induced spin selectivity effect.

An article in Angewandte Chemie reports the synthesis of chiral supramolecular glasses that exhibit room-temperature colour-tunable ultralong phosphorescence and circular polarized luminescence.

The translation of soft biomedical devices from academia to commercialization remains limited despite the substantial growth of the field over the past decade. To drive the next stage of innovation, it is crucial to identify applications that can be uniquely addressed by soft devices. Neurological surgery presents numerous opportunities for harnessing the potential of soft devices in medical applications.

An article in Nature reports an alloy that can be 3D printed and has improved mechanical properties at high temperatures compared with current state-of-the-art 3D-printable alloys.