Volume 6 Issue 3, March 2021

During fibrotic diseases, functional tissue parenchyma progressively transforms into stiff, disorganized and non-functional tissue causing organ failure. The underlying multitude of interconnected changes in the cellular microenvironment can be investigated using bioengineered fibrosis models.

An article in Physical Review Letters shows that changing the twist angle of MoSe₂/WSe₂ samples can lengthen the lifetime of excitons in the system by an order of magnitude.

An article in Nature reports measurements of lattice vibrations in bilayer graphene twisted at very small angles by tip-enhanced nano-Raman spectroscopy.

An article in Physical Review Letters reports theoretical calculations predicting that a 2D second-order topological insulator state exists in the gaps separating the low-energy flat bands from higher-energy bands in twisted bilayer graphene and twisted bilayer boron nitride.

An article in Nature Materials reports a detailed characterization of the atomic and electronic structure of WS₂/WSe₂, highlighting the influence of the 3D structural reconstruction of the moiré superlattice on the correlated phenomena observed in this material.

An article in Nature Catalysis reports an approach to integrating different single-atom catalysts within one system to simultaneously perform oxidation and reduction reactions.

Moiré systems formed by 2D atomic layers have widely tunable electrical and optical properties and host exotic, strongly correlated and topological phenomena, including superconductivity, correlated insulator states and orbital magnetism. In this Viewpoint, researchers studying different aspects of moiré materials discuss the most exciting directions in this rapidly expanding field.

Metamaterials provide a platform to leverage optical signals for performing specific-purpose computational tasks with ultra-fast speeds. This Review surveys the basic principles, recent advances and promising future directions for wave-based-metamaterial analogue computing systems.

In photonics, the introduction of order and disorder has traditionally been treated separately. However, recent developments in nanofabrication and design strategies have enabled the use of materials that lie between the extremes of order and disorder that can yield innovative optical phenomena. This Review surveys the basics and recent achievements of engineered disorder in photonics.

Supported isolated metal atoms and subnanometric metal clusters are emerging catalytic materials. This Review discusses the influence of confining subnanometric metal species in zeolites and metal–organic frameworks on their geometric and electronic structures and catalytic performance.

The influx and efflux of water in biological structures leads to reversible deformation, which has important functions in plants (for example, in seed protection and dispersal) and animals (for example, in the recovery of the strength and shape of feathers, and for reversible changes in silk and hair). Here the authors review the main hydration-induced deformation mechanisms and highlight applications inspired by these processes.