Volume 6 Issue 9, September 2021

Good mental health and wellbeing of research staff and students lead to better science: it is time to reflect on what we can do as team leaders to create a positive research culture.

The experiences of Black scientists and engineers reveal that science is not a meritocracy. Here is a list of recommendations to combat anti-Black racism in academic institutions.

An article in Nature Computational Science reports a recommender system that can identify promising compositions for high-entropy alloys based on information available in existing databases.

An article in Nature Communications maps the adsorption of molecules at different sites on a gold nanoparticle, uncovering varying degrees of positive and negative adsorption cooperativity.

An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA reports the engineering of lymphatic vessels in collagen matrices.

An article in ACS Nano reports the design of polymer nanoparticles for the delivery of antiviral therapies across the blood–brain barrier to target HIV in the brain.

Multifunctional nanostructures are explored for smart cancer nanomedicine. This Review discusses nanostructures made of biomolecules, including polysaccharides, nucleic acids, peptides and proteins, which are inherently multifunctional and allow the targeting and delivery of cancer drugs to tumour tissue.

Weyl fermions have yet to be observed as elementary particles but can be realized in topological quantum materials. This Review discusses the theoretical and experimental discovery of emergent Weyl fermions, high-fold chiral fermions, topological Weyl lines and related Dirac phases.

Single-supermolecule electronics focuses not only on charge transport within individual supermolecules but also on the weak non-covalent interactions between components of supermolecules and mechanically interlocked molecules. This Review surveys the use of non-covalent interactions in the construction of electronic devices.

Phase transformations in 2D materials have distinct kinetic and thermodynamic features, resulting from their reduced dimensionality and unique interactions. This Review discusses the properties of phase transitions and defects in 2D materials, and examines technological applications and challenges in the study of 2D phase transitions.

Electrochemical ion insertion is rapidly emerging as a powerful materials design strategy. This Review discusses how ion insertion enables reversible transformation and switching of physico-chemical properties, the role of defects and interfacial reactions, and opportunities for ultrafast ionic control.