News & Views

Antiferromagnetism has a vanishing total magnetization and thus is extremely challenging to manipulate. Now, circularly polarized light is shown to efficiently detect, induce and switch a unique class of antiferromagnets.

Locally confined epithelial malignancies undergo a phase transition from a solid-like to liquid-like state, a process called unjamming, where associated chronic intracellular strain causes nuclear envelope rupture, leading to the emergence of pro-metastatic traits due to cGAS–STING pathway activation.

An optical spectroscopy approach unravels different layer-dependent correlated electron phases in a two-dimensional semiconductor heterobilayer.

Epitaxial topological heterostructures of (Bi,Sb)₂Te₃/graphene/gallium have been achieved using molecular-beam epitaxy, providing the opportunity to access Majorana zero modes in electrical transport when combined with van der Waals tunnel junctions.

A second-harmonic generation approach enables the direct measurement of the potential of zero charge at electrochemical interfaces.

Scientists have realized Weyl modes by exposing a topological insulator to large magnetic fields. Their effort enriches the toolbox to design, engineer and manipulate topological materials for physics research and materials applications.

The arrangement of magnetic ions between layers of NbS₂ affects it as though a giant magnetic field is applied in different directions for electrons moving with opposite velocities. This discovery goes beyond the reach of conventional magnets, and opens up the way to custom-made effective fields engineered to guide materials into new territory.

An artificial neuron architecture based on antiambipolar organic electrochemical transistors shows responses to biological ions and neurotransmitters akin to real neurons with comparable speed. The soft and more biocompatible nature of organic semiconductors could enable applications in brain–machine interfaces and in vivo sensing.

Using low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy on a MoSe₂/few-layer graphene heterostructure enables localized exciton generation and mapping with atomic-scale spatial resolution.

A curvature-sensing peptide is used to disrupt exosomes for enhanced cancer immunotherapy.

A bioengineered model incorporating a synthetic extracellular matrix recapitulates the lymphoid tumour microenvironment, making it a valuable tool for drug testing and designing personalized therapies.

A polymeric nanoparticle adjuvant containing a Toll-like receptor 7 agonist elicits broad protection against viral challenges.

Time-dependent pump–probe studies of polaritonic transport — for polaritons formed by strong coupling between organic molecules and Bloch surface waves at the interface of a distributed Bragg reflector — reveal a transition between diffusive and ballistic behaviour.

A large-scale screening identifies an inhalable polymer nanoparticle formulation that safely and effectively delivers therapeutic mRNA molecules to the lungs of several animal species.

Targeting P-selectin enables safer and more effective nanomedicine delivery through caveolin-1-mediated endothelial transcytosis in preclinical medulloblastoma tumour models.

By exploiting optical phase-modulation at complex surface plasmon polariton patterns, as well as energy-filtered imaging, femtosecond electron pulses are dynamically shaped in phase and amplitude.