Reviews & Analysis

Dislocation motion is crucial to the deformation of materials. The discovery that at least at lower temperatures quantum effects play an important role in this process considerably improves quantitative predictions of mechanical properties.

A powerful new set of tools combining artificial synthesis and in situ characterization of correlated oxides unites the processes of materials discovery and understanding, and reveals the origin of a dimensionality-induced metal–insulator transition.

In semiconducting polymers, the mobility of negative charges is typically much smaller than that of positive charges. Identification of a universal electron-trap level that is associated with water complexation now clarifies this difference and provides guidelines for the design of improved organic semiconductors.

Real-time transmission electron microscopy shows that the formation of crystal nuclei of organic molecules in solution occurs inside dense liquid nanoclusters.

Upconversion nanoparticles that convert low-energy light into high-energy light hold promise for boosting solar-cell efficiency and enabling highly sensitive biological assays. But their spectral conversion under broadband excitation has been challenging, until now.

Nanoparticle-enabled, sustained delivery of soluble hydrophilic cytokines and hydrophobic inhibitors engages the innate and adaptive immune systems to fight cancer.

The role of dispersion forces in molecule–metal bonding has often been underestimated or ignored. Two groups now report independent single-molecule experiments that illustrate and quantify the effect of such interactions on bonding strength.

A polymeric tissue-engineered structure capable of swimming in a similar manner to a jellyfish is created by mimicking the structural design, stroke kinematics and fluid dynamics of the organism.

Improvements in electrostatic force microscopy now make it possible to measure the dielectric constant of isolated low-polarizable nanoparticles and viruses, thus enabling the label-free identification of dielectric nanomaterials of similar morphology.

A rapid vascular casting approach that uses carbohydrate glass as a sacrificial template allows tissues to be built that can be kept alive for longer in the laboratory until needed for transplantation.

The self-assembly of surfactant micelles in the formation of templated mesoporous silicas can be tuned to produce mesoporous materials with quasicrystalline ordering, proving that quasicrystals are indeed a general form of ordered but non-periodic matter.

Complex materials that challenge existing electronic materials are the subject of intense research. In particular, correlated electron effects and ionic properties, and their interplay, promise new functionalities.

The development of synthetic strategies enabling the fabrication of well-defined polymer–biomolecule conjugates, together with advances in top-down nanofabrication, are two highlights from a recent meeting of polymer scientists.

Magnetometry usually requires large probes and bulky instrumentation. Organic diodes have now been used in small probes that can measure moderate magnetic fields with 10 ppm precision.

Pliable gels of fibrin, a fibrous protein involved in blood clotting and linked to cancer, select cells with high in vivo aggressiveness and 'stemness' from a pool of cancer cells.

A polymer hydrogel system combines chemical, thermal and mechanical responses in a reversible manner and thus exhibits homeostatic and self-regulatory behaviour similar to that of living systems.

When water binds to solid surfaces it forms a large variety of structures, which leads to behaviour relevant to many technological processes and phenomena such as lubrication, heterogeneous catalysis and electrochemistry. This Review discusses current understanding of the interface between water and flat metal surfaces at the atomic and molecular levels, as well as open questions in this field.