Volume 18 Issue 8, August 2019

Suppressing implant fibrosis

Foreign body response can result in failure of biomaterials in vivo. Solvent-free crystals containing anti-fibrotic drugs now show the potential for long-term inhibition of fibrosis on a number of implantable devices in rodents and non-human primates.

See Farah et al. and Bank News & Views.

IMAGE: Joshua Doloff*, Shady Farah* and Felice Frankel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (*equally contributed). COVER DESIGN: David Shand.

Editorial

Editorial | 22 July 2019

Let’s talk about it

We are launching a new column to talk about science with our readers from a broader perspective. Our first topic is mental health in academia.

Correspondence

Correspondence | 22 July 2019

Researchers pay the cost of research
- Ben Bleasdale

News & Views

News & Views | 10 June 2019

Electric potentials at the atomic scale

Quantitative atomic-scale images of electric potentials at surfaces have now been obtained with a non-contact atomic force microscope by functionalizing the tip as a quantum dot sensor.
- Mats Persson
News & Views | 22 July 2019

A new twist on superlubricity
- Philip Ball
News & Views | 22 July 2019

An aluminium superinductor

Granular aluminium — a superconductor with high kinetic inductance — has been used to create a superinductor for a fluxonium superconducting qubit.
- Joel I-Jan Wang
- & William D. Oliver
News & Views | 22 July 2019

Little probe, big data

Thousands of electron diffraction patterns, collected stepwise by scanning transmission electron microscopy, are synchronized and mined to provide unprecedented maps of the nanostructure of ordered domains in organic electronics films.
- Gitti L. Frey
- & Yaron Kauffmann
News & Views | 01 July 2019

Stable platinum in a zeolite channel

Highly stable and active Pt–Sn sub-nanometre clusters are located in sinusoidal zeolite channels, leading to improved and more stable propane dehydrogenation catalysts.
- Bert M. Weckhuysen
News & Views | 22 July 2019

Mastering their own fates through the matrix

With their ability to give rise to many different cell types, stem cells have long been a target of scientists who seek to achieve control over their differentiation. New evidence suggests that stem cells influence their own fates through protein deposition and physical remodelling of their microenvironment.
- Eric L. Qiao
- , Sanjay Kumar
- & David V. Schaffer
News & Views | 22 July 2019

Limiting biomaterial fibrosis

Crystallized anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to inhibit fibrosis on the surface of a number of devices over a long-term period following implantation in rodents and non-human primates.
- Ruud A. Bank

Review Articles

Review Article | 08 April 2019

Parity–time symmetry and exceptional points in photonics

This Review discusses recent developments in the area of non-Hermitian physics, and more specifically the special case of non-Hermitian optical systems with parity–time symmetry.
- Ş. K. Özdemir
- , S. Rotter
- , F. Nori
- & L. Yang
Review Article | 13 May 2019

Droplet epitaxy of semiconductor nanostructures for quantum photonic devices

The droplet epitaxy technique has emerged as an alternative to the most commonly used Stranski–Krastanov for fabricating semiconductor nanostructures. This Review discusses the important aspects of droplet epitaxy quantum dots, from the growth mechanism to device application.
- Massimo Gurioli
- , Zhiming Wang
- , Armando Rastelli
- , Takashi Kuroda
- & Stefano Sanguinetti

Letters

Letter | 17 June 2019

Zero-energy vortex bound state in the superconducting topological surface state of Fe(Se,Te)

High-resolution spectroscopy supports the presence of Majorana bound states in an iron-based topological superconductor.
- T. Machida
- , Y. Sun
- , S. Pyon
- , S. Takeda
- , Y. Kohsaka
- , T. Hanaguri
- , T. Sasagawa
- & T. Tamegai
Letter | 29 April 2019

Granular aluminium as a superconducting material for high-impedance quantum circuits

A fluxonium qubit is constructed out of granular aluminium, revealing its potential for superconducting quantum technologies.
- Lukas Grünhaupt
- , Martin Spiecker
- , Daria Gusenkova
- , Nataliya Maleeva
- , Sebastian T. Skacel
- , Ivan Takmakov
- , Francesco Valenti
- , Patrick Winkel
- , Hannes Rotzinger
- , Wolfgang Wernsdorfer
- , Alexey V. Ustinov
- & Ioan M. Pop
Letter | 01 July 2019

Terahertz circular dichroism spectroscopy of biomaterials enabled by kirigami polarization modulators

Kirigami metamaterials show significant terahertz circular dichroism and are adopted as tunable optical elements in the terahertz region.
- Won Jin Choi
- , Gong Cheng
- , Zhengyu Huang
- , Shuai Zhang
- , Theodore B. Norris
- & Nicholas A. Kotov
Letter | 17 June 2019

Oxysulfide photocatalyst for visible-light-driven overall water splitting

The instability of sulfide ions during water oxidation prevents simultaneous evolution of hydrogen and oxygen. An oxysulfide semiconductor photocatalyst, Y₂Ti₂O₅S₂, is shown to evolve H₂ and O₂ via a water-splitting reaction under visible-light irradiation.
- Qian Wang
- , Mamiko Nakabayashi
- , Takashi Hisatomi
- , Song Sun
- , Seiji Akiyama
- , Zheng Wang
- , Zhenhua Pan
- , Xiong Xiao
- , Tomoaki Watanabe
- , Taro Yamada
- , Naoya Shibata
- , Tsuyoshi Takata
- & Kazunari Domen

Articles

Article | 15 July 2019

Predictive model of hydrogen trapping and bubbling in nanovoids in bcc metals

A model is established to quantitatively predict hydrogen energetics and molecule formation in nanovoids of bcc metals, clarifying the trapping and bubbling mechanisms for understanding hydrogen-induced damage.
- Jie Hou
- , Xiang-Shan Kong
- , Xuebang Wu
- , Jun Song
- & C. S. Liu
Article | 20 May 2019

Shear-strain-mediated magnetoelectric effects revealed by imaging

Non-orthogonal magnetization switching is related to the shear strain associated with ferroelectric domains, with implications for magnetoelectric devices.
- M. Ghidini
- , R. Mansell
- , F. Maccherozzi
- , X. Moya
- , L. C. Phillips
- , W. Yan
- , D. Pesquera
- , C. H. W. Barnes
- , R. P. Cowburn
- , J.-M. Hu
- , S. S. Dhesi
- & N. D. Mathur
Article | 01 July 2019

High-resolution remote thermometry and thermography using luminescent low-dimensional tin-halide perovskites

Low-dimensional tin-halide perovskites exhibit strong temperature dependence of luminescence decay time that translates into high sensitivity over a wide range of temperatures and as such can be used in high-resolution remote thermography.
- Sergii Yakunin
- , Bogdan M. Benin
- , Yevhen Shynkarenko
- , Olga Nazarenko
- , Maryna I. Bodnarchuk
- , Dmitry N. Dirin
- , Christoph Hofer
- , Stefano Cattaneo
- & Maksym V. Kovalenko
Article | 10 June 2019

Quantitative imaging of electric surface potentials with single-atom sensitivity

Scanning quantum dot microscopy, based on the use of a single molecule attached to the tip of the cantilever of an atomic force microscope, is shown to provide quantitative maps of surface potential distribution with atomic resolution.
- Christian Wagner
- , Matthew. F. B. Green
- , Michael Maiworm
- , Philipp Leinen
- , Taner Esat
- , Nicola Ferri
- , Niklas Friedrich
- , Rolf Findeisen
- , Alexandre Tkatchenko
- , Ruslan Temirov
- & F. Stefan Tautz
Article | 03 June 2019

Diffraction imaging of nanocrystalline structures in organic semiconductor molecular thin films

Scanning electron nanobeam diffraction is used to monitor the morphology of organic thin films with nanometre resolution, revealing information on the arrangement of crystalline domains useful for structure–property relationship understanding.
- Ouliana Panova
- , Colin Ophus
- , Christopher J. Takacs
- , Karen C. Bustillo
- , Luke Balhorn
- , Alberto Salleo
- , Nitash Balsara
- & Andrew M. Minor
Article | 01 July 2019

Regioselective generation and reactivity control of subnanometric platinum clusters in zeolites for high-temperature catalysis

Subnanometre Pt clusters show high catalytic activity, but can sinter and so reduce reactivity. Here, authors localize Pt clusters in one zeolite channel, preventing sintering and allowing highly stable and selective catalytic propane dehydrogenation.
- Lichen Liu
- , Miguel Lopez-Haro
- , Christian W. Lopes
- , Chengeng Li
- , Patricia Concepcion
- , Laura Simonelli
- , Jose J. Calvino
- & Avelino Corma
Focus:
- Zeolite catalysts
Article | 22 July 2019

A hybrid material that reversibly switches between two stable solid states

Mechanically switchable materials made of supercooled fluids embedded in a polymer matrix reversibly shift between soft and hard solid states upon stimulation.
- Fut (Kuo) Yang
- , Aleksander Cholewinski
- , Li Yu
- , Geoffrey Rivers
- & Boxin Zhao
Article | 18 March 2019

Local nascent protein deposition and remodelling guide mesenchymal stromal cell mechanosensing and fate in three-dimensional hydrogels

The extracellular matrix surrounding cells plays a significant role in their behaviour. The spreading, mechanosensing and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells are shown to be dependent on the early deposition and remodelling of local nascent proteins within degradable and viscoelastic hydrogels.
- Claudia Loebel
- , Robert L. Mauck
- & Jason A. Burdick
Article | 24 June 2019

Long-term implant fibrosis prevention in rodents and non-human primates using crystallized drug formulations

Foreign body response can result in failure of biomaterials in vivo. Solvent-free crystals containing anti-fibrotic drugs now show the potential for long-term inhibition of fibrosis on a number of implantable devices in rodents and non-human primates.
- Shady Farah
- , Joshua C. Doloff
- , Peter Müller
- , Atieh Sadraei
- , Hye Jung Han
- , Katy Olafson
- , Keval Vyas
- , Hok Hei Tam
- , Jennifer Hollister-Lock
- , Piotr S. Kowalski
- , Marissa Griffin
- , Ashley Meng
- , Malia McAvoy
- , Adam C. Graham
- , James McGarrigle
- , Jose Oberholzer
- , Gordon C. Weir
- , Dale L. Greiner
- , Robert Langer
- & Daniel G. Anderson

Amendments & Corrections

Author Correction | 25 June 2019

Author Correction: Long-range chiral exchange interaction in synthetic antiferromagnets
- Dong-Soo Han
- , Kyujoon Lee
- , Jan-Philipp Hanke
- , Yuriy Mokrousov
- , Kyoung-Whan Kim
- , Woosuk Yoo
- , Youri L. W. van Hees
- , Tae-Wan Kim
- , Reinoud Lavrijsen
- , Chun-Yeol You
- , Henk J. M. Swagten
- , Myung-Hwa Jung
- & Mathias Kläui

Why it Matters

Why it Matters | 22 July 2019

On research culture and mental health

Donata Iandolo and Gonçalo Silva on the need for an open discussion on mental health in academia.
- Donata Iandolo
- & Gonçalo Silva