Designing load-bearing tissues that match the mechanical performance of native ones adds extra challenges to tissue engineering. Electrospinning of biodegradable polymer fibres into oriented sheets enables the production of laminate scaffolds; when seeded with mesenchymal stem cells and cultured for 10 weeks, these scaffolds replicate the mechanical properties of native annulus fibrosus.

Cover design by David Shand

Article by Nerurkar et al.

The magnetic-field-induced strain in magnetic shape-memory alloys can be used in several types of application. However, the strain is high (10%) only in single-crystalline specimens, which are difficult and expensive to obtain. Polycrystalline samples with comparable strain have now been fabricated by introducing pores of similar size to the grains.

Cover design by David Shand

Letter by Chmielus et al.

Controlled domain formation in block copolymer mixtures or lipid bilayers could lead to more highly ordered assemblies and delivery of drugs. It is now shown that mesoscale domain formation within assembled mixtures of neutral and anionic polymer amphiphiles can be induced by the divalent cations calcium and copper.

Cover design by David Shand

Article by Christian et al.

Plasmonic nanostructures enable the concentration of electric fields into small spaces. An analogue to electromagnetically induced transparency has now been achieved in such devices, leading to a narrow resonance in their absorption spectrum. This combination of high electric-field concentration and sharp resonance offers a pathway to ultracompact sensors with extremely high sensitivity.

Cover design by David Shand

Article by Liu et al.

The light-emitting electrochemical cell (Lec) is one application of organic semiconductors. Scanning Kelvin probe microscopy and light-emission data obtained from operational planar Lecs provides insight into the devices. The measured electrostatic potential profiles confirm that there is in situ formation of a dynamic p-n junction in the organic semiconductor during operation.

Cover design by David Shand

Article by Matyba et al.

Previous demonstrations of cloaking, where objects appear invisible at certain frequencies, have been limited to the microwave regime. The demonstration of a low-loss cloaking device, made from silicon, that works across a broad range of frequencies in the near-infrared therefore represents a step towards cloaking devices at optical frequencies.

Cover design by David Shand

Letter by Valentine et al.

The size distribution of polymer vesicles and phospholipids is usually polydisperse as there are no selection rules for size. A method combining photolithography and molecular self-assembly can now produce giant polymer vesicles with controlled and narrow size distributions.

Cover design by David Shand

Article by Howse et al.

Xavier Blase and colleagues review the discovery of superconductivity in boron-doped diamond and other group-IV semiconductors, and discuss recent achievements in understanding and predictions of innovative devices. On the cover, superimposed onto a diamond is a scanning tunnelling microscope image of vortices on the surface of boron-doped diamond.

Cover design by David Shand

Image courtesy of Thomas Dubouchet, Claude Chapelier and Philipp Achatz, CEA-Grenoble, INAC.

Progress Article by Blase et al.

Anisotropic superstructures produced by the self-assembly of spherical nanoparticles are realized. Uniformly grafting polymer chains onto inorganic spherical nanoparticles produces particles with amphiphile-like behaviour. Mixing these with monodisperse polymer facilitates the self-assembly of numerous anisotropic nanocomposites.

Cover design by David Shand

Article by Akcora et al.

Two independent studies demonstrate how control over magnetic molecules on surfaces may lead to new spintronics applications.

Cover design by David Shand

News & Views by Heiko Wende et al.

Colloidal synthesis can help to precisely control the shape and composition of catalytic metal nanoparticles, but it has so far proved difficult to use these particles in high-temperature reactions. Core-shell structures capable of isolating Pt-mesoporous silica nanoparticles have now been shown to be catalytically active for ethylene hydrogenation and CO oxidation at high temperature.

Cover design by David Shand

Article by Joo et al.

Bridging the gap between theoretical and experimental work to understand the effect of plasticity on the crumpling of thin sheets into a small volume has proved difficult. A realistic numerical model now makes a distinction between elastic and elasto-plastic behaviour.

Cover design by David Shand

Letter by Tallinen et al.