This Review highlights the role of transition metal dichalcogenides, hexagonal boron nitride and stacked heterostructures in applications in quantum communication, computation, sensing and single-photon detection.

This Review presents the most recent ferroelectric materials with wurtzite structure and emphasizes applications in memory and storage-based microelectronic hardware.

This Review illustrates opportunities for the nanophotonics community when adopting machine learning approaches.

This Review analyses the possibilities that a nanomedicine approach offers to tackle COVID-19-induced thrombosis and the associated challenges.

By controlling the current and measuring the voltage via the fibre, a hybrid electronic–photonic sensor consisting of a p–i–n junction located on the fibre-tip junction can be used as an electrical sensor with optical readout.

An engineered version of the mechanosensitive protein talin was used as a monomer in combination with a synthetic chemical crosslinker to form a hydrogel. This shock-absorbing material is shown to capture and preserve projectiles fired at 1.5 km s⁻¹.

Colloidal quantum dots are a potential source of scalable single-photon emitters, but they typically exhibit broad emission linewidths. Proppe et al. show narrow-linewidth emission from heavy-metal-free InP/ZnSe/ZnS dots with coherence times of up to 250 ps.

Ru nanoparticles on HZSM-5 catalysed solvent- and hydrogen-free upcycling of high-density polyethylene into a separable distribution of linear (C₁ to C₆) and cyclic (C₇ to C₁₅) hydrocarbons.

A lipid nanoparticle (LNP) component—an adjuvant lipidoid—is developed to enhance the adjuvanticity of LNPs, which significantly increases the innate and adaptive responses of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines with good tolerability in mice.

Lanthanide downshifting nanoparticles with tunable emissions in the NIR-IIb sub-window (1,500–1,700 nm) region are ideal for deep-tissue imaging. Biofunctionalized core–shell, cubic-phase thulium-based nanoprobes show the non-invasive imaging of murine cerebral vasculature and the tracking of single immune cells and their extravasation in an inflammatory microenvironment.

Graphene, transition-metal dichalcogenides, MXenes and the other members of the flatland family are becoming a rich playground for chemists, enlarging the range of applications these nanomaterials can be used for.

Nanotechnology is advancing at an accelerated pace in applications and novel nanomaterials. To become an enabling technology for a more sustainable society, we identify and assess nanomaterials and applications trends with potentially significant environmental implications.

The mounting environmental pressure on coral reefs calls for a rapid push towards innovative actions. Nanotechnology could help understand and protect present-day reefs to ensure their survival.

The passing of Gordon Moore, an Intel co-founder, is a good time to reflect on the achievements of the semiconductors industry and how nanomaterials could allow Moore’s law to outlive its formulator.

Increasing the capacity of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is an effective strategy to enhance food security while simultaneously reducing the carbon and nitrogen footprint of agriculture. Nanotechnology offers several pathways to enhance BNF successfully.

Nanomedicines are complex drugs where components that have typically been regarded as excipients may now be considered part of the active ingredient. The distinction between the active ingredient and excipients for nanomedicines has important consequences for regulatory review and product development. The dissimilarity in the review of the recent ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based lipid nanoparticles highlights the need for further regulatory alignment on this topic.