Nanoscience News (<front>)

Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 15 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-02050-8

We present a Focus issue on biosensing, examining sensing modalities at various length scales and their future roles in diagnostics, showcasing the field’s interdisciplinary nature.

Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 15 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-02020-0

The implementation of clinical needs and feedback throughout the development cycle of wearable health-monitoring technology is key to success. Close collaboration with all stakeholders involved will speed clinical translation to the market.

Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 15 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-02038-4

Since the term nanobiosensor first emerged over three decades ago, the field has witnessed an explosion of groundbreaking research. Thanks to the development of advanced nanomaterials and nanotechnologies, combined with decades of expertise in biosensing, a wide range of innovative and improved nanobiosensors have been reported, but many challenges remain. For this technology to truly meet real-world needs — particularly in global health and related applications — further efforts are needed to improve performance, useability, scalability and cost-effectiveness.

Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 15 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-02033-9

A manually operated portable water disinfection system can rapidly inactivate pathogens in water, offering a promising approach for safe water treatment in low-resource settings.

Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 15 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-02010-2

This Review examines recent advances in body-interfaced biomolecular sensors for chronic disease monitoring, highlighting relevant biomarkers and nanomaterial-enabled sensing modalities, wearable form factors, clinical applications and challenges to real-world translation.

Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 15 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41565-025-02032-w

This Review provides insights into nanosensor technologies for monitoring cellular biomarkers, proposing a spatial framework to clarify their distinct advantages, challenges and performance for high-resolution, dynamic profiling of cellular analytes.

Singular Limits and Long-Time Behaviour in Fluid Mechanics Models via the Relative Entropy Method

Singular limits in partial differential equations occur when certain parameters reach extreme regimes, leading to changes in regularity, the appearance of singularities, or transitions between different physical behaviors. Understanding such limits is essential for linking mathematical models across scales and for describing complex phenomena in areas such as fluid dynamics, materials science, and astrophysics.

In this talk, I will present recent results concerning the high-friction limit for systems arising in fluid mechanics. Following this approach, we rigorously derive the nonlocal Cahn–Hilliard equation as a limit of the nonlocal Euler–Korteweg equation using the relative entropy method. By applying recent results on the connection between nonlocal and local Cahn–Hilliard models, we also rigorously obtain the large-friction nonlocal-to-local limit. The analysis is carried out for dissipative measure-valued solutions of the nonlocal Euler-Korteweg equation, which are known to exist globally in time.

This framework provides a novel way to derive equations that may lack classical solutions by introducing nonlocal effects in the fluid system and employing the relative entropy method. I will also discuss the high-friction limit of the Euler-Poisson system and various applications of the relative entropy method in fluid mechanics, including weak-strong uniqueness results and asymptotic limits.

Finally, I will focus on a recent result concerning the unconditional stability of certain radially symmetric steady states of compressible viscous fluids in domains with inflow/outflow boundary conditions, showing that any (not necessarily symmetric) solution of the corresponding evolutionary problem converges to a single radially symmetric steady state.

• Speaker: Agnieszka Świerczewska-Gwiazda, University of Warsaw
• Thursday 23 October 2025, 15:00-16:00
• Venue: Centre for Mathematical Sciences, MR14.
• Series: Applied and Computational Analysis; organiser: Matthew Colbrook.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Title to be confirmed

Abstract not available

• Speaker: Jonah Nagura (Chicago)
• Thursday 23 October 2025, 14:00-15:15
• Venue: Seminar Room 3, RDC.
• Series: Theory of Condensed Matter; organiser: Bo Peng.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Data as models? A closer look at data-driven control systems

The resurgence of data-driven dynamic models offers the tantalising prospect of being able to implement feedback controllers directly from measurements of the trajectories of the system to be controlled. Data-enabled predictive control (DeePC), data-driven predictive control (DDPC), and similar variants circumvent the traditional approach of identifying a dynamic model as an intermediate step in the control design process. Such approaches require regularisation to trade off between the estimation and control objectives. Another weakness is the inability to effectively handle unmeasured disturbances. We take a somewhat different view here that the data matrices used for data-driven control are themselves models (signal matrix models) that use the system trajectories as the representation. We will use this approach to construct Kalman filters and predictive controllers. Regularisation is no longer necessary and unmeasured disturbances can be effectively controlled.

The seminar will be held in JDB Seminar Room, Department of Engineering

• Speaker: Roy Smith, ETH Zurich
• Thursday 16 October 2025, 14:00-15:00
• Venue: JDB Seminar Room, Department of Engineering.
• Series: CUED Control Group Seminars; organiser: Fulvio Forni.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

On the linear stability of the Kerr solution to gravitational perturbations

Kerr black holes are solutions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity and are theoretically predicted to describe astrophysical stationary black holes. A mathematical proof of their nonlinear stability remains a fundamental open problem in the subject. I will present a new geometric framework to address the stability of the Kerr solution to gravitational perturbations in the full sub-extremal range of black hole parameters. The main features of the framework will be illustrated in the context of the linearised theory, which serves as a fundamental building block in nonlinear applications. The talk includes joint work with R. Teixeira da Costa (University of Cambridge).

• Speaker: Gabriele Benomio, GSSI
• Monday 20 October 2025, 14:00-15:00
• Venue: Lecture Room 2 in the gatehouse at INI.
• Series: Geometric Analysis & Partial Differential Equations seminar; organiser: Zoe Wyatt.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Metallic Lattice Metamaterials: Extreme Manufacturing and Multifunctional Applications

Title: Metallic Lattice Metamaterials: Extreme Manufacturing and Multifunctional Applications

Abstract: Metallic lattice metamaterials, a class of architected materials characterized by their precisely engineered periodic micro-architectures, have emerged as a frontier in materials science and advanced manufacturing. We begin by discussing our developed Micro-Selective Laser Melting (µSLM), which enable the fabrication of metallic lattices with unprecedented geometric complexity and fine feature resolution. Then, building upon µSLM technology, we have developed an oxide dispersion strengthening strategy that enables high-precision (78 µm), cost-effective additive manufacturing of pure copper components using infrared lasers. Furthermore, through the implementation of dislocation-engineered 3D printing methodology, we have achieved integrated manufacturing across nano-to-macro scales. The presentation subsequently demonstrates the multifunctional applications of these advanced manufacturing technologies across various domains, including components for supersonic impact resistance (aerospace), high-precision metalens fabrication (terahertz communications), extreme heat environments (combustion chambers), and monolithic catalytic electrodes (sustainable development). Together, these advances promote the multi-scale development of lattice metamaterials and unlock their potential for next-generation engineering applications.

Bio: Dr. Liqiang is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Additive Microstructure Engineering (AddME) Lab at the University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Prof. Matteo Seita. He received his PhD from City University of Hong Kong in 2024. Following his Ph.D., he conducted postdoctoral research at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research specializes in the multi-scale design and additive manufacturing of metallic lattice metamaterials, with a focus on high-thermal-conductivity copper-based materials and high-strength/ductility high-entropy alloys for extreme service conditions. Dr. Liqiang’s work has resulted in high-impact publications in journals, covering topics such as extreme dynamic loading (Science Advances, 2025, featured as Cover Article), terahertz metalens manufacturing (Nature Communications, 2025), sustainable electrocatalyst design (Nature Communications, 2025), and extreme thermal management (Additive Manufacturing, 2024).

• Speaker: Yanheng Xie and Dr Liqiang Wang, CUED
• Friday 24 October 2025, 14:00-15:00
• Venue: Oatley 1 Meeting Room, Department of Engineering.
• Series: Engineering - Mechanics and Materials Seminar Series; organiser: div-c.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Strain engineering, by precisely modulating the electronic structure of catalysts, serves as a pivotal strategy for enhancing electrocatalytic performance. This review focuses on breakthrough strategies such as dynamic strain regulation and stabilization mechanisms, along with their applications in energy conversion reactions and future prospects.

Abstract

Strain engineering plays a pivotal role in optimizing noble metal-based electrocatalysts, which are essential for advancing sustainable energy technologies. This review highlights recent breakthroughs extending beyond conventional approaches, focusing on two key innovations: 1) Core volume manipulation (CVM) in core–shell structures, enabling precise, dynamic, and reversible strain control via core contraction/expansion; 2) Stabilized strain architectures integrating strong interfacial interactions to construct exceptionally durable catalytic systems. CVM facilitates tunable strain, whereas strong interfacial interactions address strain relaxation crucially, ensuring long-term durability under harsh conditions. These advanced strategies deliver exceptional performance in key reactions, including oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), and CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), achieving significant enhancements in mass activity and dramatically improved stability over benchmark catalysts. It is critically discuss how these complementary strategies, CVM for tunability and strong interfacial interactions for inherent stability, offer unprecedented control and durability. Finally, current challenges and future directions for next-generation high-performance, durable electrocatalysts are outlined.

The Biology and Impact of Sensory Differences in Autism

Sensory differences are common in autism, yet have received surprisingly little attention. We know little about the underlying neural mechanisms of these sensory differences, in part due to the wide use of broad, scoping, questionnaires, or by isolated experimental studies. In this talk I will present a series of studies examining sensory differences in autism from brain, to behaviour, using multimodal approaches. First, we developed a battery of psychophysical experiments to examine differences in perceptual sensitivity, showing robust, and reproducible differences in autism, across developmental stages. Then, I will show how these measures associate with higher-order autistic traits including sensory reactivity as well as mental health challenges. I will also show how perceptual differences contribute to aversive sensory experiences. Delving more into the biology, we the used Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to link these sensory differences to differences in excitatory and inhibitory (E/I) neurotransmitter concentrations of glutamate and GABA in the autistic brain, which appears driven by genetic variability in these E/I systems. Finally, using GAB Aergic pharmacological approaches we are able to causally “shift” sensory markers, which in turn, are predictive of clinical improvements.

• Speaker: Nick Puts, King's College London
• Wednesday 22 October 2025, 11:30-12:30
• Venue: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81286610099?pwd=HsKTIo1MzZ7eEOJUaVYrEBbCvSSW1g.1.
• Series: ARClub Talks; organiser: Simon Braschi.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Addressing the dual challenges of global water scarcity and carbon neutrality goals, this paper systematically reviews research progress on interfacial solar steam evaporation (ISSE) technology from the perspective of multi-scale energy transfer and mass transport. The content covers photothermal material selection, structural design, system integration, and multifunctional coupling strategies such as thermoelectric synergy, water–hydrogen co-production, and metal salt recovery. Ultimately, it proposes building an intelligent water circulation system integrating “water collection-purification-co-production” through AI-enabled and modular design.

Abstract

In response to the dual challenges posed by global water scarcity and carbon neutrality targets, conventional desalination technologies struggle to satisfy the requirements of high energy consumption and inherent limitations associated with centralized water supply systems. Within this context, interfacial solar steam evaporation (ISSE) technology has emerged as a promising solution to mitigate the uneven spatial and temporal distribution of water resources, owing to its advantages of highly efficient photothermal conversion, zero carbon emissions, and modular design. Although ISSE has been developed for tens of years, there are still many challenges to be faced, from fundamental research to practical applications. It is noticed that the energy conversion and mass transport are the core issues in multi-scale levels of ISSE, no matter of the material design or the system assembly, and the optimization of them is beneficial for the whole process of ISSE. Herein, the research progress is tried to understand and summarize from the material chosen, structural architecture, and system integration with the view of energy and mass transfer. Furthermore, the successful integration of thermoelectric conversion, simultaneous water–hydrogen cogeneration, and metal salt recovery has concurrently enhanced the efficiency of energy utilization. Furthermore, a collaborative operation framework integrating discrete water networks and ISSE technology has been predicted. Through AI empowerment and modularized design, it eventually forms a smart water cycle system with the trinity of “water collection-purification-cogeneration.” At the end of this review, the thoughts on the development of ISSE are also provided.

Client Clustering for Federated Learning in Data Heterogeneous Scenarios

Federated Learning (FL) is a paradigm where models are collaboratively trained by sharing only local parameters with a central aggregation server and faces limitations in heterogeneous environments. In particular, the heterogeneity of client data and device capabilities affects model generalization, convergence, and resource management. In this scenario, “client clustering” has emerged as a strategy to mitigate these issues, enabling more efficient model aggregation, improving convergence, and enhancing personalization across diverse data distributions.

Bio: Gabriel Ukstin Talasso holds a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics and is currently a Master’s student in Computer Science at the University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil. His research focuses on training and fine-tuning language models in distributed environments using federated learning, particularly in scenarios with heterogeneous data.

• Speaker: Gabriel Ukstin Talasso, Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil
• Wednesday 22 October 2025, 11:00-12:00
• Venue: Computer Lab, SS03.
• Series: Cambridge ML Systems Seminar Series; organiser: Sally Matthews.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Federated Learning at H.IAAC: On-going Research and Opportunities

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a key paradigm for enabling collaborative and privacy-preserving machine learning across distributed data sources. At the Hub of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Architectures (H.IAAC), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), several research initiatives have been conducted to advance the development and application of FL. In this talk, we will present an overview of the main research developed at H.IAAC. We will also discuss ongoing and future research directions and highlight collaboration opportunities.

Bio: Luiz Bittencourt is an Associate Professor at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. Luiz was awarded with the IEEE ComSoc Latin America Young Professional Award in 2013. He acts on the organization of several conferences in the cloud and edge computing topics, and in several technical program committees. He served as associate editor for the IEEE Cloud Computing Magazine, and currently serves as AE for the Computers and Electrical Engineering and the Internet of Things journals, for the Journal of Network and Systems Management, for the IEEE Networking Letters and for the IEEE Transactions on Services Computing. His main interests are in resource management and scheduling in cloud, edge and fog computing, and their synergy towards an intelligent computing continuum through distributed machine learning techniques.

Allan M. de Souza is an Assistant Professor at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil, and Researcher at the Hub of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Architectures (H.IAAC). He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UNICAMP and the University of Bern, Switzerland. His research interests include Federated Learning and Intelligent Distributed Systems.

• Speaker: Allan M. de Souza & Luiz Bittencourt, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
• Monday 20 October 2025, 11:00-12:00
• Venue: Computer Lab, FW11.
• Series: Cambridge ML Systems Seminar Series; organiser: Sally Matthews.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

This work reports a novel InSe crystal grown on the China Space Station, exhibiting an expanded lattice structure and reduced defects. These lattice variations contribute to unique electronic characteristics and facilitate carrier transport, significantly boosting electrical and photoelectrical performance. The findings offer valuable insights for developing promising electronic materials in the post-Moore era.

Abstract

Intrinsic defect plays a crucial role in the electrical and photoelectrical performance of InSe-based FETs. Here, a space-growth InSe on China Space Station with reduced intrinsic defects is reported and high-performance InSe field-effect transistors are developed. Spherical aberration corrected transmission electron microscope analysis reveals that the space grown InSe presents lattice expansion of 1.29% along the intralayer direction (a,b plane) and 3.65% along the interlayer direction (c-axis). Density functional theory calculations reveal that the defect generation energy of expanded space InSe is larger than that of ground InSe, improving lattice integrity. The lattice variations in space InSe contribute to unique electronic properties with a narrower bandgap, smaller effective mass of electrons, and increased electronic states near the Fermi level, which reduces carrier scattering and facilitates electron transport. Space InSe FET presents better electrical characteristics (Ion of 6.0 µA µm−1, on/off ratio of 108 and hysteresis voltage of 0.6 V) and photoelectrical performance (responsivity of 5316 A W−1 and detectivity of 1.38 × 1012 Jones) than the ground InSe FET, in which InSe is grown on the ground. This study provides unique insights into the investigation of crystal structure and promotes the development of high-performance 2D FETs.

Cantilever ncAFM resolves the atomic structure of grain boundaries in graphene, revealing coexisting stable and metastable types. Both contain pentagon/heptagon defects, but metastable GBs show irregular geometries. Modeling shows metastable GBs form under compression, exhibiting vertical corrugation, while stable GBs are flat. Metastable GBs can be manipulated toward stability. Their localized distortions impact properties over extended scales.

Abstract

Grain boundaries (GBs) are ubiquitous in large-scale graphene samples, playing a crucial role in their overall performance. Due to their complexity, they are usually investigated as model structures, under the assumption of a fully relaxed interface. Here, cantilever-based non-contact atomic force microscopy (ncAFM) is presented as a suitable technique to resolve, atom by atom, the complete structure of these linear defects. These experimental findings reveal a richer scenario than expected, with the coexistence of energetically stable and metastable graphene GBs. Although both GBs are structurally composed of pentagonal and heptagonal rings, they can be differentiated by the irregular geometric shapes present in the metastable boundaries. Theoretical modeling and simulated ncAFM images, accounting for the experimental data, show that metastable GBs form under compressive uniaxial strain and exhibit vertical corrugation, whereas stable GBs remain in a fully relaxed, flat configuration. By locally introducing energy with the AFM tip, the possibility of manipulating the metastable GBs, driving them toward their minimum energy configuration, is shown. Notably, the high-resolution ncAFM images reveal a clear dichotomy: while the structural distortions of metastable grain boundaries are confined to just a few atoms, their impact on graphene's properties extends over significantly larger length scales.

This review highlights recent advances in the urea oxidation reaction (UOR), emphasizing molecular mechanisms, rational material design (doping, nanostructuring, defect and heterostructure engineering), and diverse engineering applications including urea sensors, hydrogen production, urea purification, and direct urea fuel cells (DUFCs) under various pH conditions.

Abstract

The urea oxidation reaction (UOR) serves as a pivotal process for sustainable wastewater remediation and renewable energy conversion, yet its practical implementation faces pH-dependent challenges that demand systematic understanding. This review comprehensively examines UOR mechanisms across alkaline, neutral, and acidic electrolytes, elucidating fundamental correlations between pH environments, catalytic activity, and reaction pathways. While alkaline media enhance kinetics via adsorbate evolution mechanisms, they often induce catalyst structural reconstruction that undermines stability; conversely, neutral and acidic media suffer from kinetic limitations due to inefficient proton-coupled electron transfer processes. Based on these insights, this review outlines several key optimization strategies for catalyst development, tailored to each pH environment, and explores the potential for scaling up alkaline UOR for energy-related applications. Finally, several critical future research directions that provide a roadmap for overcoming existing limitations and advancing UOR toward practical applications are proposed, which can serve as a timely framework for future developments in pH-tailored UOR systems of both environmental and energy sectors.

This review presents an in-depth analysis of the underlying mechanisms and critical performance parameters of the metal cluster scintillators (MCS). Subsequently, effective strategies to enhance scintillation performance are systematically summarized. In addition, it discusses various preparation methods for MCS screens. Finally, the opportunities and challenges that the field currently faces are explored.

Abstract

X-ray detection technology utilizing scintillators is pivotal across various applications, including medical diagnostics and industrial inspections. Recently, metal clusters have emerged as a novel class of scintillator materials, demonstrating promising potential in X-ray imaging due to their superior X-ray absorption capabilities, tunable optical properties, and excellent stability against moisture and oxygen. This review addresses the current lack of comprehensive evaluations in the domain of coinage metal cluster scintillators. It begins with an in-depth analysis of the underlying mechanisms and critical performance parameters of these scintillators. Subsequently, effective strategies to enhance scintillation performance are systematically summarized. The review also delves into various preparation methods for metal cluster scintillator screens. Lastly, it identifies the opportunities and challenges that the field currently faces. This review aims to serve as a theoretical foundation and a methodological guide for future studies focused on the structural design and performance optimization of coinage metal cluster scintillators, advancing X-ray imaging technologies to address application challenges in this evolving field.