Graphene for gold extractionOA

<正>Gold is a unique element,characterized not only by limited,though still reasonable,availability (useful for monetary applications) but also for its rather unique properties useful for many industries [1]:chemical inertness,high electrical conductivity,plasticity,etc.As gold reserves in Earth’s crust diminish with traditional minings’urban mining’that recycles gold from gold-containing wastes (such as electronic waste,e-waste) has emerged as an important supply method for gold sustainabi...     

Climbing robots for manufacturingOA

Robotized intelligent manufacturing is a growing trend in the manufacturing of large and complex components in aviation,aerospace,marine engineering and other industries.With their expansive workspaces and flexible deployment,climbing manufacturing robots can create a revolutionary manufacturing paradigm for large and complex components.This paper defines the climbing manufacturing robot based on the application status of climbing robots and then analyzes four key technical re quirements:adhesio...     

Superscattering of water wavesOA

Inspired by the concept of superscattering in optics,we for the first time theoretically predict and experimentally demonstrate the superscattering phenomenon in water waves.The subwavelength superscatterer is constructed by multi-layered concentric cylinders with an inhomogeneous depth profile.The superscatterer breaks the long-held single-channel scattering limit by several times and thus significantly enhances the total scattering strength.The underlying mechanism originates from the near deg...     

Conservation priorities for global marine biodiversity across multiple dimensionsOA

Marine biodiversity plays important roles in ocean ecosystem services and has substantial economic value.Species diversity,genetic diversity and phylogenetic diversity,which reflect the number,evolutionary potential and evolutionary history of species in ecosystem functioning,are three important dimensions of biodiversity.Marine-protected areas have been demonstrated as an effective area-based tool for protecting marine biodiversity,but only 2.8 % of the ocean has been fully protected.It is urge...     

Photodegradable polar-functionalized polyethylenesOA

The degradation of plastics has attracted much attention from the global community.Polyethylenes(PEs),as the most abundant synthetic plastics,are most frequently studied.PE is non-degradable and non-polar because of the sole presence of the pure hydrocarbon components.Concurrent incorporation of both in-chain cleavable and functional groups into the PE chain is an effective pathway to overcome the non-degradable and non-polar issue;however,the method for achieving this pathway remains elusive.He...     

An orthogonal dual-regulation strategy for sensitive biosensing applicationsOA

Biosensing systems based on controllable motion behaviors of droplets have attracted extensive attention,but still face challenges of insufficient sensitivity and uncontrollable dynamic range due to imprecise manipulation of droplet motion on the surfaces.Here,we report an orthogonal dual-regulation strategy for precise motion control of droplets and we demonstrate its utility as a sensitive sensing system with controllable dynamic ranges of sensing for adenosine triphosphate,miRNA,thrombin and ...     

Global weirding at mass extinction horizonsOA

<正>A strong motivation for studying mass extinctions is understanding how current climatic and biodiversity crises will affect creatures living on land such as ourselves. Perhaps the question is: how bad can it get? In that case, terrestrial Permian-Triassic mass extinctions are an irresistible worst-case scenario [1].     

Evolution of artificial ion channelsOA

<正>Protein ion channels on a cell membrane generate action potentials for cellular signal transduction, and regulate biological activities during life. Since the discovery of the asymmetric ion transport phenomenon in quartz nanopipettes by Bard and colleagues [1], synthetic nanofluidic materials and devices have attracted a lot of research interests from the scientific community,     

Theory and classification of mass extinction causationOA

Theory regarding the causation of mass extinctions is in need of systematization, which is the focus of this contribution. Every mass extinction has both an ultimate cause, i.e. the trigger that leads to various climato-environmental changes, and one or more proximate cause(s), i.e. the specific climato-environmental changes that result in elevated biotic mortality. With regard to ultimate causes, strong cases can be made that bolide(i.e. meteor) impacts, large igneous province(LIP) eruptions an...     

The heterogeneity-diversity-system performance nexusOA

Ever-growing human population and nutritional demands,supply chain disruptions,and advancing climate change have led to the re alization that changes in diversity and system performance are intimately linked.Moreover,diversity and system performance depend on heterogeneity.Mitigating changes in system performance and promoting sustainable living conditions requires transformative decisions.Here,we introduce the heterogeneity-diversity-system performance(HDP) nexus as the conceptual basis upon wh...     

Universal adversarial examples and perturbations for quantum classifiersOA

Quantum machine learning explores the interplay between machine learning and quantum physics, which may lead to unprecedented perspectives for both fields. In fact, recent works have shown strong evidence that quantum computers could outperform classical computers in solving certain notable machine learning tasks. Yet, quantum learning systems may also suffer from the vulnerability problem: adding a tiny carefully crafted perturbation to the legitimate input data would cause the systems to make ...     

Decoupling engineering of formamidinium-cesium perovskites for efficient photovoltaicsOA

Although pure formamidinium iodide perovskite(FAPbI₃) possesses an optimal gap for photovoltaics,their poor phase stability limits the long-term operational stability of the devices.A promising approach to enhance their phase stability is to incorporate cesium into FAPbI₃.However,state-of-the-art formamidinium-cesium(FA-Cs) iodide perovskites demonstrate much worse efficiency compared with FAPbI₃,limited by the different crystallization dynamics of formamidinium ...     

Van der Waals superlatticesOA

<正>Semiconductor technology has enabled many essential devices,including transistors for computing and communication,diodes for solid-state lighting and photovoltaics.Behind all these devices,the material foundation is a series of highly elaborated heterostructures and superlattices[1].To this end,integrating different materials into heterostructures or superlattices with well-defined spatial modulation of chemical compositions and electronic structures is central for generating designed e...     

Material research from the viewpoint of functional motifsOA

As early as 2001,the need for the ’functional motif theory’ was pointed out,to assist the rational design of functional materials.The properties of materials are determined by their functional motifs and how they are arranged in the materials.Uncovering functional motifs and their arrangements is crucial in understanding the properties of materials and rationally designing new materials of desired properties.The functional motifs of materials are the critical microstructural units(e.g.constituen...     

Bio-syncretic robots composed of biological and electromechanical systemsOA

<正>After eons of evolution,biological systems have developed excellent performance in terms of sensing,intelligence,and actuation—the three primary robotics elements that are closely related to the overall performance of robot systems.For example,the buccal pits of some snakes,as the necessary sensors for accurate predation,have a high-temperature sensitivity of 0.003 K[1];     

Ecological restoration for sustainable development in ChinaOA

Facing the need for transdisciplinary research to promote ecological restoration that achieves both social and ecological benefits,research on past restoration efforts that have directly or indirectly contributed to regional or national sustainable development warrants reassessment.Using China as an example,in this review,we address three basic research questions that can be summarized as follows:ecological restoration—of what,for whom and to what purpose?Accordingly,a landscape pattern—ecosyste...     

Organic semiconductor-incorporated two-dimensional halide perovskitesOA

<正>Recently,the search for novel two-dimensional (2D) organic-inorganic halide perovskite materials has come to a renaissance.There is significant interest not only in terms of their intriguing optoelectronic properties,but also their structural diversity and improved stability.The 2D perovskite structure can be visualized as atomically thin slabs cut from 3D parent structures along different crystal directions that are sandwiched between two layers of large organic cations.The bulky organ...     

Challenges and opportunities for modeling coupled human and natural systemsOA

<正>The Earth is a very large and complex system that consists of human and natural components interacting bidirectionally with each other,thus forming coupled human and natural systems (CHANS)[1].The increasing dominance of human impacts,especially after the 1950s [2],marked a new era for the Earth,the Anthropocene,which means humans have become the main drivers of the evolution of changes in the Earth system.Therefore,modeling CHANS is essential for understanding the emergent system prope...