Sci-athon is a collaborative event for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars designed to harness diverse scientific backgrounds toward solving global issues in chemistry. The last 2 years have yielded surprisingly different versions of this annual competition.

Extreme Mechanics Letters, an Elsevier journal, has recently launched a weekly EML Webinar, an online meeting place for mechanicians and their friends, worldwide. The lectures and discussions shed light on the forefront of research and the formative years of researchers, no travel required. Speakers and videos are updated at http://iMechanica.org/node/24098.

Contributing to this issue of Matter, Wei Tao, Tian Xie, and colleagues now demonstrate the killing of two birds (inhibition of tumor recurrence and wound infection) with one stone (germanene-based surgical adjuvant theranostic materials): another breakthrough of two-dimensional monoelemental materials (2D Xenes) as cancer nanomedicine.

Stiff ceramic electrolytes mitigate lithium dendrite formation for enhanced lithium metal battery safety, but these same electrolytes are undesirably brittle. In this issue of Matter, Athanasiou et al. arrest crack formation using reduced graphene oxide in a ceramic electrolyte, revealing the importance of electrolyte toughness.

One-pot template-free fabrication of hollow hybrid carbon spheres with encapsulated functional particles is highly appealing yet remains a challenge. Recently in Matter, Kaskel and co-workers reported a domino-driven strategy for the versatile synthesis of hollow carbon spheres coaxially encapsulating diverse ultrafine metal nitrides/oxides.

Recently, the Wang group at Soochow University and the Gu group at the University of California, Los Angeles demonstrated the targeting ability of platelet-derived extracellular vesicles to deliver anti-inflammatory drug [5-(p-fluorophenyl)-2-ureido] thiophene-3-carboxamide (TPCA-1) to pneumonia for calming the local cytokine storm in acute lung injury.

The pyroelectric effect has been rarely considered as a pathway toward portable electric power. Now, in a study published in Cell Reports Physical Science, Hanrahan et al. show chip-based pyroelectric combustion that has the potential to supersede Li-ion battery technology in terms of energy density and device lifetime.

Developing and employing best practice is an important stage in a maturing scientific discipline and is well overdue for the field of materials informatics, where a systematic approach to data science is needed to ensure the reliability and reproducibility of results.

The Holy Grail of materials science and engineering is to understand and control structure-property relationships in materials systems, so as to attain the long-standing goal of materials by design. In this Preview, we describe recently synthesized hollow multi-shelled structures (HoMSs), a porous nanomaterial whose complex architecture was inspired both by nature and by the puzzle ball—an ancient

Citations can be viewed as a measure of academic prosperity. Like a commodity, citations are produced and distributed, frequently in unequal measures. Success (and failure) are measured in citation counts. But when and why does one academic cite another? Here, we discuss citations, their production, distribution, types, and possible future.

A dramatic transformation is necessary to reach a sustainable society revolving around the control and use of biological materials and designs. This biomaterial age ushers a completely new technological paradigm favoring the development of circular economic models and sustainable societies.

Searching for efficient electrocatalyst to breakthrough sluggish CO2 reduction and evolution reactions is still a challenge for development of Li-CO2 batteries. Recently, Xing et al. report a RuRh alloy nanosheet-based battery, achieving the lowest voltage gap during the charge and discharge process.

High-throughput screening of cell-biomaterial interactions combined with machine learning algorithms leads the way toward the future of medical device manufacturing: in silico modeling of cell and tissue response. Bio-compatible medical implants will have a huge clinical impact.

Fabricating composite parts with high fiber loading and design flexibility has always been a challenge. In the recent issue of Matter, Shi and co-workers showed that high fiber loading can be achieved using localized in-plane thermal assisted (LITA) 3D printing. Coupled with robotic arm, it provides a promising way to fabricate lightweight and high-performance continuous fiber reinforced thermoset

Practical application of lithium-sulfur batteries remains challenging, including issues with both cathode and anode. Recently in Matter, researchers report a novel solution for sulfur cathode and lithium anode, introducing tortuosity into a graphene-oxide host, resulting in significant performance improvement.

Fluorescent objects often lead to a sense of joy and intrigue. While the current COVID-19 pandemic limits the synthesis of “glowy things” like quantum dots, many household objects fluoresce, providing an opportunity to brighten your day while learning fundamental chemistry.

Materials science brings together many different disciplines in creative and innovative ways. Here, Alexander Cook discusses lessons for scientific creativity that he gleaned from artistic pastimes and continues to other matters, including framing, promoting, and increasing creativity in science.

From batteries, displays, and solar cells to drug delivery, tissue engineering, and 3D printing, startups promise to quickly deliver tangible societal impacts across a vast range of materials science problems. Working in such nascent, fast-paced environments introduces interesting challenges but also unique opportunities.

How we can break through the noise of vague and untrustworthy climate change messaging with specific and provable sustainability metrics?

Materials exhibiting metal-to-insulator transitions (MITs) could enable low power neuromorphic computing, but progress is hindered by insufficient mechanistic understanding. In this issue of Matter, Banerjee and colleagues describe with intricate detail a new MIT mechanism in β′-CuxV2O5, with potential applications to neuromorphic computing.