The modern academic publishing model relies heavily on a trusted peer review process. Here, we take a light-hearted look at pros and cons of the current model and propose an assortment of alternativessome more practical than the others.

In the current research environment, the potential contribution (and guidance) of aspiring undergraduates is often neglected. Here, Ye Tao from the Rowland Institute discusses the opportunities and challenges to foster this next generation of scientists and proposes three guiding principles of successful undergraduate mentorship.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of many summer undergraduate research experiences. UC San Diego’s Adam J. Engler quickly adapted his REU to an online program—opening up the opportunity to hundreds of students worldwide.

Finding new wide-bandgap light absorbers that are stable in aqueous solutions is a long-standing challenge in photoelectrochemical water splitting research. Two papers in this issue describe recent advances in high throughput experimentation that may accelerate the discovery of suitable materials.

In this issue of Matter, Feng et al. make a breakthrough understanding of an aerosol system for manufacturing unprecedented alloys with excellent catalytic properties. This work will inspire improved 3D nanoprinting techniques for creating new matter forms for broad applications, including additive manufacturing, catalysts, and metallurgy.

Tissue engineered blood vessels are an attractive alternative to autologous vessels for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. In this issue of Matter, Jiang and colleagues developed an electronic blood vessel that integrated flexible electronics with biodegradable polymeric scaffold to expand its clinical applications.

The Huang group at the University of California, Los Angeles demonstrates slightly oxygenated carbon substrate can strengthen the interaction with ionomers at the three-phase interface in membrane electrode assembly, resulting in performances exceeding U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) targets.

Surface functional groups such as F, O, and OH attached to MXenes have a profound impact on the electronic properties. Generally, MXenes are synthesized by the aqueous acidic etching of the MAX phase, and these functional groups are inherently incorporated during the synthesis. Recently, covalent surface modification of MXene has been demonstrated at low temperature using molten inorganic salts.

Recently, two Science papers tackled the challenge of harvesting low-grade heat via liquid thermocells. One combines TGC and TDC to significantly enhance thermopower by an order of magnitude, and the other reveals the selectively thermosensitive crystallization/dissolution at two electrodes. These intriguing and inspiring advances in terms of materials, mechanisms, and performances are briefly introduced

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are functional porous crystalline “molecular Legos” entirely composed of light elements and held together by covalent bonds. Their synthesis typically relies on the formation of reversible covalent bonds linking multivalent monomers. While the reversibility in linkage formation imparts error correction and defect healing that dictate crystallinity, the thermodynamic

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a great threat to the world and has awoken us to the magic of nature again. This crisis also provides opportunities to learn from nature how to use chemical self-assembly for creating advanced materials that are useful to the human society.

The world has profoundly changed as a result of SARS-CoV-2. It is clear nothing has escaped the effect of the pandemic. Here, Dr. Yang Yang, an expert in thoracic surgery, weighs in on the pandemic’s impact on clinical research.

Biological systems outperform engineered systems in many aspects due to billions of years of evolution in advance. With the integration of biological components, engineered functional systems can enjoy the benefits of biological systems, as well as the blurring of the boundary with living systems, including humans.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a severe respiratory disease caused by the emergence of a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that very quickly spread in the human population. Fine particulate matter (PM) generated from combustion engines have been described as toxic to human health. Recent events stressed that high concentrations of PM of air pollution might favor the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Autumn approaches, air

A large amount of energy is lost in industrial active deicing. One problem is that water retention on the surface after ice melting decreases the overall heat-transfer coefficient by up to 20%. The Miljkovic group utilizes heterogeneous biphilic surfaces to enhance defrosting performance. They avoid water retention as the slush is rapidly drawn toward the hydrophilic regions before it completely melts

In a recent publication in Matter, the He group at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) used ice templating and low-temperature polymerization to synthesize conductive hydrogels with improved electrical and mechanical properties for wearable electronics. The material’s enhanced performance was attributed to its hierarchically interconnected structure.

Machine learning has proven a powerful tool for accelerating the computational characterization of energy materials. The neural-network approach by Lu et al. allows bypassing time-consuming first principles calculations for the design of catalysts based on high-entropy alloys. This work is an example of a growing number of case studies identifying descriptors of catalytic performance using machine

Recently, Yang et al. introduces the twisting degree of freedom into nonlinear optics and demonstrates tunable second-order nonlinear optical response in twisted bilayer graphene. The results open a new route to future nonlinear photonic and optoelectronic applications.

Chemical manufacturing industries are plagued with energy- and cost-intensive processes, employing harsh reaction conditions and toxic/expensive catalysts to drive chemical conversions. Furthermore, the resultant product distributions are complex, introducing difficulty for isolation of respective constituents. In this regard, electrosynthesis starting from biomass-derived platform chemicals (i.e.