Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Defects of a passive nematic liquid crystal made from actin filaments pattern the collective behaviour of active microtubules, creating macroscopic polar patterns and chiral loops.
Tissue fluidification in invasive breast carcinoma is accompanied by mechanical stresses that compromise nuclear integrity and liberate DNA, resulting in the activation of a pro-inflammatory response that shape tumour evolution and progression.
During mesodermal differentiation of living zebrafish embryos, individual cells probe the stiffness associated with the foam-like architecture of the tissue as a part of their mechanosensing responses.
An ultrastrong and superhard conductive carbon composite has been synthesized, which consists of ultrafine nanodiamond homogeneously dispersed in disordered multilayer graphene with incoherent interfaces. The microstructures of the composite suggest that the transition from amorphous carbon to diamond involves the extensive nucleation and diffusion-driven growth of nanodiamond.
Three-dimensional printing of hydrogels loaded with fungal mycelium can produce living materials with unique adaptive properties in shapes that are relevant for engineering applications. The metabolic activity of the living mycelial network allows the printed structure to grow autonomously and self-regenerate when it is provided with nutrients in water.
Complex living structures with self-healing and regeneration capabilities are 3D printed using bioinks composed of fungal mycelium and an agar-based hydrogel.
The authors demonstrate a spectroscopic method, based on magnetotransport measurements, to quantitatively measure the size of the correlated gaps in twisted trilayer graphene and infer their topology.
Scandium added to Al–Cu–Mg–Ag alloys leads to an in situ phase transformation of coherent Cu-rich nanoprecipitates at elevated temperature, with Sc atoms diffusing and occupying their interstitial sites. The transformed nanoprecipitates have enhanced thermal stability while maintaining a large volume fraction and these two microstructural features enable high tensile strength of the Al alloy with creep resistance up to 400 °C.
The authors demonstrate that magnetic proximity interactions in a hexagonal boron nitride-encapsulated MoSe2/CrBr3 van der Waals heterostructure have a striking difference in the two (K, K′) valleys of a monolayer MoSe2.
High-density, highly stable coherent nanoprecipitates are created in Al alloys that enable high strength and creep resistance at 400 °C. This is realized via a growth-ledge-triggered in situ phase transformation assembling slow-diffusing solutes with high-solubility solutes into nanoprecipitates.
Electric fields typically break symmetry when applied as a stimulus to materials. Here, by forming a superlattice of BiFeO3 and TbScO3, it is shown that an electric field can repeatedly stabilize mixed-phase polar and antipolar BiFeO3.
Thermal Hall conductivity originating from topological magnons is observed in the Kitaev candidate α-RuCl3 in broad intervals of temperature and in-plane magnetic field, raising questions on the role of the Majorana mode in heat conduction.
In situ composites consisting of nanodiamond homogeneously dispersed in disordered multilayer graphene with incoherent interfaces and complex bonding are synthesized that exhibit an ultrahigh hardness and compressive strength, and excellent electrical conductivity.