The cover image depicts a situation where engineered nanoparticles are used to improve the efficiency and durability of ocean fertilization for CO2 capture from the atmosphere. The generated biomass sinks to store carbon in the deep ocean for centuries.

See Babakhani et al.

The image depicts a human muscle-like bundle of fibers made of exfoliated graphene in liquid crystal elastomers exhibiting strong photo-thermal actuation and enhanced mechanical properties.

Artificial nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, can enhance living cells’ natural capabilities or even impart them with artificial properties unfounded in nature, which are inherited when cells divide. This artistic representation depicts a filament of cyanobacteria cells from Nostoc sp. The nanobionic cells, shown in purple, contain nanotubes that allow them to emit a powerful electric current, shown at the forefront of the image. The nanobionic cells can be tracked over several generations through near-infrared imaging.

This artistic representation depicts direct single molecule identification of major RNA epigenetic modifications using a phenylboronic acid modified Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A nanopore. This highly engineered nanopore demonstrates an outstanding resolution, suitable for sensing of a large variety of nucleoside or nucleotide derivatives simultaneously.

Artistic representation of NAD(H)-loaded nanoparticles to replenish intracellular NAD(H) pool. NAD(H) are potential immunomodulators, but they cannot diffuse across the cell membrane, which hinders their clinical applications. Direct intracellular NAD(H) delivery enabled by nanoparticles can improve cellular energy supply and prevent inflammation-induced cell pyroptosis and apoptosis, thereby reducing fatality in severe sepsis by maintaining immune and vascular homeostasis.

See Ye et al.

The image represents the tunnelling injection of spin-polarized holes from a ferromagnetic material into a semiconducting material in a van der Waals heterostructure.

See Liu

The image depicts a membrane with 1 nm nanochannels made by crosslinking chitosan molecules with copper ions. The membrane exhibits promising performance for hydroxide exchange applications.

See Hu

The artificially coloured scanning electron microscope image shows an ensemble of deterministically coupled micropillar cavities. Fast laser pulses, which induce stimulated emission, can remove time jitter and thereby further improve the characteristics of these bright solid-state quantum light sources.

See Liu

The image is a wheat plant, representing global food security, to which pesticides are delivered using nanoparticles for enhanced yield and resistance to environmental stress for sustainable agriculture.

See Wang, Analysis

The image represents a stretchable 128 field-effect transistors array distributed in multiple units of variable heights, capable of probing cells at three different depths in a microtissue for intracellular recording of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes.

See Xu

This artistic representation shows charge carriers in alloyed halide perovskites funnelled into local hotspots to emit light. The mechanism shows defect tolerance and can be beneficial for solar cell applications.

See Stranks

The image is an artistic representation depicting cancer cells physically connecting to T cells through nanotubes. Cancer cells harvest mitochondria from T cells. Inhibiting this mechanism can augment the immune response against cancer cells.

See Sengupta