Researchers from Professor Radha Boya’s team in The University of Manchester’s Department of Physics and the , working with Diamond Light Source and Freie Universität Berlin, found that water reorganises in surprising ways at the smallest molecular scales. Hydrogen bonds give water many of its familiar properties, but until now it has been extremely difficult to test what happens when water is forced into a flat, single-layer arrangement because the amount of material is so small. 

By combining atomically precise nanochannels with the ultra-bright synchrotron infrared microbeam at Diamond Light Source’s , the team was able to measure the vibrational modes of water confined down to a single molecular layer. 

 from The University of Manchester said: “You can think of bulk water as a three-dimensional network where each molecule is constantly forming and breaking hydrogen bonds in all directions. When you squash water into a single layer, that network simply cannot hold together in the same way. For the first time, we were able to directly see how those bonds rearrange in this extreme limit.” 

The researchers created angstrom-scale slit channels using stacks of two-dimensional materials, including graphite and hexagonal boron nitride. These materials acted as both atomically smooth confining walls and optical amplifiers, boosting the weak infrared absorption signal from just a single layer of water. 

Infrared spectroscopy is highly sensitive to the stretching vibrations of O-H bonds within water molecules. By comparing water in channels of different heights with water in bulk regions of the same device, the researchers tracked how those vibrational frequencies changed as the water layer became thinner, down to a monolayer. 

The team found that when water is confined to a true monolayer, its infrared absorption spectrum shifts to higher frequencies. Dr Gianfelice Cinque of Diamond Light Source said: “My first excitement was being able to measure, at beamline B22, the vibrational fingerprint of a single monolayer of water. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the transition from 3D to 2D water has been directly detected with an infrared microprobe. The blue shift is a clear sign that the hydrogen-bonding network is disrupted compared with bulk water.” 

“Our measurements show that monolayer water does not resemble a flat version of ordinary liquid water,” added Professor Boya. “Instead, it forms a fragmented, mosaic-like structure made up of small hydrogen-bonded clusters surrounded by poorly bound or free molecules.” 

The study also showed that this behaviour is specific to the monolayer limit. Once the channels exceeded around one nanometre in height, equivalent to roughly three molecular layers of water, the vibrational signatures began to move back towards those of bulk water, indicating recovery of a more conventional hydrogen-bond network.

To understand the origin of these spectral changes, the experiments were supported by atomistic simulations. Professor Roland Netz of Freie Universität Berlin said: “Despite the disrupted bonding, monolayer water is unexpectedly dense and structurally distinct from both bulk water and simple interfacial water at surfaces.” 

The findings provide direct experimental evidence for long-standing theoretical predictions about two-dimensional water and offer a benchmark for future studies of confined fluids. 

Dr Marcos Martins, first author of the study at The University of Manchester, said: “Water confined at this scale plays a role in everything from nanofluidic devices to biological channels and energy technologies. Having a direct experimental picture of how its structure changes at the single-layer limit helps us understand the physical rules that govern these systems.” 

The ability to directly measure how water reorganises at the single-layer limit could help researchers design better angstrom-scale technologies, including nanofluidic circuits, selective membranes, and electrochemical and energy devices where confined water shapes interfacial behaviour. The same platform could also be used to study other ultrathin liquids and solvated ions, expanding experimental access to extreme confinement in materials science and biology. 

The University and the Earlham Institute have been appointed by BioFAIR to lead a new consortium to establish the Methods Commons, the first spoke of the £34 million BioFAIR programme.

The Methods Commons will provide researchers with national-scale capabilities for the discovery, execution, sharing and reuse of the computational workflows, tools and notebooks that underpin modern data-driven life sciences.

Led by Professor Carole Goble at The University of Manchester, the consortium will develop services designed to improve the reproducibility, reliability and reuse of computational methods across UK bioscience.

The Methods Commons will deliver eight core capabilities for UK life sciences researchers, including Galaxy and Nextflow workflow execution, support for containerised bespoke workflows on HPC, a national workflow registry with a community-endorsement mechanism, a “workflow observatory” providing trust and quality assurance, a shared Jupyter notebook environment, and API standards for ingesting input data and sharing workflow results.

Tony Burdett, BioFAIR Director, said: “The Methods Commons tackles one of the longest-standing problems in computational bioscience — reproducibility and reuse of methods that produce the results to be included in publications as research outputs. We had a strong field of applicants, and the appointed consortium combines real delivery track record with deep roots in the UK and international workflow communities. Establishing the Methods Commons is a major milestone for BioFAIR as it’s the first spoke in our federated BioCommons and the point at which the services needed by our users really start to take shape.”

The consortium — which includes support from Nextflow, Seqera — was selected following a competitive two-stage process that opened with an Expression of Interest call in December 2025, followed by invited full proposals reviewed by an independent expert panel. BioFAIR is investing up to £4 million over an initial two-year period, with the expectation that the partnership will extend to deliver the full programme of work through to June 2029 and beyond.

, Methods Commons Project Lead, said: “We’re proud to be establishing the Methods Commons as part of BioFAIR. Computational workflows are how modern bioscience gets done, and giving UK researchers a trusted, national-scale set of services to find, run and share them — without having to reinvent the plumbing each time — is overdue. We’re looking forward to working with the BioFAIR Hub, the Fellows and Pathfinder Projects to make sure what we build is shaped by real user needs from day one.”

The Methods Commons will adopt an incremental, user-driven delivery model, with early value delivered to exemplar communities — including the first cohort of BioFAIR Pathfinder Projects — before scaling to national reach. It will operate alongside the forthcoming Data Commons, People Commons, Knowledge Hub and BioFAIR Portal in a hub-and-spokes federated infrastructure coordinated from the BioFAIR Hub at the Earlham Institute.

Data centres have been designated as critical national infrastructure due to their importance for economic growth, but their electricity consumption is projected to quadruple by 2030. The inquiry will assess how this increasing demand could affect energy and water systems and how emerging technologies and policy approaches could reduce environmental impacts.

In their , and researchers at the University’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, highlight a number of challenges associated with this growth, including:

• Rising carbon emissions from both electricity use and the manufacturing of hardware

• Increasing demand for critical materials such as copper, silicon and rare elements

• Growing volumes of electronic waste driven by rapid hardware replacement cycles

• Potential strain on water resources and local environments

They argue that current policies do not yet fully account for the pace and scale of AI-driven demand and recommend:

• Integrating data centre growth into wider energy, infrastructure and environmental planning, ensuring expansion is aligned with grid capacity and the availability of low-carbon electricity.

• Improve transparency around environmental impacts through better reporting of energy, water and material use, alongside accounting for full lifecycle of digital infrastructure, such as hardware production, supply chains and electronic waste.

• Support a circular economy approach to digital technologies, promoting the reuse, repair, refurbishment and recycling of servers and other hardware to reduce resource demand and waste.

• Manage the resource pressures associated with AI and data centre expansion, including demand for critical minerals

The evidence highlights emerging technologies that could reduce environmental impacts, including more efficient chips, advanced cooling systems and “green AI” approaches that limit unnecessary computation.

The researchers also point to opportunities for data centres to contribute to local energy systems, for example, by recovering waste heat to supply homes and buildings, or by providing flexibility to help balance electricity demand.

Dr Alejandro Gallego Schmid said: “Data centres are fundamental to the digital economy and will play an important role in enabling AI innovation. However, their expansion needs to be planned alongside the UK’s wider sustainability objectives.

“Our evidence shows that solutions are available but many of these will require investment in infrastructure and more coordinated action across policy, industry and research.”

Dr Alejandro Gallego Schmid delivered the evidence to the to the Environmental Audit Committee in Westminster today (1 July 2026).

The submission has been supported by , the University’s policy engagement unit.

Read the full written submission:

Read more about the inquiry:

In a study published in , the international research team including Xinyue Zhou, and from the Department of Chemical Engineering, has aided in revealing how a highly efficient “single-atom catalyst” species operates at the molecular level to cleave the strong chemical bonds that hold lignin together.

The catalyst uses isolated ruthenium atoms embedded in a nitrogen-doped carbon material. This design maximises catalytic performance while using very small amounts of metal, making it more efficient than conventional systems

A clearer picture of how lignin breaks apart

A major challenge in this field has been understanding exactly which parts of the catalyst are responsible for breaking lignin’s tough chemical bonds. Without this knowledge, improving catalyst performance has remained difficult.

The research shows that a specific atomic configuration – known as a “Ru–N₄ site” – plays a central role. These sites activate oxygen molecules and help drive the cleavage of both carbon–oxygen and carbon–carbon bonds within lignin.

By combining experimental techniques with computational modelling, the team demonstrated how the catalyst first activates oxygen to form highly reactive species, which then attack the lignin structure and break it down into smaller molecules.

High efficiency under mild conditions

Under optimised conditions, the catalyst achieved near-complete conversion of model lignin compounds and produced high yields of valuable phenolic chemical products.

Importantly, the system operates under relatively mild conditions and without the need for harsh chemicals, highlighting its potential for more sustainable chemical manufacturing processes.

The catalyst was also successfully applied to real lignin samples from different biomass sources, converting them into useful aromatic compounds that could serve as building blocks for fuels, plastics and other materials.

Toward sustainable chemical production

This work provides a detailed understanding of how single-atom catalysts function in biomass conversion, offering a blueprint for designing more efficient systems in the future.

By enabling the upgrading and valorisation of lignin, the research supports efforts to move away from traditional linear petroleum-derived chemicals and towards a more circular, biomass-based economy.

The new estimates, published by the WHO as part of its monitoring of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), shows that while levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) declined globally up to 2020, they have since remained largely unchanged. 

The new estimates will support global efforts to towards the WHO’s new goal to cut deaths linked to anthropogenic (man-made) air pollution by 50% by 2040, providing a critical evidence base for international policy and action. 

, a Lecturer in Data Science & Analytics at The University of Manchester and Research Scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, developed the Data Integration Model for Air Quality (DIMAQ) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) during his PhD. Since 2016, DIMAQ has underpinned the WHO's global estimates of population exposure to ambient air pollution. This latest release, the first since 2021, incorporates new data and methodological advances to provide the most up-to-date assessment of global air pollution trends and inequalities.

Dr Thomas’s work contributes directly to monitoring SDG indicator 11.6.2, which tracks annual levels of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) in cities, and SDG 3.9.1, which tracks the mortality rate attributable to ambient and household air pollution. 

DIMAQ brings together satellite observations, atmospheric models, and ground-based monitoring data to provide a consistent picture of air pollution levels around the world, enabling meaningful comparisons between countries.

The updated figures highlight significant disparities between countries. In 2023, exposure to PM_2.5 above the WHO Air Quality Guidelines was more than 13 times higher in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries, affecting around 6.5 billion people worldwide.

Exposure to both ambient and household air pollution remains a major driver of non-communicable diseases, including heart disease, stroke, chronic respiratory conditions and lung cancer, with the greatest burden falling on vulnerable populations. 

Regional trends highlight mixed progress. While Asia bears the highest levels of air pollution, it also displays the greatest progress, while other regions, including Africa and Western Asia, have seen little change over the last decade. 

Urban areas typically experience higher pollution levels than rural areas, but cities have also shown stronger improvements irrespective of their income level. In contrast, some rural areas, particularly in low-income countries, have seen pollution increase. 

Bruce Gordon, Director a.i., Environment, Climate Change, One Health and Migration, WHO, said: “As the custodian of environmental health-related SDG indicators, WHO is committed to providing robust, evidence-based data, which is essential for bold decision-making. We cannot address the climate and air pollution crisis or protect public health without reliable information that highlights global inequalities and disparities. Placing science at the forefront to drive monitoring and foster multi-sectoral collaboration is crucial to ensuring universal access to clean air and energy, safeguarding both the health of people and planet—now and for future generations."

The ongoing use of Manchester-developed research highlights the University’s contribution to tackling one of the world’s most pressing environmental health challenges. 

The work builds on Dr Thomas's wider research in modelling for global public health, spanning air pollution, environmental exposure assessment and environmental epidemiology. Previous iterations of DIMAQ highlighted that half of global population were experiencing increasing . Other works include to provide a more realistic assessment of exposure to air pollutions as we interact with the environment. His research aims to help provide the evidence needed to support public health policy and decision-making worldwide.

Read more on WHO's website:

Chemical bonding is often described in terms of covalency, where atoms share electrons. While this concept is well understood, experimentally measuring covalency remains challenging and no single method works reliably in all cases. One of the most direct approaches is X‑ray charge density determination, which maps where electrons sit within a material, but this typically requires exceptionally high‑quality crystals and highly controlled conditions, limiting its use in routine studies.   

To address this, the researchers used HAR, a form of quantum crystallography, which combines experimental X‑ray data with theoretical calculations to build a detailed picture of electron density, the distribution of electrons that defines how atoms bond. This method is more accessible than traditional charge density techniques, but until now has been difficult to apply to heavy elements such as actinides, where electron behaviour becomes more complex due to relativistic effects.  

To test the method, the team analysed two trithorium clusters, which differ in how many electrons are involved in bonding. In one case, a single electron is shared across all three atoms, while in the other, two electrons are shared. Both systems act as “extreme test cases” because the atoms are heavy and closely spaced, making their electron distributions difficult to resolve.  

By analysing the electron density, the researchers identified features such as bond critical points, which mark where bonding interactions occur. The measurements matched closely with theoretical calculations, providing direct evidence for thorium–thorium bonding and helping resolve debate about how electrons are shared in these systems.  

The results also revealed clear differences between the two clusters, consistent with their underlying characteristics. These differences reflect how the number of shared electrons changes the nature of the bonding. Importantly, the method achieved this using standard experimental data rather than the specialised conditions typically required for charge density studies. This suggests that HAR could be applied more widely to investigate bonding in other complex materials. 

, adds: “Understanding how electrons are distributed in these systems is important because small changes in bonding can affect how materials behave, including their chemical reactivity and physical properties. By providing a way to directly measure electron sharing, the approach offers a more reliable way to connect experimental observations with theoretical predictions.” 

, based in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the (NGI), will lead the five-year project “Future van der Waals Nanotechnologies”. The programme focuses on establishing new capabilities for producing high-quality 2D material heterostructures at wafer scale, supporting applications in electronics, quantum technologies and telecommunications. 

While van der Waals heterostructures can be engineered with high precision, most work to date has been limited to micrometre-scale samples. The project will address this by developing fabrication methods that operate at millimetre and wafer scales, enabling more consistent device performance and compatibility with industrial processes. 

Central to the programme is the development of a new platform designed to eliminate contamination between layers during assembly. This builds on recent advances from Professor Gorbachev’s group, including the creation of ultra-clean heterostructures using bespoke instrumentation. 

The fellowship will also establish a UK-based “2D Material Electronics” hub, providing access to advanced fabrication capabilities for academic and industrial users. By linking materials growth with device development, the initiative aims to accelerate progress in areas such as low-power electronics, neuromorphic computing and quantum technologies. 

This project builds on sustained research in this space. Some recent papers from the group include studies published in journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Nanotechnology and Nature Electronics, reflecting ongoing work on nanofabrication, electronic and optical properties of 2D materials, and their integration into device architectures. 

Professor Gorbachev has 20 years experience in graphene and 2D materials research, with over 100 peer-reviewed publications and a track record of developing new experimental approaches for nanofabrication and characterisation. His work has contributed to instrumentation and techniques now used by research groups internationally.  

The project will support a multidisciplinary team of researchers and technical specialists, alongside collaborations with partners across the UK and internationally. By developing scalable fabrication methods and strengthening links between fundamental research and application, the programme aims to support the next phase of 2D materials development and their translation into emerging technologies.

The research team used concrete sourced from the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and tested how it behaved when mixed with synthetic groundwater containing either stable strontium or trace levels of radioactive strontium‑90. Experiments ran for three months under two contrasting conditions: air‑limited, representing sealed or low‑oxygen (sub-surface) environments, and air‑equilibrated (air-exposed), representing disposal scenarios where air is present. 

In air‑equilibrated systems, the crushed concrete removed around 82% of strontium from solution within three months, compared with only 14% under air‑limited conditions. This difference was linked to the formation of calcite, a calcium carbonate mineral that forms as concrete reacts with carbon dioxide in air. Strontium can substitute for calcium in calcite, locking it into the mineral structure. 

X‑ray absorption spectroscopy confirmed that strontium was partially incorporated into newly formed calcite in these air‑exposed systems, providing a mechanism for long‑term removal of strontium-90 from groundwaters. 

The team also tested two phosphate treatments – one where phosphate was added during the experiment, and one where the concrete was pre‑treated with phosphate. Both approaches increased strontium uptake, even when air was limited. 

In air‑equilibrated phosphate systems, up to 98% of strontium was removed from solution within 48 hours. Microscopy showed that poorly crystalline calcium phosphate coatings formed on the concrete surface, providing additional sites for strontium to sorb or incorporate over long timescales to allow radioactive decay to stable Zr. 

Strontium‑90 is a key contaminant at many historic nuclear sites because it is relatively mobile in groundwater. Significant volumes of lightly contaminated concrete are generated during decommissioning, and on‑site disposal is increasingly being explored to manage this material. 

The findings suggest that, when concrete is crushed and exposed to air – as would occur during recycling or shallow burial – natural carbonation processes can significantly enhance strontium retention. Phosphate treatments could further improve performance, particularly in areas where air access is limited. 

added: “These results give us a clearer picture of what happens when concrete waste interacts with groundwater over time. By understanding the mechanisms that trap strontium, we can better support safe, evidence‑based decisions about on‑site disposal and long‑term radioactively contaminated land management.”

, based in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the (NGI), will lead the £3m five-year project Van der Waals Nanomachines (ATOMSTEP). The ERC Advanced Grant scheme is among the most competitive in Europe, supporting established researchers to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven science.

Professor Gorbachev said: "This project aims to establish a new approach to controlling motion at the nanoscale using two-dimensional materials. By developing electrically driven nanomachines, we will be able to study and assemble atomic-scale systems in ways that are not currently possible."

The project will combine atomically thin materials into engineered structures, van der Waals heterostructures, whose electronic and mechanical properties can be precisely controlled. From these, the team will build a new class of on-chip nanomachines that move in controlled, atomic-scale steps, able to move and position atomic-scale objects with high precision. The work brings together the fundamental behaviour of layered materials, the design and construction of the nanomachines themselves, and their use in emerging technologies, including quantum devices.

The research will be carried out at the NGI, which provides for nanofabrication and advanced characterisation. It builds on the group's recent work on ultra-clean fabrication of van der Waals heterostructures and atomic-scale imaging, published in journals including , and , and further strengthens 91ֱ��'s position as a centre for advanced materials science.

The study published in focuses on the water gas shift reaction. This is a widely used process for producing and purifying hydrogen, which is expected to play an important role in future low carbon energy systems. 

Using a 2.0% Pt/CeO₂ catalyst, researchers found that carbon monoxide conversion dropped from 34.3% to 21.5% under conventional thermal operation. When non thermal plasma was applied, conversion remained stable at around 34.1% over the full 30 hour test. 

The researchers linked the performance difference to changes in surface processes on the catalyst. Under thermal conditions, carbon-containing species and strongly adsorbed carbon monoxide gradually build up, blocking the active sites needed for the reaction and reducing performance. This process, known as carbon monoxide poisoning, is a major limitation for platinum-based catalysts. 

In contrast, plasma generates highly reactive species that continuously convert or remove these surface deposits before they can accumulate. This keeps the catalyst surface dynamic and preserves the active sites required for the reaction. Importantly, these effects occur at relatively low temperatures where conventional catalysts struggle to perform efficiently. 

Using in situ spectroscopy, the researchers tracked how molecules behaved on the catalyst surface during operation. Under thermal conditions, carbon-rich intermediates steadily accumulated over time, directly correlating with the observed drop in activity. Under plasma activation, these species were present in much lower amounts or behaved as weakly bound species that did not interfere with the reaction. 

The study also shows that plasma changes how the reaction proceeds. Under thermal conditions, the reaction mainly follows a pathway involving formate intermediates, which tend to build up on the catalyst surface and contribute to deactivation. Under plasma conditions, the reaction shifts to a different route involving carboxyl intermediates, which turn over more quickly and do not accumulate. 

This shift in mechanism helps explain why performance remains stable. Plasma also reduces the inhibitory effect of carbon monoxide, meaning more active sites remain available even under conditions where conventional systems become limited. 

Maintaining catalyst stability is important for industrial processes because deactivation leads to reduced efficiency, shutdowns and the need for regeneration or replacement. In this study, regeneration under thermal conditions only partially restored performance, and activity declined again during subsequent operation. 

The findings suggest that integrating plasma activation into catalytic systems could offer a practical route to improving the durability and efficiency of hydrogen production by the water gas shift processes. By preventing catalyst deactivation and maintaining stable performance over time, this approach could improve reliability and reduce operational demands in industrial settings. 

Dr Chawdhury adds: “Understanding the mechanism behind this effect gives us new opportunities to design more durable catalysts for future hydrogen production processes, which also provides valuable guidance for industrial research and development.” 
 

The image, which contains more than 60 million stars, offers scientists an unprecedented view of the galactic bulge – the dense, bright heart of our Galaxy – and could help researchers confirm the existence of any exoplanet found in this region and measure their mass.

The new data comes from the Euclid Galactic Bulge Survey, a dedicated observing programme designed to support the discovery and study of exoplanets using a technique known as microlensing.

Captured over around 26 hours on 23 March 2025, the Euclid space telescope covered nine neighbouring fields of view, .  The result reveals a region of sky packed with stars, nebulas and star clusters in extraordinary detail.

, Astrophysicist at The University of Manchester, said: “Opening Euclid’s eyes towards the centre of our Galaxy was a very exciting moment for the team. It was the culmination of years of preparation and simulations to ensure Euclid could observe such a crowded region of the sky successfully, and without impacting on Euclid’s main science goals. The view Euclid gives us of the Galactic Centre region is absolutely stunning.”

The new observations show how Euclid’s capabilities can also be used for a broad range of astrophysics.

In this case, researchers are using the mission’s exceptionally sharp visible-light observations to identify the host stars to planets that cause microlensing events. Microlensing occurs when a foreground planetary system passes in front of a distant background star, briefly magnifying its light.

Dr Kerins co-led the Euclid Exoplanet Science Working Group between 2023 and 2025 and helped lead the effort to secure approval for the Galactic Bulge Survey, shape how it would be carried out, and help coordinate its successful execution.

The work required significant innovation, as Euclid was not originally designed to observe such a densely crowded region of the sky. Dr Kerins worked closely with colleagues within the Euclid Exoplanet Science Working Group, as well as the Euclid Project Scientists, instrument teams and spacecraft operations teams across the Euclid Consortium. He also helped to press the science case to Euclid colleagues and to ESA and international partners involved in Euclid. Extensive simulations and technical studies were undertaken to ensure the spacecraft could operate effectively in these conditions without affecting its core mission to study dark matter and dark energy.

The Euclid Galactic Bulge Survey targets regions rich in past microlensing events observed from the ground, where the lens and source have since begun to separate.

“This time baseline makes it possible to track the motion of the host stars and better characterise the planetary systems, ultimately enabling more accurate mass estimates for planets as small as Mars,” says Dr Kerins.

Because the centre of the Milky Way is so densely populated with stars, it provides one of the best places in the sky to look for these events. “Towards the centre of the galaxy, there is one chance in a million for a star to be magnified, while it would be one in a billion on other lines of sight.” states Matthew Penny, Assistant professor at Louisiana State University and current lead of the Euclid Exoplanets team. Dr Penny is a 91ֱ�� Physics undergraduate and postgraduate alumnus.

The survey is expected to help scientists better characterise known planetary systems and prepare for future discoveries. In particular, the Euclid data will provide an important reference point for observations to be made by NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will repeatedly observe the same region of the sky as part of its own microlensing and transit planet-hunting programmes.

Roman has recently arrived at the Kennedy Space Centre and is due to launch on August 30^th this year. The European Space Agency is a partner in Roman and Dr Kerins is the ESA-appointed scientist to the Roman Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey. Dr Kerins leads the exoplanet demographics working group within the transit science team that is expecting Roman to discover around 100,000 exoplanets across the Galaxy. 

By comparing Euclid’s earlier images with future exoplanet detections from Roman, researchers expect to be able to confirm transiting planets more robustly and determine the masses of microlensing planets with greater precision.

Dr Kerins adds: “We are at the dawn of an exciting new age of exoplanet discovery, and Euclid has just fired the starting pistol”.

In a new study published in , the team – led by – have created modified sugar building blocks that can be assembled automatically into defined structures, enabling scientists to probe their behaviour in unprecedented detail.

The team focused on alginates – a sugar widely used as a thickener in food and as a components of wound dressings. By introducing a small chemical modification (replacing part of the molecule with fluorine), they were able to subtly alter how these sugars behave without disrupting their overall structure.

Crucially, the researchers showed that these modified building blocks can be assembled using automated synthesis – a process that allows complex molecules to be built step by step with high precision. This enabled the creation of a library of tailored sugar chains with specific modifications at defined positions.

Unlocking how structure controls function

Using advanced analytical techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the team demonstrated that the modified sugars retain their overall shape, even though key internal interactions are altered.

This finding is significant because it shows that scientists can “tune” specific features of a molecule without fundamentally changing how it behaves – allowing them to isolate and study individual interactions in complex biological systems.

New tools for biotechnology and medicine

The ability to design and synthesise these molecules opens up new possibilities for research and application.

Fluorinated sugars can act as sensitive “reporters”, making it easier to track interactions between molecules using spectroscopic methods. They can also help scientists better understand how enzymes process sugars – an important step in areas ranging from infection biology to materials science.

More broadly, this work lays the foundation for developing tailored carbohydrate-based materials, where structure and function can be engineered with precision.

By providing a reliable method to build and study these modified sugars, the research offers a new platform for exploring how carbohydrate structure affects behaviour – helping to bridge a long-standing gap in molecular science.

In a new study published in , researchers investigated how different forms of nitrogen are used by plants and microbes in alpine heath environments.

Different strategies below ground

Using stable isotope labelling to track nitrogen movement in the field, the team – including Dr Ellen Fry, lead author for the paper – found that plants and microbes use distinct strategies to access this critical nutrient.

Plants primarily absorbed simpler, inorganic forms of nitrogen – such as ammonium and nitrate – and transported them from roots to shoots, where nitrogen accumulated over time.

In contrast, soil microbes showed a clear preference for more complex organic forms, particularly amino acids.

This division of labour reduces direct competition between plants and microbes, enabling them to coexist more effectively even in nutrient poor soils.

A dynamic system over time

The study also found that nitrogen cycling is highly dynamic. Nitrogen taken up by plants was rapidly moved through tissues, while microbes processed organic forms and influenced what eventually became available to plants.

Importantly, the researchers found little evidence that plants take up large organic molecules directly. Instead, these are likely first broken down by microbes and then reused by plants in simpler forms.

The team also observed that faster growing, more dominant plant species tended to take up more nitrogen overall, highlighting how competition between plant species influences nutrient use within ecosystems.

Implications for climate and ecosystem health

Alpine and heathland ecosystems are often cold, nutrient limited environments where small changes in nutrient cycling can have large ecological impacts.

By showing how plants and microbes partition nitrogen based on its chemical form, this research provides new insight into how these ecosystems function and persist under challenging conditions.

The findings could also inform efforts to manage soils more sustainably, by improving understanding of how nutrients move through ecosystems and how biodiversity is maintained.

Scientists have long tried to replicate this behaviour using synthetic materials, but most designs have focused on how molecules interact with ice at their surface.

In a study published in , the team – led by –  have shown for the first time that the internal structure of polymer nanoparticles, rather than their outer surface, plays a key role in controlling ice growth. This was a collaboration with Professor Steve Armes FRS at Sheffield Univeristy.

Looking inside the particle

The team created a library of polymer nanoparticles using a scalable technique known as polymerisation‑induced self‑assembly. These particles consist of a water‑exposed outer layer and a hidden inner core.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that changing the chemistry of the inner core dramatically altered how effectively the particles inhibited ice recrystallisation – the process by which ice crystals grow larger over time.

Particles with “soft” cores showed significantly higher activity, strongly suppressing ice growth, while those with more rigid cores were less effective.

Even more strikingly, chemically locking the core structure removed this activity entirely.

A new design principle

The findings challenge the conventional view that only the surface of a material interacts with ice. Instead, they show that internal mobility and structure within nanoparticles can influence how ice crystals behave.

The study suggests that individual polymer chains within the particles may play a role in interacting with ice as conditions change during freezing and thawing.

Applications from medicine to materials

Materials that control ice growth are important in a wide range of applications, from preserving cells and tissues to improving the texture of frozen foods and developing anti‑icing coatings.

By providing a new way to design these materials, the research opens up opportunities to develop more effective, scalable and cost‑efficient alternatives to natural antifreeze proteins.

The work also establishes a broader framework for designing functional nanoparticles, showing that internal structure can be as important as surface chemistry in determining performance.

Improving carbon efficiency in microbial manufacturing

Microbial platforms are widely used to produce fuels, chemicals and materials from renewable feedstocks. However, much of the carbon consumed by microbes is lost as carbon dioxide during metabolism, limiting carbon efficiency and contributing to emissions. Micaela’s research aims to tackle this challenge by exploring mixotrophy, a metabolic mode in which microbes can use both organic carbon sources and carbon dioxide at the same time.

By co-assimilating CO₂ alongside sugars or waste-derived feedstocks, mixotrophic microbes have the potential to retain more carbon within the production process. This could improve product yields, reduce emissions, and make biomanufacturing more economically viable.

Supporting a more sustainable bioeconomy

Despite its promise, the diversity and efficiency of mixotrophic metabolism remains poorly understood, and its potential is largely underutilised in biotechnology. Through her fellowship, Micaela will investigate this metabolic capability in greater depth, identifying and characterising new microbes capable of efficient carbon co-assimilation. Her work will focus on organisms found in high-CO₂ volcanic soils, using advanced genomic, cultivation and analytical approaches to uncover and evaluate previously untested strains. This interdisciplinary programme will be hosted by Professor Sophie Nixon and draw on continued collaborations with Professor Neil Dixon, the University of Iceland and the Technical University of Denmark.

The project will generate new insights into how carbon flows through microbial systems and identify strains with strong potential for industrial application. By defining the conditions that maximise carbon retention, the research will establish a comparative framework for designing next-generation low-emission bioprocesses.

This fellowship strengthens MIB’s role in developing sustainable biotechnology solutions, contributing to efforts to reduce industrial emissions and support a circular, carbon-efficient bioeconomy.

The work focuses on tellurium, a semiconductor of interest for electronic, thermoelectric and optoelectronic applications, where performance depends strongly on the size and shape of the nanostructures produced. Although liquid-phase synthesis is a scalable and relatively low-cost way to make these materials, it has been difficult to observe exactly how anisotropic tellurium structures begin to form and evolve during growth.

Using liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy, the researchers tracked the early stages of tellurium formation at the nanoscale. They found that tellurium first appears as spherical seed particles, which then give rise to multiple nanowires. During growth, nearby wires compete for available material, affecting local growth speed and branching. Across the experiments, local nanowire growth rates were measured in the range of 1 to 15 nm per second, depending on electron flux and the presence of neighbouring structures.

, corresponding author at The University of Manchester and the National Graphene Institute, said: “This study lets us see, in real time, how tellurium nanowires emerge and evolve in liquid. By directly observing nucleation, growth and branching at the nanoscale, we can begin to understand how to control these processes much more precisely. That matters because the performance of tellurium-based materials depends strongly on their size and shape.”

A second key finding was that bismuth seed nanoparticles dramatically change how tellurium grows. In the microscopy experiments, bismuth increased the number of nucleation sites and promoted more highly branched, fern-like structures. Follow-up electrodeposition experiments confirmed that bismuth also lowers the reducing potential needed for tellurium deposition and can substantially increase the amount of tellurium deposited under the same conditions. Together, these results show how insights from real-time microscopy can guide more effective materials synthesis outside the microscope.

Dr Yi-Chao Zou, co-corresponding author, said: “One of the most exciting aspects of this work is that the behaviour we observed in the liquid cell translated into conventional electrodeposition experiments. We found that bismuth seeding not only promotes tellurium nucleation but also makes deposition easier and more productive at a fixed potential. That opens up new possibilities for designing tellurium nanostructures with tailored morphologies for future device applications.”

The study, a collaboration between Sun Yat-sen University, The University of Manchester, the National Graphene Institute and Beijing Institute of Technology, suggests that real-time microscopy can do more than describe nanostructure growth. In this case, it identified a specific way to alter nucleation behaviour and improve deposition under defined experimental conditions. That could help researchers refine how tellurium nanostructures are produced for device-relevant studies, while keeping claims closely tied to the systems tested here.  The team report the findings could help accelerate the optimisation of low-dimensional nanostructures for electronics, energy conversion and sensing applications.

The study, published in , demonstrates how placing graphene close to a magnetic material can influence the spin of electrons without permanently altering graphene itself. By combining this magnetic proximity effect with graphene superlattices and operating at very low charge densities, the researchers were able to strongly tune how spins move through the material. 

“This work shows that by combining graphene with nearby magnetic materials, we can gain a high level of control over electron spin using electrical signals alone,” said Dr Daniel Burrow, from The University of Manchester. “In simple terms, we are learning how to pass information through graphene using the spin of electrons rather than their electrical charge.” 

Electron spin is a quantum property that can act like a tiny magnetic compass needle. While conventional electronics rely on the movement of charge, spin-based approaches aim to use this magnetic degree of freedom to process and carry information, potentially reducing energy losses. 

In the study, the team used cobalt contacts to induce magnetism in graphene through proximity, meaning the graphene itself does not become magnetic. They then injected and detected pure spin currents, allowing them to probe how spin transport changes across different electronic regimes. 

Near the charge neutrality point, where graphene has very few mobile charge carriers, the researchers observed a clear reversal of the spin signal. This behaviour indicates that the magnetic proximity effect creates a spin dependent energy splitting in graphene, which governs how spins travel through the material. 

Importantly, the same effect was also observed at additional neutrality points that appear when graphene is precisely aligned with hexagonal boron nitride. These so called superlattice features show that proximity induced spin control applies not only to graphene’s original electronic bands but also to those reconstructed by the superlattice structure. 

“Our measurements show that the same underlying mechanism controls spin transport across all these regimes,” said Dr Burrow. “That tells us we are seeing a robust physical effect rather than something specific to a single device setting.”

The strongest signals were observed in a bilayer graphene superlattice device designed to open an energy gap in the electronic structure. In this specific system, the researchers measured spin polarisations approaching 50 per cent and nonlocal spin resistances exceeding 300 ohms. These values are nearly two orders of magnitude larger than those measured away from charge neutrality in the same experimental platform. 

The study shows that low carrier density, combined with magnetic proximity effects and engineered band structure, can greatly enhance spin filtering and detection. While the work focuses on demonstrating the physics, the authors note that electrical control of spin at low power could be relevant for future spin based electronic technologies. 

“This research shows that we can engineer graphene systems where spin signals become both large and electrically tunable,” said , a co-author of the study. “That opens up new ways to explore spin transport in two-dimensional materials and brings us closer to using these effects in practical devices.” 

The team, , received the Stephanie L Kwolek Prize for developing a scalable solid-state lithium metal battery architecture that integrates nanocarbon-enhanced cathodes with solid electrolytes.

The award recognises a collaboration between researchers at PETRONAS, The University of Manchester, and Deakin University in Melbourne. Their work focuses on overcoming key barriers to the commercialisation of solid-state lithium metal batteries, including improving energy density, safety and manufacturability. 

Solid-state batteries replace the liquid electrolyte found in conventional lithium-ion batteries with a solid alternative, offering potential advantages in stability and performance. However, challenges remain in ensuring reliable operation at scale. The team’s approach combines nanocarbon-enhanced cathodes with solid electrolytes to deliver a design that can be manufactured using processes compatible with industry. 

The RSC Horizon Prizes, introduced in 2020, recognise teams working on innovative projects at the frontiers of the chemical sciences. The prizes highlight collaborative research that addresses global challenges and demonstrates significant progress towards practical applications.

Dr Helen Pain, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “The purpose of the Horizon Prizes is to recognise those who are pioneering new techniques, technologies and discoveries. Our winners demonstrate how expertise from across chemistry and related disciplines can be brought together to tackle some of the most pressing global challenges.” 

The 91ֱ�� researchers contributed expertise in nanomaterials and their integration into functional devices, building on the University’s strengths in advanced materials and energy research. Their involvement in the project reflects ongoing collaborations with international partners and industry to accelerate the development of next-generation technologies. 

The prize is one of a number of Horizon Prizes awarded this year by the RSC, which form part of a wider programme recognising excellence in research, innovation and education across the chemical sciences. 

The milestone marks the largest level of participation in the campaign's history, having launched in 2016. This demonstrates the growing global appetite for teachers to upskill in how to engage 5–14-year-olds in practical science learning in schools.

Teachers and their pupils have been involved in thinking about scientific questions that interest them. Time has been dedicated to encouraging them to plan and undertake investigations, gathering evidence and drawing conclusions on topics ranging from nature, weather, motion and materials.

Under the annual theme 'Globally Curious', the pupils’ questions have demonstrated creativity, curiosity and wonder.

• Which is the smallest animal that makes the biggest difference in our environment?
• What do ants like to eat the most?
• How does friction affect the distance a car travels?
• How do different exercises affect your heart rate?
• How do my clothes shed microfibres and does it matter?

Teachers and educators across the globe get involved in many ways. As an inclusive campaign, sharing events take place in schools, gardens, zoos, hospital schools and community spaces.  This year saw the campaign expand its reach into Slovenia and Spain, with bespoke training for teachers and translated materials that increasingly support engagement globally.

Brompton-Westbook Primary in Kent was the school that took registrations beyond the million mark. Claire Hofer, the school’s Science Lead, said Great Science Share for Schools has enabled their pupils and teachers to do more enquiry-based science, which they share with other pupils at a showcase event at the Discovery Park in Sandwich.

Similarly, The University of Manchester welcomed 31 schools from across Greater 91ֱ�� to its Nancy Rothwell Building for a large in-person event, where pupils showcased their investigations and discoveries with the Lord Mayor encouraging them on.

The Great Science Share for Schools campaign was founded by Professor Lynne Bianchi, Vice Dean for Social Responsibility at The University of Manchester, to elevate the prominence of science in the classroom through learner-led enquiry, inclusive participation and collaboration.

Professor Bianchi said: “2026 is a truly great year for GSSfS by reaching this huge milestone. This makes a huge difference to teachers and young people, as well as showing that there is keen interest to raise the profile of science education for all. As the University’s From 91ֱ�� for the world 2035 strategy really takes pace, GSSfS models our values towards social responsibility and widening participation.”

Grace Marson, Campaign Manager for Great Science Share for Schools, added: “We are really proud that the campaign continues to grow as this means it is continuing to support teachers to upskill their own knowledge and develop pupils’ confidence in science enquiry.”

As participation surpasses one million pupils for the first time, the achievement comes amid a new Royal Society report, calling for stronger support for public engagement with science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, highlighting the growing importance of initiatives such as Great Science Share for Schools.

, a new model for low‑light image enhancement (LLIE), was created by Computer Science undergraduate Alexandru Brateanu during his third-year project, working with academic supervisors.

The model outperforms comparable compact systems, recovering detail and clarity from images that would previously have been considered unusable.

The advancement has significant implications for photography, security, and a wide range of computational imaging tasks.

Low‑light image enhancement seeks to restore natural visibility, colour fidelity, and structural detail in scenes captured under poor illumination. While recent LLIE models have achieved impressive results, many rely on heavy architectures with large parameter counts, resulting in high computational cost and limited real‑time applicability. Efficiency has therefore become a central research challenge: how to enhance images more effectively while dramatically reducing model size.

In the work presented at the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2026, the team proposes a structured solution grounded in classical colour vision theory and implemented using modern neural components within the Retinex framework. Retinex, a foundational approach in image enhancement, decomposes an image into illumination (light) and reflectance (colour) components to better handle low‑light scenes.

The design motivation behind Multinex is to extract as much useful information as possible from low‑light images using a highly compact architecture. By prioritising enhancement over reconstruction and leveraging lightweight neural operations, Multinex achieves strong illumination correction, detail recovery, and colour fidelity while using only a fraction of the parameters required by existing approaches.

The model is released in both a lightweight version (45K parameters) and an extremely compact nano version (0.7K parameters), each offering substantial reductions in computational load. Comparison to corresponding lightweight models such as PairLIE (330K parameters) and ZeroDCE (80K parameters) Multinex shows a significant performance improvement.

Like other LLIE techniques, Multinex still faces challenges in scenes with severe spectral distortions, lens flares, or mixed artificial and natural lighting. The team aims to extend the framework to these complex cases, exploring alternative formulations such as tone‑mapping or multiplicative residuals, and applying Multinex principles to related domains including intrinsic image decomposition, colour constancy, underwater enhancement, and haze removal.

The researchers demonstrate that Multinex delivers state‑of‑the‑art performance at real‑time cost, highlighting the power of combining analytic priors with modern lightweight design.

Professor Michael Garrett, the Sir Bernard Lovell Chair of Astrophysics, chaired a global effort to update the long-standing “post-detection protocols” used by researchers involved in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The updated guidelines have now been formally ratified by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

The revised Declaration of Principles marks the first major update to the protocols in more than 15 years and reflects a media landscape transformed by social media, artificial intelligence and the 24-hour news cycle.

Acknowledging that any credible detection of extraterrestrial technology would be a transformative event for humanity, the new Declaration establishes a rigorous framework for verification, transparency and global risk communication.

"The information environment we operate in today is vastly more complex than it was in 2010," said Professor Michael Garrett, Chair of the IAA SETI Committee. . "In an era of deepfakes, automated misinformation, and instant global connectivity, a single unverified claim could trigger confusion or panic. These new protocols ensure that scientists maintain the highest standards of evidence before making announcements to the world."

Adapting to a new era of SETI research

SETI and Technosignature research have expanded significantly since the previous protocols were adopted in 2010. Scientists now investigate the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including excess infrared heat signatures from megastructures, optical laser emission, and even multi-messenger signals. The updated Declaration explicitly recognises this broader approach.

It also addresses other modern challenges, including protections for researchers, acknowledging that scientists involved in potential detection could face harassment, doxxing, or intense media scrutiny.

It also acknowledges the risk of viral rumours, ensuring verified data is distinguished from hoaxes or terrestrial interference.

Verification before announcement

At the heart of the new rules is a reaffirmation of a core scientific principle: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”.

Under the revised protocols, no public announcement should be made until a signal or artifact has been rigorously authenticated by independent organisations using different instrumentation.

"We do not shout “alien” the moment we see a strange blip," Professor Garrett added. "The scientific method demands we check, check again, and then ask others to check. Only when we have reached a consensus that a signal is credible do we bring it to the world."

The 'No Reply' Consensus

While the protocols outline how to share news of a discovery, they remain firm on one critical restriction: No reply should be sent.

The Declaration reaffirms the enduring principle that transmitting a response to an extraterrestrial intelligence is a decision that belongs to all of humanity and should only take place following international consultations, specifically through the United Nations.

What happens next

With the updated Declaration ratified by the IAA Board, the aim is to see the document lodged with other stakeholders, including the United Nations. A formal technical presentation of the protocols to the wider community, including the scientific press, will take place at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) later this year in Türkiye.

The IAA SETI Committee will also establish a permanent Post-Detection Sub-Committee, bringing together experts in social science, law, and ethics, to advise on the longer-term societal implications of a confirmed discovery.

The full document is available here: 

Measuring around a metre in length and armed with pincers over 16 centimetres long, Praearcturus gigas would have been a formidable predator stalking floodplains around 415 million years ago. Remarkably, the fossils used to identify Praearcturus have been held in the Museum’s collection for more than 150 years.

The study, published in the journal, used modern analytical techniques and comparisons with newly described fossil species to suggest that Praearcturus is a scorpion, and a distinct species.

Dr Richard J. Howard, Curator of Fossil Arthropods at the Natural History Museum, London, and lead author of the study, said: “When we think of giant arthropods, people often picture Carboniferous rainforests with giant millipedes or dragonfly-like insects from later in Earth’s history. But Praearcturus lived at least 50 million years earlier, well before the evolution of trees, when life on land was only just getting started.

“Confirming that this animal is a scorpion fundamentally changes our understanding of how and when these creatures evolved to such extraordinary sizes.”

, Palaeontologist at The University of Manchester, added: “Praearcturus has puzzled us palaeontologists for more than a century. By bringing together material from several collections and using cutting edge imaging techniques , we've been able to build a clearer picture of the animal than was previously possible, which is really exciting.

“What makes Praearcturus so interesting is that it became enormous at a time when life on land was otherwise very small. But it was a world  that could somehow support a giant predator. To try and better understand this ancient world we compared the size of fossil scorpions with other animals alive at the time. To reach such extraordinary sizes, and conclude that perhaps it lived in water, where life was bigger.”

Praearcturus gigas lived during the Early Devonian. Small plants and fungi had only recently begun to spread across the landscape, and complex terrestrial ecosystems like forests had yet to evolve. This means that, unlike later giant arthropods, Praearcturus did not benefit from the high atmospheric oxygen levels associated with the rise of forests. Instead, its enormous size may reflect a world with relatively little competition from other large predators. This suggests that Praearcturus might have grown so big simply because there weren’t many other large animals around meaning it could dominate its environment in a way that wouldn’t be possible later on.

The fossils also hint that this giant scorpion may have led a partly aquatic lifestyle. Some specimens show flap-like structures on the abdomen similar to those found in modern crustaceans such as lobsters, suggesting it may have been capable of moving between water and land. Quantification of the wider arachnid fossil record, led by Dr Garwood and the team, shows that scorpions are unusually abundant in rocks of this age compared with other arachnids, supporting the idea that some early forms may have lived in freshwater environments where they are more likely to survive as fossils. This places Praearcturus at a pivotal moment in Earth’s history when animals were first experimenting with life outside the oceans.

 This places Praearcturus at a pivotal moment in Earth’s history when animals were first experimenting with life outside the oceans.

Dr Greg Edgecombe, Merit Researcher at the Natural History Musuem, London, and co-author of the study said: “The boundary between land and sea was much less defined at this time. Praearcturus gives us a fascinating glimpse into how early animals adapted to these changing environments.

“It may even represent a lineage that returned to the water after earlier ancestors had already begun living on land.”

First described in 1871, Praearcturus gigas was originally thought to be a giant crustacean, similar to a woodlouse. The known fossils fragmentary nature lacked key features such as a tail making it difficult to classify with confidence for more than a century.

The breakthrough came through comparison with better preserved fossils discovered in recent years, which revealed key anatomical features unique to scorpions. The discovery highlights the continuing scientific importance of museum collections.

Dr Howard added: “Specimens collected over a century ago can still hold entirely new insights. By revisiting them with modern techniques, we can uncover discoveries that reshape our understanding of life on Earth.”

The discovery of such a large scorpion so early in the history of life on land challenges assumptions about why prehistoric arthropods reached gigantic sizes. Rather than being driven solely by environmental factors such as oxygen levels, the findings suggest that ecological opportunity such as a lack of competition may have played a crucial role.

A new study led by researchers at The University of Manchester has carried out the first full environmental life‑cycle cost analysis of using abandoned onshore oil and gas wells to generate geothermal electricity.

Published in Applied Thermal Engineering, the research assesses not only the financial costs of repurposing old wells, but also the often overlooked environmental and human health impacts, such as air pollution and climate damage.

The findings show that while repurposed geothermal systems currently produce electricity at a higher cost than conventional geothermal power, they deliver substantially lower environmental and health costs, particularly by avoiding new drilling and reducing pollution linked to fossil fuel infrastructure.

Turning legacy fossil assets into clean energy

Across Europe and globally, hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells are approaching the end of their productive life. Safely sealing and monitoring these wells is costly, and poorly managed sites can pose long‑term environmental risks.

The 91ֱ�� team explored whether these existing wells could instead be given a second life as geothermal energy sources, using underground heat to generate electricity.

“Existing oil and gas wells already reach deep underground areas where heat from the Earth can potentially be used for geothermal energy” said , Research Associate at The University of Manchester. “Our research asks whether we can turn this legacy infrastructure into part of the climate solution, rather than treating it solely as a liability.”

The study analysed three repurposing approaches:

• using two fully abandoned wells
• converting a single abandoned well
• turning late-life wells that increasingly produce water rather than oil and gas

These were compared with a conventional, purpose‑drilled geothermal power plant.

Cleaner, but not yet cheaper

The analysis found that repurposed well systems can have dramatically lower environmental impacts, particularly for air pollutants that affect human health. In some cases, environmental damage costs were reduced by more than 80% compared with a standard geothermal plant.

However, because the assessed repurposed systems are typically small and generate relatively little electricity, their cost per unit of power remains high. Electricity generated from repurposed wells currently costs more than from large‑scale geothermal, wind, solar or nuclear power.

, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester said “The challenge is not that repurposed geothermal is dirty or inefficient – it’s that it’s operating at pilot scale. When costs are spread over very small electricity output, the price per kilowatt‑hour inevitably looks high.”

Why environmental costs matter

A key innovation of the study is that it places environmental damage and human health impacts into monetary terms, allowing these costs to be compared directly with financial ones.

When these external costs are included, repurposed geothermal systems perform particularly well compared to fossil fuels. The study shows that coal and gas power impose environmental costs over 100 times higher than repurposed geothermal options.

What needs to change

The study stresses that repurposing oil and gas wells is not a silver bullet, but could play an important role in a diversified, low‑carbon energy system, especially if supported by the right policies.

Key recommendations include:

• Targeted incentives for early‑stage geothermal projects using existing wells
• Scaling up projects by clustering multiple wells together
• Clear rules on long‑term responsibility and well integrity
• Better integration of environmental and health costs into energy policy decisions

Crucially, the research suggests repurposing could help regions historically dependent on fossil fuels transition skills and infrastructure into clean energy, supporting a fairer, more inclusive energy transition.

Professor Chris Parkes, an experimental particle physicist at the University, and Professor Jeff Forshaw, a theoretical particle physicist, join over 90 other pioneers and leaders across a range of scientific fields, from astronomy and cancer research to mathematics and biotechnology.

In their election, they join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.

Professor Parkes is Head of the Physics & Astronomy Department at The University of Manchester and is internationally recognised for his leadership in particle physics. He previously led the LHCb experiment at CERN - one of the world’s largest scientific collaborations. His research focuses on the search for new physics through studies of matter–antimatter asymmetries and the development of radiation-hard silicon detectors.

Professor Parkes has played a central role in the development of the next generation of LHCb experiments, serving as Principal Investigator and Project Manager for the UK’s contribution to the LHCb Upgrade, installed in 2023, and leading the design of the future LHCb Upgrade II programme. Last year, the LHCb collaboration was honoured by sharing the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Parkes was also awarded the Institute of Physics High Energy Physics Group Prize in 2010.

Professor Forshaw is a theoretical particle physicist best known for his work on quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of the strong force. His work has uncovered unexpected features of perturbative QCD and has contributed to the theoretical frameworks used to interpret high-energy particle collisions, with important applications at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and other major international experiments. 

Jeff is also a prominent communicator of science. Together with Brian Cox he has written a series of bestselling popular science books that have introduced a wide readership to the mathematical ideas underpinning modern physics. Through his books, lectures and broader public engagement he has brought the substance, and the joy, of fundamental physics to a wide audience. 

Jeff's research has been recognised by the Maxwell Medal of the Institute of Physics for outstanding contributions to theoretical physics, and his public engagement work by the Institute's Kelvin Medal for outstanding and sustained contributions to the public understanding of physics. 

Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said: “I am delighted to welcome this newest group of exceptional scientists to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. 

“Their contributions reflect the highest standards of scientific endeavour. Whether advancing our understanding of vaccines or exploring the transformative potential of mathematics and computation, their work exemplifies the enduring value of curiosity, creativity and rigorous inquiry. 

“Our Fellowship is strengthened not only by individual distinction, but by the diversity of perspectives and experiences its members bring. This incoming cohort highlights the truly international character of contemporary science and underscores the vital role that plays in achieving breakthroughs that benefit us all.”

The full list of newly elected Fellows can be found on the

The three‑year project, REMOVE‑UM: REcovering MOlecular ValuE from Unrecycled Multi‑materials, funded by EPSRC and Defra will develop new technologies to tackle some of the most challenging waste products. 

Recycling has the potential to recover significant value from materials at the end of their life, playing a crucial role in building a more sustainable future. However, while current systems are effective for simple, single materials that can be easily sorted and cleaned, they struggle to deal with complex, multi-material products. 

Michael Shaver, Project Lead and Professor of Polymer Science at The University of Manchester, explains: “Recycling to recover value from materials at end-of-life is a tantalising component of a sustainable future. However, multi-material products – vapes, cars, batteries, furniture – comingle a host of plastics, metals, glass, ceramics and other materials designed to meet ever-increasing consumer demand for low-cost, high-performance, lightweight, aesthetically pleasing consumer goods. These staggeringly complex multi-materials are reaching their end-of-life with no strategy to facilitate the (re)integration of their components, materials or molecules into a circular economy.  

“Developing an economically viable and environmentally advantageous end of-life for multi-materials is vital. However, to achieve this in a just manner, it is essential we understand economic, societal, and environmental outcomes, coupling systemic approaches to ambitious fundamental research.” 

The REMOVE‑UM project will take a fundamentally new approach, developing methods to break down these materials at a molecular level and recover valuable components that can be reused. 

The work will combine expertise from across The University of Manchester, bringing together specialists in chemical recycling, catalysis, sustainability assessment and materials science.  

The project will focus on four key areas: 

• Analysing waste streams to understand their composition and potential value 

• Developing chemical processes to selectively break down complex materials into valuable products 

• Separating recovered molecules efficiently while minimising environmental impact 

• Working closely with industry partners to translate discoveries into real‑world applications and accelerate their commercial application. 

By targeting materials that current infrastructure cannot process, the team aims to complement existing recycling systems, rather than replace them.  

A core aim of the project is to ensure new recycling approaches are technically feasible, economically viable and environmentally sustainable. Life cycle assessment and economic analysis will be integrated throughout to guide decisions and deliver real benefits for society. The project also aims to cut reliance on fossil fuels by recovering reusable chemicals, while generating insights into how waste systems operate to reduce investment risk and support future recycling infrastructure. 

Dr Kedar Pandya, Executive Director for Strategy at EPSRC said: “This investment reflects our commitment to building a cleaner, more sustainable UK economy. By funding ambitious, collaborative and impactful research into recycling technologies, we are helping to tackle some of the most complex challenges in our waste system from collection through to currently hard-to-recycle material recovery. The research being undertaken, which is jointly funded by EPSRC and Defra, will support the long-term transition to a circular economy and creates the conditions for genuine economic and environmental benefit for the UK.” 

The project will be co-led by Dr Ciaran Lahive, Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow in the Department of Materials; Dr , Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering;  , Chair in Engineering Biology; , Professor of Chemical Engineering; and Dr , Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow.  

It builds on sustained work in this area by these researchers, including:  

• Chemical Recycling of Polycarbonate Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Blends via Organocatalyzed Acetolysis, ChemSusChem, 
• Recyclable Epoxy Composites Built with a Biobased Hardener, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 
• Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Supercritical CO₂ in Gel-spun UHMWPE Fibre Production, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 
• Defining quality by quantifying degradation in the mechanical recycling of polyethylene, Nature Communications, 
• Untangling the chemical complexity of plastics to improve life cycle outcomes, Nature Materials Reviews,   

Further reactivity studies revealed that these chains can fragment into N₁ and N₃ species, and can also serve as a source of nitrene radical anions. 

Detailed analysis showed how the nitrogen chain can break into smaller fragments, specifically single‑atom (N₁) and three‑atom (N₃) units. The researchers also found that these chains can act as a source of highly reactive nitrene radical anions. 

These findings provide new insight into the fundamental chemistry of nitrogen and demonstrate ways to control its reactivity under realistic conditions. 

Nitrogen chains are considered high‑energy‑density materials because they can release significant energy when they decompose into nitrogen gas. This property has long made them attractive for applications such as propellants, explosives, and gas‑generating systems. 

The ability to isolate and stabilise such molecules under ambient conditions could allow scientists to explore their use as “storable” reagents for transferring nitrogen groups in chemical reactions 

Beyond applications, the research offers a rare glimpse into a type of chemistry that plays a role in extreme environments, including the upper atmosphere where nitrogen chain ions have been detected. 

By recreating and stabilising these species in the laboratory, scientists can now investigate their properties in far greater detail, providing insights relevant to fields ranging from atmospheric chemistry to planetary science. 

This research was co-led by with Professor Meera Mehra, the University of Oxford, in collaboration with The University of Manchester’s , George F. S. Whitehead, , and, and Oxford’s Bono van IJzendoorn. First author was Oxford’s Reece Lister-Roberts. 
 

Air pollution can influence the brain either directly, when harmful particles enter the brain, or indirectly, through inflammation in the lungs which then impacts the brain. Neurological diseases have been increasing for decades and there is now a greater appreciation that long term exposure to elevated levels of air pollution are associated in dementia risk. While we often categorise air quality by the total amount of particulate matter, this new study demonstrates that the source of the pollution matters as much as the quantity.

The findings in reveal that different pollutant sources produce varied health effects even at identical concentrations in the air. Recognising these differences is essential for shaping public policy, improving clinical diagnosis and developing protective strategies. With an ever‑growing ageing population and increasing urbanisation, the public‑health imperative to mitigate neurological disease becomes increasingly urgent.

Lead author Thomas Faherty of the University of Birmingham said: “This unique clinical study highlighted the importance of the lung–brain axis in brain responses to air pollution. Safely exposing the same individuals to multiple real‑world pollution mixtures allowed us to detect differences between pollutants, demonstrating the value of this approach for further pollution-dementia research.”

In a double‑blind study involving 15 healthy volunteers, participants were exposed to clean air, limonene SOA (a citrus fragrance commonly used in cleaning products), diesel exhaust, woodsmoke and cooking emissions. After 60 minutes of exposure, and a four-hour break, researchers assessed respiratory function alongside working memory, selective attention, socio‑emotional processing, psychomotor speed and motor control.

Respiratory responses showed limonene had the greatest impact on lung function, followed by woodsmoke, diesel exhaust and finally cooking emissions.

Cognitive function was also found to be significantly influenced by pollutant source. Diesel exhaust and woodsmoke improved processing speed; limonene‑derived secondary organic aerosol enhanced working memory compared to cooking emissions; and diesel exhaust showed signs of impairing executive function. The team suggests that the presence of nitrogen oxides (NO_X), known vasodilators, may alter blood flow to the brain and contribute to these mixed cognitive effects.

Given that measurable effects were detectable after a brief 60-minute exposure, the findings suggest that prolonged exposure could have significant long‑term consequences for brain health. As rates of neurological disease increase, the study informs an immediate need for pollutant source‑specific public health guidance, improved clinical awareness and more targeted strategies to protect vulnerable populations.

The findings, published in , come from an international study examining a significant episode of volcanic unrest on São Jorge Island in the Azores in March 2022. 

By combining detailed earthquake records from land and seabed instruments with satellite-based measurements of ground movement, scientists were able to reconstruct how magma travelled deep beneath the island with unprecedented precision. 

The team discovered that a vertical sheet of magma, known as a dike, surged upwards from depths exceeding 20 kilometres before stalling just 1.6 kilometres below the surface. 

Surprisingly, much of this upward movement occurred with minimal seismic warning. Instead, earthquake activity intensified only after the magma’s ascent had slowed, presenting a challenge for eruption forecasting. 

Satellite data also showed that the island’s surface rose by around six centimetres during the event, confirming that magma had entered the upper crust. However, because the intrusion failed to reach the surface, no eruption occurred, a phenomenon scientists describe as a “failed eruption”. Such intrusions help to grow islands and this study’s unprecedented sharp earthquake maps show how this happens. 

The magma rose through one of the island’s main fault systems, the Pico do Carvão Fault Zone. By studying geological traces left by ancient earthquakes, scientists had previously found that this fault system has produced large earthquakes in the past. Rather than producing a single large earthquake, as seen in past seismic activity, the magma intrusion generated numerous small earthquakes distributed along the fault. 

The team, led by Dr Stephen Hicks, based at UCL Earth Sciences, conclude that the fault acted as both a conduit and a release mechanism. It provided a pathway for magma to rise, but also allowed gas and fluids to escape sideways, reducing pressure within the magma and ultimately halting its progress. 

Co-lead author Pablo J. González, of the Spanish National Research Council (IPNA-CSIC), explained: 
“The fault acted like both a highway and a leak. It helped magma rise, but may also have prevented an eruption.” 

, Reader in Marine Geophysics at The University of Manchester, supported the project as co-proponent and in discussing the results. 

The study demonstrates that significant magma movements can occur rapidly and with limited early warning signs, emphasising the importance of integrating multiple monitoring techniques to better assess volcanic risk. 

By combining onshore and offshore geophysical data, the researchers were able to achieve highly accurate detection and mapping of seismic activity and ground deformation, providing valuable information for local hazard assessments. 

The research reflects a large-scale collaborative effort, involving institutions across the UK, Portugal and Spain, supported by funding from organisations including the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the European Research Council, and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. 
 
 

The findings, published in , suggest that this fast‑acting mechanism may have contributed to past climate events and could well contribute to future climate change as polar ice sheets continue to retreat.

The study draws on samples collected during the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 400, one of the final missions of the decades long‑running global marine research programme. By analysing sediment cores drilled offshore in northwest Greenland, researchers found unexpectedly low methane concentrations in layers where methane hydrates would normally be abundant.

High‑resolution 3D seismic imaging revealed widespread pockmarks and fluid‑escape structures on the seafloor, indicating that methane‑rich fluids had once migrated rapidly through the sediments. The evidence points to a striking conclusion, methane hydrates in this region were locally dissolved and flushed out by large volumes of meltwater during the last glacial cycle.

Scientists have long suspected that rapid methane release from destabilised hydrates may have played a role in major climate events in Earth’s history, including the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) around 56 million years ago. During this period, global temperatures rose by 5–8°C, triggering ocean acidification, species extinctions, and widespread environmental disruption. Although the Greenland findings relate to a much more recent period, they reveal a mechanism capable of producing similarly abrupt methane release under the right conditions.

Methane hydrates, ice‑like solids that trap methane within a crystalline structure, typically form under low‑temperature, high‑pressure conditions known as stability zones, typically found beneath permafrost or in deep‑sea sediments.

Approximately 1,800 Gigatons of methane is stored in gas hydrates beneath continental margins and permafrost, making them one of the largest methane reservoirs in the global carbon cycle and a massive potential greenhouse gas source.

Until now, destabilisation was thought to occur mainly through slow changes in temperature or pressure. The new findings reveal that meltwater‑driven dissolution can rapidly destabilise hydrates even within gas hydrate stability zones, previously thought of as safe stores of methane.

As ice sheets continue to thin and retreat, this newly identified process could influence the timing and magnitude of future methane emissions and shape the trajectory of climate change.

In a new study published in , the team demonstrates how electrons can travel ballistically, i.e. without experiencing any scattering or resistance, over micrometre distances in graphene at low temperature and maintain spin coherence all the way up to room temperature. By using a technique known as transverse magnetic focusing (TMF), they were able to bend electron trajectories like light rays traversing a lens and show that these curved paths carry a clear spin signature.

91ֱ��-based Co-author Dr Daniel Burrow said, “What’s exciting here is that we can shape the path of electrons in graphene and, at the same time, tune how their spins behave. It’s a bit like using a set of lenses and mirrors, but for spin-polarised electrons. This opens a practical way to control spin without needing strong spin–orbit interaction in the material.”

Electron paths reveal spin behaviour

The team’s graphene device uses ferromagnetic cobalt contacts to inject and detect spin-polarised electrons at the edge of an encapsulated graphene channel. When a small out-of-plane magnetic field is applied, electrons paths curve into so-called cyclotron orbits. If those orbits are the right size, they land directly on the detector contact producing distinct peaks in signal at specific magnetic fields. These TMF peaks provide a direct fingerprint of ballistic electron motion. Three such peaks were resolved in the study.

Crucially, the height and sign of these TMF peaks changed depending on the alignment of the magnetic contacts, showing that the focused signal carried spin information. This confirms that ballistic trajectories, rather than diffusive scattering processes, were responsible for transporting spin across the device.

Control at the flick of a gate voltage

By varying the voltage applied to the back gate, which tunes the density of electrons in graphene, the researchers could modulate the spin signal dramatically. In some conditions, they enhanced the signal relative to standard nonlocal spin-valve measurements. In others, they could reverse its polarity altogether.

This tunability arises from a coupling between the electrons’ orbital motion and their spin, which occurs because the ferromagnetic contacts induce local charge-transfer doping as well as  proximity-exchange effect at the graphene edge. So the graphene next to the contact behaves like a magnetic material, and the ballistic movement of electrons from this region into the rest of the non-magnetic graphene channel leads to the spin-dependent electron optics. The result is a transistor-like behaviour for spin, achieved without introducing spin–orbit coupling into the graphene channel.

A route toward practical spin-based devices

The team observed clear ballistic behaviour at low temperature (25 K), with quasi-ballistic transport still present at room temperature. Because the TMF peaks remained sensitive to spin at these higher temperatures, the researchers demonstrate that spin-coherent ballistic transport can survive under conditions suitable for real world devices.

This approach provides a new operational principle for spintronic components: devices that rely on controlling the spin of electrons rather than their charge. The mechanism echoes the idea behind the Datta–Das spin field-effect transistor but achieves spin modulation through electron optics effects rather than spin–orbit interactions.

Co-author added, “We have shown that electron optics in graphene can do more than guide electrons, it can actively shape their paths in a spin-dependent manner. Being able to control spin in this way, using low-power and scalable materials, moves us closer to practical spin-based technologies and future quantum systems.”

The one‑day event, convened by the University’s cross‑faculty Geothermal Network in partnership with Sustainable Futures, focused on the opportunities and challenges of deploying geothermal heat across the city region. While geothermal projects are already operating in several UK cities, no such schemes currently exist in Greater 91ֱ��, despite the region’s significant subsurface potential.

The symposium highlighted how geothermal energy could provide a renewable, local source of heat for commercial, public and domestic buildings, drawing on proven approaches such as mine water geothermal, aquifer thermal energy storage and deep geothermal systems.

Exploring regional potential and delivery pathways

The morning sessions set the wider UK and Greater 91ֱ�� context for geothermal development, including national policy considerations, regional decarbonisation plans and The University of Manchester’s role as both a research institution and major estate operator. Attendees heard about international and UK case studies illustrating how geothermal energy is being delivered in urban settings, alongside presentations on the geological characteristics of the 91ֱ�� subsurface.

Later sessions focused on practical lessons learned from geothermal projects in the North of England, addressing issues such as project planning, risk management and delivery models. The programme also examined the skills and workforce requirements needed to support future geothermal deployment, emphasising the importance of geoscience and engineering expertise.

Interactive discussion and knowledge exchange

A central feature of the symposium was its interactive format, designed to encourage cross‑sector dialogue and knowledge exchange. Through themed discussions and panel sessions, participants explored four key areas:

• Risks and public confidence, including subsurface uncertainty, environmental risk management and public acceptability
• Heat zoning and heat networks, and how geothermal energy could support local heat planning
• Funding and delivery, focusing on finance, risk reduction and the transition from feasibility to viable projects
• Skills and workforce, addressing current gaps and future needs across the geothermal sector

Public engagement and environmental regulation were also discussed in detail, with a focus on building trust, communicating risk effectively and aligning geothermal development with existing regulatory frameworks.

Building momentum for future activity

The symposium marked the start of a wider programme of geothermal‑related activity by The University of Manchester. By bringing together academic expertise, policy insight and industry experience, the event provided a platform for identifying next steps and collaborations that could help unlock the region’s geothermal potential.

She is one of 44 new Fellows announced this year, recognised for their outstanding contributions to research, innovation, leadership, and public life in Wales and beyond. Fellows of the LSW are part of distinguished body of interdisciplinary experts who promote, support, and advise on research and policy benefitting Wales by sharing their expertise, informing on policy, fostering collaboration, and providing mentorship.

Professor Hywel Thomas, President of the Learned Society of Wales, said: “Welcoming our new Fellows to the Society is always one of the highlights of the Society’s year. I congratulate them on this recognition of the excellence and importance of their work and contributions to life in Wales and beyond. We look forward to bringing their experience and knowledge to our work on policy and researcher development.”

Specialising in the mathematics of liquid crystals and partially ordered materials, Professor Majumdar’s research has been instrumental in advancing the field in an interdisciplinary context. Bridging mathematical modelling, applied analysis and theoretical physics, she has led international and interdisciplinary research networks, collaborating with partners across four continents.

Throughout her career, she has also been a committed advocate for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), leading national and international initiatives to support underrepresented groups in mathematics. In 2015 she became the inaugural winner of the London Mathematical Society’s Anne Bennett Prize, awarded for contributions to mathematics and for inspiring women mathematicians. She also pioneered and co-led the hugely acclaimed “UK Retreats for Women in Applied Mathematics” from 2023-2026.

The 2026 cohort of LSW Fellows reflects the breadth of expertise across Welsh academia and civic society, spanning the arts, humanities, sciences, and engineering. This year marks a significant milestone for the Society, with 52% of new Fellows being women, the highest proportion in its history.

Professor Thomas added “I am also thrilled that our work on equity, diversity and inclusion is starting to see the Fellowship include increasing numbers of women. In three of the last five years, women have made almost or just over 50% of the new intake. This has been the result of concerted efforts to embed our EDI commitment at every turn, to make the nomination process more accessible, and to run a series of events that specifically target women academics and civic leaders who might be interested in joining the Fellowship.”

This year’s Fellows include leading figures in music, heritage, sculpture, climate science, coastal research, and ocean governance, highlighting Wales’s global contributions to cultural vitality and environmental stewardship. The Society also emphasised the growing importance of engineering and artificial intelligence, recognising researchers pioneering AI applications in manufacturing and innovators developing technologies to improve energy and carbon management in buildings.

Professor Majumdar’s election places her among a distinguished community of scholars whose achievements continue to shape Wales’s academic, cultural, and scientific landscape.

Professor Apala Majumdar said "I am delighted and honoured to be elected Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. It is a fantastic opportunity to engage with the best minds in Wales, and to contribute to Welsh higher education and Welsh mathematics. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of my nominator, Professor Marco Marletta and my seconder, Professor Gennady Mishuris, and the generous and continuous encouragement of my parents and friends in Cardiff. I look forward to working closely with the Learned Society of Wales and bringing different communities together".

This new technique utilises self‑assembling polymer carriers for gene delivery, improving effectiveness and reducing the toxicity to cells over existing techniques in lab tests. These advances rely on safe and efficient methods for delivering gene‑editing tools into cells, which is a key bottleneck in enabling widespread application. Improving upon existing gene delivery methods has become essential to enable these developments and allow more effective transfection.

The process of introducing DNA or RNA into cells to change gene expression, can be achieved using viral or non‑viral vectors. While viral vectors are powerful, they raise safety and manufacturing concerns, driving intense interest in the development of safer, non‑viral alternatives. Transfection, using polymeric carriers or lipid nanoparticles to deliver genetic material, is a key non‑viral strategy. However current systems often struggle to balance efficiency and toxicity. In order to develop polymer systems for molecular delivery applications, more advanced polymer systems need to be developed and screened.

In research published in ACS Materials Letters, the team demonstrates that polyplexes produced via Polymerization‑Induced Electrostatic Self‑Assembly (PIESA) offer a more effective and versatile route to gene delivery than conventional produced polymeric polyplexes. Polyplexes are formed when positively charged polymers bind to negatively charged DNA or RNA, creating nanoscale complexes that can enable genetic material to enter cells. Traditionally, polyplexes are prepared using pre-synthesised polymers which are then mixed with DNA or RNA. However, this post‑assembly step can lead to instability and increased cell toxicity, often limiting the size of genetic payloads that can be delivered effectively.

PIESA using PET‑RAFT (Photoinduced Electron/Energy Transfer Reversible Addition-Fragmentation Chain-Transfer) polymerisation overcomes these limitations by driving electrostatic self‑assembly during polymer growth. As the polymer forms, it binds to the genetic material, producing polyplexes with controlled sizes, structures, and physicochemical properties. By using a “one‑pot” approach to produce polyplexes, the need for complex post‑processing is avoided, resulting in improved consistency and facilitating high‑throughput screening of formulations

The study shows that PIESA‑derived polyplexes are less toxic to cells than their conventionally assembled counterparts and act as more effective gene delivery vehicles in transfection trials, achieving higher gene expression while preserving cell viability.

Transitioning to advanced synthesis and assembly strategies such as PIESA could open the door to the next‑generation of non‑viral gene delivery systems, with improved transfection, broader formulation windows, and reduced cell toxicity.

Dr Lee Fielding added “This approach potentially opens up a more reliable and scalable route to non‑viral gene delivery. By innovating in how polyplexes can be prepared and screened for improved efficiency, while reducing toxicity, we hope it will help accelerate the development of gene delivery technologies and make them more accessible across biomedical research and clinical applications."

Researchers from 91ֱ�� are among the international team awarded the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their contributions to the Muon g‑2 experiment, a 60‑year scientific endeavour spanning CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermilab. The prize follows 91ֱ��’s prominent role in the 2025 Breakthrough Prize, awarded to the ATLAS and LHCb collaborations at CERN for precision tests of the Standard Model and discoveries including new particles and matter–antimatter asymmetries.

Valued at $3 million, the Breakthrough Prize is often dubbed the “Oscars of Science” and is considered the world’s premier science award. Unlike the Nobel Prize, which recognises up to three individuals or a single organisation, the Breakthrough Prize honours the approximately 350 collaborators across the world who produced the most precise measurement ever achieved at a particle accelerator: the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.

Understanding the muon’s magnetic moment

Muons, one of the smallest known particles, interact with a sea of virtual particles that constantly flicker in and out of existence. Acting like tiny magnets, their magnetic moment shifts slightly due to these quantum effects. Comparing the measured value with theoretical predictions reveals the composition of this quantum “foam” and tests whether unknown particles or forces exist beyond the Standard Model.

Decades of increasingly precise measurements now indicate that the Standard Model remains our best description of fundamental physics.

91ֱ�� leadership across UK institutions

The UK played a central role in the collaboration, providing one of the experiment’s two major detector systems and in developing simulations and software to analyse the data alongside contributions to the theoretical calculations.

Professor Mark Lancaster, from The University of Manchester, led the UK involvement across 91ֱ��, Lancaster, Liverpool and UCL, and served as co‑spokesperson of the global Fermilab Muon g-2 collaboration between 2018 and 2020.

A global scientific milestone

The Muon g‑2 experiments began at CERN in the 1970s, moved to Brookhaven in the 1990s and concluded at Fermilab with the final publication in 2025. The goal was to measure the muon’s magnetic moment with ever‑increasing precision, probing the quantum vacuum where virtual particles appear and vanish. Even the smallest deviation from theoretical predictions could point to new physics beyond the Standard Model.

The achievement represents the combined effort of scientists and engineers across multiple disciplines, reflecting the scale and diversity of expertise required to reach record‑breaking precision.

With 91ֱ�� researchers again at the forefront of a globally celebrated breakthrough, the University continues to demonstrate its leadership in shaping the future of particle physics and advancing our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature.

Professor Mark Lancaster FRS said “Our attention at 91ֱ�� now turns to a next generation of experiments that are striving to find evidence of new particles and interactions using novel quantum technologies” 

In the new study, 91ֱ�� engineers, including Dr , compared a conventional packed‑bed reactor with an intensified membrane‑assisted system. By feeding oxygen gradually through a porous ceramic membrane, the team achieved better control of the reaction and suppressed unwanted combustion pathways. 

Under optimised conditions, the membrane reactor delivered up to 58.7% acrylic‑acid selectivity – a 10‑percent improvement over standard reactor technology. It also helped regulate temperature, reducing hot‑spots and improving reaction stability. 

A more sustainable route for a globally important chemical

Glycerol is produced in large quantities by the biodiesel sector as a major by-product, with global production growing rapidly over the last two decades. Its oversupply has depressed market prices and created a need for new valorisation routes. Converting this low‑value by‑product into acrylic acid offers a way to lower emissions, reduce reliance on fossil resources and increase the circularity of chemical manufacturing.

The researchers used two catalysts, one to add oxygen in the right way, and one to remove water molecules (orthorhombic Mo–V–O (Ortho‑MoVO) oxidation catalysts and HZSM‑5(200) dehydration catalysts) respectively, to enable high glycerol conversion (94–99%) across all tested conditions, while the membrane reactor design strategically minimised over‑oxidation to CO/CO₂ (COₓ).

The team applied a statistical Design of Experiments (DoE) approach to map the coupled effects of temperature, GHSV, oxygen-to-glycerol ratio and feed‑to‑membrane ratio. This enabled the identification of precise operating windows that maximise acrylic acid yield while maintaining high conversion and limiting COₓ formation.

A 44‑hour stability study highlighted that catalyst deactivation is primarily driven by coke deposition on HZSM‑5(200), suggesting future work should focus on developing more coke‑resistant materials or regeneration strategies. Ortho‑MoVO, by contrast, retained its structure and showed minimal deactivation.

Pathway to industrial implementation

The results demonstrate strong potential for integrating membrane‑assisted reactors into future commercial glycerol‑to‑acrylic‑acid processes. Beyond enhanced selectivity, the reactor design:

• reduces oxygen consumption,
• improves temperature control,
• may reduce downstream purification costs due to higher product yields, and
• provides a more sustainable alternative to propylene‑based production.

The researchers note that next‑generation membranes specifically engineered for selective oxygen transport could unlock even greater performance improvements, along with opportunities to optimise operating pressure and reactor compactness.

This breakthrough provides fresh insight into one of chemistry’s most familiar concepts – aromaticity – and shows it can occur not only in carbon‑based rings like benzene, but also in unusual clusters of heavy metals.

A new twist on a classic chemical idea

In everyday chemistry, aromatic molecules such as benzene are valued for their stability, which comes from electrons circulating smoothly around a ring. This “ring current” is a signature of aromaticity and is usually found in organic (carbon-based) molecules.

The new study shows that a tiny ring of three bismuth atoms (Bi₃) also supports these circulating currents, behaving as an aromatic system, despite being made entirely of heavy metals.

Even more remarkably, this behaviour is dominated by sigma (σ) electrons, rather than the more familiar π electrons that define aromaticity in organic chemistry.

What this means for chemistry 

The finding bridges the gap between traditional organic chemistry and the emerging field of all-metal aromaticity, offering:

• The heaviest aromatic ring ever identified, made from three bismuth atoms.
• The first actinide “inverse sandwich” complexes supporting such a metal ring, using uranium and thorium to hold the Bi₃ unit in place.
• Clear experimental and computational evidence that the bismuth ring has strong ring currents – a hallmark of aromaticity – even in the presence of large, magnetic metal ions.

This adds a new entry to the catalogue of aromatic molecules and helps scientists understand how aromaticity behaves in heavy elements, which is valuable for areas such as materials science, metal cluster chemistry, and actinide research.

A step toward understanding heavy element chemistry

The international team synthesised and studied two new complexes: 

• a diuranium complex containing the Bi₃ ring, and
• a dithorium version that behaves similarly.

Using Xray crystallography, the researchers confirmed the shape and symmetry of the three-atom ring. They then used magnetic measurements, spectroscopy and advanced computer modelling to show that electrons move around the bismuth ring in a continuous, stabilising current, just as they do in classic aromatic molecules.

Even more intriguingly, the dithorium complex showed measurable exalted diamagnetism, an effect directly associated with aromatic ring currents.

The work provides benchmark data to help chemists compare traditional organic aromaticity with its all‑metal counterpart. It also shows how unusual ring systems can be stabilised using actinides – metals at the bottom of the periodic table that often behave in unexpected ways.

By proving that such a heavy‑element ring can not only exist but also display aromatic stability, the research opens new possibilities for designing metal‑based clusters and exploring the boundaries of chemical bonding.

The ICAM is a successful partnership between bp, The University of Manchester, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Since its launch in 2012, the ICAM has supported research ranging from PhD-led exploratory projects to large-scale strategic initiatives involving multiple teams. The Centre has strengthened research capabilities, fostered interdisciplinary collaboration and provided students and early career researchers with valuable experience working alongside bp experts. Its model embeds bp Mentors within project teams, ensuring research remains industrially relevant and accelerates translation from laboratory to application.

The ICAM’s Next Chapter

Building on more than a decade of interdisciplinary research in materials science, the ICAM will continue to make a difference in today’s energy systems and help build tomorrow’s, while aligning with bp’s strategic interests and technology roadmaps.

The ICAM’s research supports bp’s ambition to be a net zero company and to help get the world to net zero by 2050 or sooner by improving understanding of materials, processes and energy systems that can lower emissions and enhance performance. Recent examples include research on sustainable catalysts for CO₂ conversion through the ICAM's EPSRC Prosperity Partnership on Sustainable Catalysis for Clean Growth, and work to develop better modelling tools for sustainable aviation fuel.

In recent years, the ICAM has welcomed additional expertise from associate members including Cardiff University and Johnson Matthey, both central to its previously mentioned Prosperity Partnership as well as University College London, University of Edinburgh, University of Leeds, University of Sheffield and University of Texas at Austin.

In its next chapter, the ICAM will continue to exemplify what can be achieved when industry and academia work together to address energy challenges.

Routine monitoring of fibre release is considered essential for designing more sustainable textiles and informing policies aimed at reducing pollution at source. However, existing methods are time consuming, prone to bias and vulnerable to contamination. 

By adapting industrial dyeing techniques used in textile manufacturing and combining them with established microplastic analysis methods, the research bridges fashion technology and environmental science to overcome these barriers. The result is a faster, more reliable way to measure microfibre emissions under real world conditions such as washing and mechanical stress. 

The researchers say the method could support better eco-design of textiles, improve testing standards and inform future regulation – including policies such as extended producer responsibility. It may also help guide the development of technologies designed to capture fibres, such as washing machine filters. 

“If we want to reduce microfibre pollution, we need reliable ways to measure it,” Dr Allen added. “This approach opens the door to routine testing that reflects what’s really being released into the environment – not just what’s easiest to see.”

Computational simulations of mathematical models of fluid flow are essential for everyday applications ranging from predicting the weather to the assessment of nuclear reactor safety. The advent of this simulation capability over the past 50 year has revolutionised the development of fuel-efficient aeroplanes and sail configurations on racing yachts can now be optimised in real time, providing the marginal gains needed to win races in the Americas Cup.

Optimised aerodynamics means that modern day cyclists can ride faster, golf balls fly further and Olympic swimmers consistently set world records. Computational fluid dynamics also enables the modelling of the flow of blood in the human heart, making the provision of patient-specific surgery possible.

Scientists and engineers rely on computer-based simulations to understand, predict, and design these systems that they can’t easily test in real life. But traditional fluid‑simulation methods often require hours or even days of computation, and struggle when the flow becomes fast or highly complex. 

Machine‑learning‑based simulations, once trained, can make these assessments almost instantly. Instant feedback would allow rapid design testing, real‑time adjustments, and rapid testing variation without the usual computational burden.

The findings were published in the

The study uses the stability of fluid motion as the foundation for a new method that predicts how complex systems behave. Instead of relying on costly laboratory experiments, solutions to the fundamental equations of fluid motion are generated numerically. This allows the machine-learning model to be trained on accurate, high-quality data drawn directly from physics, demonstrating that the model can accurately handle challenging simulations.

A key focus of the work is identifying bifurcation points –the moments when a smooth, steady flow (laminar flow) suddenly begins to change – similar to calm, evenly flowing river as it hits an obstruction, or splits and fluids start to mix and form eddies. Laminar flow is when a liquid behaves in a smooth and orderly way, like pouring honey, the flow is consistent and steady.

By successfully using a machine‑learning model to identify the points at which a system changes behaviour or in this case bifurcates, the study suggests that, with further refinement, machine‑learning‑based models could become a practical alternative to traditional fluid‑modelling techniques in the future.

Professor Silvester added: "This marriage of old and new approaches holds the promise of efficient computation of physically realistic fluid flows in a myriad of practical situations. The development of refined mathematical models of complex fluids is likely to be critically important if the promise of AI is to be effectively realised in the future.”

The researchers created a new physics-based module that allows heat produced by urban traffic to be represented directly within the Community Earth System Model (CESM) – one of the world’s most widely used global climate models for predicting how the Earth’s climate behaves.

By adding urban traffic-related heat processes directly into the numerical model, the team were able to show how vehicles can measurably raise temperatures in cities and influence how heat moves between roads, buildings and the surrounding air.

The study, published in the , used real-world traffic data, supplied by Transport for Greater 91ֱ�� (TfGM), alongside open datasets to validate the model for 91ֱ��, UK, and Toulouse, France.

Lead author Dr Zhonghua Zheng, Co-Lead for Environmental Data Science & AI at 91ֱ�� Environmental Research Institute (MERI) and Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Data Science & Environmental Analytics at The University of Manchester, said: “Research on urban heat has traditionally focused on buildings, materials and land surfaces. However, the direct heat produced by vehicles – from engines, exhausts and braking – has received far less attention in large-scale climate models.”

In 91ֱ��, the results showed that traffic heat increased simulated air temperatures by around 0.16°C during summer and 0.35°C in winter. The scientists say that while these temperature increases may appear small, they can make a meaningful difference during extreme heat events.

During the July 2022 UK heatwave, the model suggests that traffic-related heat contributed to increases in human heat stress indicators, pushing the “feels like” temperature above dangerous thresholds for longer periods.

The study also found that traffic heat does not just affect outdoor temperatures, but indoor temperatures too. Heat released at street level can transfer into buildings, increasing the need for air conditioning in summer.

Unlike previous approaches, the new model can also simulate different types of vehicles – including petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric vehicles – and can respond to changes in traffic patterns and weather conditions.

This means scientists and stakeholders can explore how shifts in transport systems, such as the move toward electric vehicles, could change how much heat traffic adds to urban environments.

The work could help cities better understand how transport policy and the transition to cleaner vehicles may influence future climate resilience.

Yuan Sun, first author of this paper and PhD researcher from The University of Manchester, added: “We would like to highlight the importance of considering transport systems when planning for climate adaptation, urban cooling strategies and net-zero transitions.”

Published in Science, the team demonstrated the first atomic‑resolution imaging of atomic behaviour at solid–liquid interfaces in a broad range of non‑aqueous (organic) solvents. Previous high‑resolution liquid imaging techniques were largely limited to water, but the new technique works with a wide range of liquids beyond water, dramatically expanding the range of chemical processes that can be studied at the atomic scale, including key enabling technologies for the green energy transition.

Transmission Electron Microscopy is one of the only techniques that can image individual atoms, using a highly focused electron beam to probe inside structures, but it requires a high vacuum – making it impossible to study liquid processes. The 91ֱ�� team overcame this long‑standing challenge by building “nano‑aquariums”: nanoscale liquid cells made by sealing tiny pockets of test liquids, each just 100 attolitres, a billion times smaller than a raindrop, between ultra‑thin graphene windows just a few atoms thick. The graphene is strong enough to protect the liquid from the vacuum, yet almost completely transparent, allowing the electron beam to pass through.

Using an advanced electron microscope at the electron Physical Science Imaging Centre (ePSIC) national facility, the team captured videos of gold atoms at the graphene–liquid interface to compare five industrial solvents. The resulting videos show individual atoms hopping between sites, pairing up into groups of two and three, and clustering into larger nanoparticles with the measured behaviour sensitive to the choice of liquid. An AI‑enabled automated analysis workflow allowed the researchers to individually “track” more than a million gold atoms across the five solvents, enabling extraction of truly statistically significant information – a far cry from most atomic‑resolution imaging papers, which typically draw conclusions by observing only tens or hundreds of atoms.

“Watching individual atoms move in liquids is incredibly exciting, like having a front‑row seat to chemistry in action,” said Sam Sullivan‑Allsop, postdoctoral researcher at 91ֱ�� and first author. “By tracking more than a million atoms, we can move beyond isolated snapshots and finally see how liquids shape atomic behaviour.”

Our images are clear enough to resolve both the gold atoms and the graphene lattice beneath them,” he added. “That lets us understand not just where the atoms move, but why: how they interact with the surface and why they tend to “pair up” into small clusters during their random motion.”

A key innovation was sealing the cells while fully submerged in liquid using a thin ceramic cantilever to manipulate the graphene crystals. Previous approaches suffered from significant evaporation during the sealing step, causing huge fluctuations in the concentrations of test liquids. The new technique enables precise control of what goes inside – essential for making fair comparisons between liquids.

, who developed the fabrication process, explained, “The trick is sealing the cells while they are submerged within the liquid itself. Doing it this way means you know exactly what sample you are looking at – and it works for nearly every solvent, not just water.”

Individual gold atoms are a promising catalyst for green chemistry but preventing them “clustering” into bigger particles has always been challenging. Using their new platform, the team investigated how both the choice of solvent (which controls dispersion in the liquid) and the drying kinetics (which lock in the final structure) together determine whether the final catalyst contains the individually separated gold atoms required for high performance. In particular, acetone – a common solvent – combined low polarity with a low boiling point and surface tension, helping gold atoms remain separated during both the liquid phase and drying, whereas higher‑boiling solvents (e.g., cyclohexanone) and water tended to yield larger particles. The structural findings were confirmed by catalyst testing by collaborators at the University of Cardiff’s Catalysis Institute.

However, the new technique has potential for significant impact in fields outside catalysis. Many crucial processes, from fuel cells and batteries to filtration and precious‑metal recovery from e‑waste, happen at solid–liquid interfaces. Until now, scientists mostly relied on ensemble measurements that can obscure atomic‑scale complexity; watching individual atoms in liquids changes that.

, who led the research, commented, "It's remarkable how much we still don't understand about how atoms behave at solid‑liquid interfaces, given how fundamental these processes are to modern technology. Now we can watch what's actually happening, understand why, and use that insight to design better materials and processes."

The research involved collaboration between The University of Manchester, Cardiff University, Sheffield University, and the ePSIC national microscopy facility at Diamond, combining expertise in electron microscopy, 2D materials fabrication, catalysis, and computational modelling. With the platform now established, the team is already applying it to questions in clean energy technologies and recovery of metals from e‑waste.

This research was published in the journal Science.

Full title: Atomic-resolution imaging of gold species at organic liquid-solid interfaces.

DOI: