News & Comment

As artificial intelligence tools continue to develop, their impact is growing.

Metasurfaces and metamaterials (or meta-optics) and their optoelectronic hybrid integration are set to drive the next era of computing, sensing and communications. As electronic systems reach fundamental limits, optical-enabled artificial intelligence emerges as a way forward, with meta-optics enabling speed, efficiency and scalability. We argue the need for comprehensive national innovation strategies to exploit the value of meta-optics in the photonics industry.

The ability to make porous extended structures in a predictable manner is now a mature and useful concept for materials scientists to solve real-world problems.

Swathi Kumar, Lakshmi Sujeesh, Lois Hong, Jennifer Young and Andrew Holle discuss how scientists can work with communities in low- and middle-income countries to address health-related challenges.

Quantum technologies are moving towards practical solutions in computing, sensing and secure communications, with photonics driving scalability and connectivity.

Pascale Senellart-Mardon, CNRS research director at the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Université Paris-Saclay and co-founder of photonic quantum computer start-up Quandela, talks to Nature Materials about photonic quantum technologies and the challenges and opportunities of juggling academia and industry.

Memristors have been intensely investigated for memory applications and neural network accelerators. In this Comment, we discuss the requirements for how memristor technologies should evolve for Bayesian in-memory computing.

Concerns associated with the immunogenicity of mRNA lipid nanoparticles containing polyethylene glycol (PEG) are inspiring the development of PEG alternatives.

The emergence of lipid nanoparticles as nucleic acid delivery vehicles has revolutionized medicine, with polyethylene glycol (PEG)-lipids playing a crucial role in particle formation and in vivo fate. However, PEG has been linked to immune responses that can provoke side effects and may prevent repeat dosing, and so PEG alternatives are now being developed. Here we argue that, rather than concentrating on PEG replacement, the field should prioritize designing around pre-existing immune memory.

Our knowledge of deformation behaviour in functional materials is pushing the frontiers of mechanics, informing design strategies and enabling scalable manufacturing.

Pioneer of high-pressure physics and superconductivity.

In this issue we present three papers on the topological properties or structure of ferroelectrics, which are interlinked.

Seven years on from updates to our data sharing policies, we reflect on data-deposition-related changes to our published papers and continue to strongly encourage authors to make source data openly available.

The Hall effect has been a powerful probe of the physics of materials for more than a century.

Identification of amorphous phases in nanoparticles by atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) requires analyses such as tilt-angle-dependent TEM imaging and single-nanoparticle electron diffraction, rather than relying on a single TEM image.

Budget cuts and shifting funding priorities will reduce opportunities for early-career researchers in the USA.

One-dimensional magnetism gets the attention it deserves.

Metamaterials are advancing with intricate structure designs and material combinations, with the support of computational methods and scalable fabrication techniques. These advancements enable the creation of multifunctional and smart devices, with growing presence in commercial devices.

Non-fullerene acceptors help organic solar cells achieve high performance, transforming organic photovoltaics into a useful technology.

Derya Baran, an associate professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Department of Materials Science and Engineering), talks to Nature Materials about the progress of laboratory-to-fabrication for organic photovoltaics