Soil Disinfestation: From Soil Treatment to Soil and Plant Health

This Feature Article tracks 100 years of soil disinfestation: from the goal of eradicating soilborne pathogens and pests to much milder approaches, aimed at establishing a healthier soil, by favoring or enhancing the beneficial soil microflora and introducing biological control agents. The restrictions on use of many chemical fumigants is favoring the adoption of nonchemical strategies, from soilless cultivation to the use of physical or biological control measures, with more focus on maintaining soil microbial diversity, thus enhancing soil and plant health. Such approached are described and discussed, with special focus on their integrated use.

CRISPR systems: what’s new, where next?

The genetic signature of natural CRISPR-Cas systems were first noted in a 1989 publication and were characterized in detail from 2002 to 2007, culminating in the first report of a prokaryotic adaptive immune system. Since then, CRISPR-Cas enzymes have been adapted into molecular biology tools that have transformed genetic engineering across domains of life. In this feature article, we describe origins, uses and futures of CRISPR-Cas enzymes in genetic engineering: we highlight advances made in the past 10 years. Central to these advances is appreciation of interplay between CRISPR engineering and DNA repair. We highlight how this relationship has been manipulated to create further advances in the development of gene editing.

Mind over matter

A response to Jon Cartwright’s feature article in which he explores how topological concepts can be used to model phenomena in many other areas of physics.

Is anyone out there?

A response to David Appell’s feature article “Scanning the cosmos for signs of technology” in which he describes the search for “technosignatures” indicating technological alien civilizations.

Below the surface

A response to Philip G Judge’s feature article “The enduring mystery of the solar corona” in which he explores the question of why the solar corona is so much hotter than the surface of the Sun.

Going in circles

In response to Michael Allen’s Feature article “Twists, turns, thrills and spills” in which he explains the physics behind the sensations that we experience on rollercoasters.

Flexible Biosensors Based on Colorimetry, Fluorescence, and Electrochemistry for Point-of-Care Testing

With the outbreak and pandemic of COVID-19, point-of-care testing (POCT) systems have been attracted much attention due to their significant advantages of small batches of samples, user-friendliness, easy-to-use and simple detection. Among them, flexible biosensors show practical significance as their outstanding properties in terms of flexibility, portability, and high efficiency, which provide great convenience for users. To construct highly functional flexible biosensors, abundant kinds of polymers substrates have been modified with sufficient properties to address certain needs. Paper-based biosensors gain considerable attention as well, owing to their foldability, lightweight and adaptability. The other important flexible biosensor employs textiles as substrate materials, which has a promising prospect in the area of intelligent wearable devices. In this feature article, we performed a comprehensive review about the applications of flexible biosensors based on the classification of substrate materials (polymers, paper and textiles), and illustrated the strategies to design effective and artificial sensing platforms, including colorimetry, fluorescence, and electrochemistry. It is demonstrated that flexible biosensors play a prominent role in medical diagnosis, prognosis, and healthcare.

What do machines see? Utilizing artificial intelligence to explore cell biology

With our ability to take and quantify numerous complex images of cells and cell populations, the ability to paint an accurate picture of the underlying data has never been more valuable. Deferring from the contemporary classics in data visualization to methods that exploit advances in artificial intelligence is an essential step in understanding high-throughput, three-dimensional microscopy data. This feature article discusses how generating or simulating representative cells that may not exist in the data set, yet summarize the underlying distribution, allows researchers to effectively and efficiently analyse cellular morpho-dynamics. Furthermore, learning from these artificial intelligence-based techniques allows us to ‘see what the machine is seeing’ in a step towards unpacking the chaos of cell biology to understand the very fundamentals of living organisms.

The never-ending quest to understand the shapes and motions of molecules

Why is it so important to know the shape of molecules? How can virtual reality and advances in scientific visualization help? These are recurrent questions about the importance of understanding molecular shapes and molecular motions. In this brief feature article some background is provided to better understand the central role played by visual and computational analysis of molecular structures. The role of hardware devices and software tools to assist scientists in this quest is pointed out, along with challenges to share visual experiences more broadly. These topics touch upon many current questions in research. Examples related to biological membranes, molecular medicine, -omics data and SARS-Cov-2 structural data are provided to illustrate convincing use cases.

Data Co-Operatives through Data Sovereignty

Against the widespread assumption that data are the oil of the 21st century, this article offers an alternative conceptual framework, interpretation, and pathway around data and smart city nexus to subvert surveillance capitalism in light of emerging and further promising practical cases. This article illustrates an open debate in data governance and the data justice field related to current trends and challenges in smart cities, resulting in a new approach advocated for and recently coined by the UN-Habitat programme ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’. Particularly, this feature article sheds light on two intertwined notions that articulate the technopolitical dimension of the ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’ approach: data co-operatives and data sovereignty. Data co-operatives are emerging as a way to share and own data through peer-to-peer (p2p) repositories and data sovereignty is being claimed as a digital right for communities/citizens. Consequently, this feature article aims to open up new research avenues around ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’ approach: First, it elucidates how data co-operatives through data sovereignty could be articulated as long as co-developed with communities connected to the long history and analysis of the various forms of co-operatives (technopolitical dimension). Second, it prospectively anticipates the city–regional dimension encompassing data colonialism and data devolution.