Water-soluble synthetic polymers (WSPs), including polyacrylamide, polyvinyl alcohol, and polyethylene glycol, are widely used in consumer and industrial applications such as detergents, cosmetics, and textile processing. Global demand for WSPs is increasing by over 5.4% annually and is expected to reach 12.8 million metric tons within the next decade. After their use, millions of tons of WSPs dissolve and enter environmental systems each year; however, their environmental fate and potential long-term impacts remain poorly understood.

The sea surface microlayer (SML), the 10s to 100s µm thick layer at the air-sea interface, plays an important role in the air−sea exchange of gases and particles. Surfactants accumulate at and modulate the properties of the SML, but specific chemical and physical properties driving variability in their distribution in the SML remain unclear. Lipids are a type of surfactant in the ocean and are biomarkers for dissolved organic matter (DOM) sources.

While native to ~30% of the population, S. aureus is labeled a serious health threat by the CDC due to its infectious prevalence and growing antibiotic resistance. While genetic factors have been linked with antibiotic resistance, recent antibiotics such as daptomycin directly target the bacteria’s lipid membrane, yet the impact of physiological and morphological changes to the bacterial membrane on drug resistance is critically understudied.

Exogenous fatty acids (exoFAs) have been reported to give bacteria such as E. faecalis and S. aureus an advantage over certain membrane-targeting antibiotics, like daptomycin. The impact of exoFAs on conferred tolerance has been most deeply characterized by microbiology assays along with some lipidomic analyses.

With the advancement of technology, there is an increasing demand for multifunctional materials that combine optical, electronic, mechanical, and ionic properties. Hybrid metal halide semiconductors (MHS) have emerged as promising candidates for a wide range of optoelectronic applications, including solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), photodetectors, and lasers. These materials exhibit a unique set of finely tunable properties, providing a versatile platform for addressing limitations in currently available technologies.

First-row transition metal catalysts have become essential tools in organic synthesis, exhibiting unique reactivity and selectivity profiles in reductions, oxidations, and cross coupling chemistry. While catalysts based on Fe and Ni have been touted as sustainable alternatives to precious metal catalysts, their application is limited in high-throughput discovery campaigns due to the dearth of precedented pre-catalysts, reported commercial ligands, and the risk of deleterious speciation events.