New CUHK research reveals mangroves’ critical role in removing global coastal nitrogen pollution, termed “blue nitrogen.” Published in Earth’s Future, the global study estimates mangroves eliminate 870,000 tonnes of nitrogen pollutants annually, representing an ecosystem service worth more than US$8.5 billion. The findings highlight mangroves as vital natural infrastructure for water purification, carbon storage and building resilient, sustainable coasts.

Travelling from the core of collapsing stars, newly detected gravitational waves may tell us about the meltdown which leads to these massive supernovas. Thrust into the universe from the explosions of dying stars, their ashes give birth to new worlds, so understanding supernovas is a step to ultimately understanding our origins.

Thanks to “Senzu”, an American shorthair, and joint CUHK-Japanese research, precision veterinary medicine will be driven forward. Advanced genomic technology has produced a genome that is much more complete and genetically resembles modern cats more than the one that was published in 2007 from an Abyssinian, “Cinnamon”.

An “ozone garden” is where a CUHK research team studied bean plants attempting to grow under Hong Kong’s rising ozone skies in the first plant-based measurement of ozone in the South China Region. Even though it was Spring and in the countryside, the ozone eroded the beans and stressed them into opening more flowers, forcing them to wither more quickly.

Doing something simple is how a CUHK researcher describes finding an essential mechanism to regulate alterations in neuron types that can harm the brain and cause neurological diseases. “By simply adjusting the strength of certain extrinsic signaling cues……” he says, and there lies an important path into stem cell biology.

Physics professors Swee Kuan Goh and Sen Yang have been using colour centres in nano-diamonds in a breakthrough technique for exploring quantum materials. The technique, which will revolutionise the design of quantum materials, and will sharpen Hong Kong’s capability in metrology and precision instrumentation.