One great challenge in understanding the history of life is resolving the influence of environmental change on biodiversity. Simulated annealing and genetic algorithms were used to synthesize data from 11,000 marine fossil species, collected from more than 3000 stratigraphic sections, to generate a new Cambrian to Triassic biodiversity curve with an imputed temporal resolution of 26 ± 14.9 thousand years. This increased resolution clarifies the timing of known diversification and extinction events. Comparative analysis suggests that partial pressure of carbon dioxide (Pco2) is the only environmental factor that seems to display a secular pattern similar to that of biodiversity, but this similarity was not confirmed when autocorrelation within that time series was analyzed by detrending. These results demonstrate that fossil data can provide the temporal and taxonomic resolutions necessary to test (paleo)biological hypotheses at a level of detail approaching those of long-term ecological analyses.

VS2 monolayers exhibit promising electrochemical properties for Li-, K-, and Mg-ion batteries.

The size and conductivity of the electrode materials play a significant role in the kinetics of sodium-ion batteries. Various characterizations reveal that size-controllable VS nanoparticles can be successfully anchored on the surface of graphene sheets (GSs) by a simple cationic-surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method. When used as an electrode material for sodium-ion batteries, these VS @GS nanocomposites show large specific capacity (349.1 mAh g after 100 cycles), excellent long-term stability (84 % capacity retention after 1200 cycles), and high rate capability (188.1 mAh g at 4000 mA g ). A large proportion of the capacity was contributed by capacitive processes. This remarkable electrochemical performance was attributed to synergistic interactions between nanosized VS particles and a highly conductive graphene network, which provided short diffusion pathways for Na ions and large contact areas between the electrolyte and electrode, resulting in considerably improved electrochemical kinetic properties.

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MoS2 nanosheets were impregnated into mesoporous TiO2 and encapsulated by a graphene layer resulting in excellent Li ion storage properties.