A passive turnoff: Passive radiative cooling technology uses the infrared atmospheric window to allow outer space to be a cold sink for heat. However, this effect is one that is only helpful for energy savings in the warmer months. Wang et al . and Tang et al . used the metal-insulator transition in tungsten-doped vanadium dioxide to create window glass and a rooftop coating that circumvents this problem by turning off the radiative cooling at lower temperatures. Because the transition is simply temperature dependent, this effect also happens passively. Model simulations suggest that these materials would lead to energy savings year-round across most of the climate zones in the United States. —BG

One-step purification and desalination: The purification of water for drinking purposes can require multiple filtration steps and technologies to remove contaminants such as salts and heavy metals. Some contaminants could have value if recovered, but these are often discharged in the waste streams. Uliana et al. describe a general approach for the fabrication of robust, tunable, adsorptive membranes through the incorporation of porous aromatic framework (PAF) nanoparticles into ion exchange membranes such as those made from sulfonated polymers. Salts are removed using a series of cation and anion exchange membranes, and the PAF particles can be selected to capture specific target ions, such as those of copper, mercury, or iron. This allows for simultaneous desalination and decontamination of the water. Science , this issue p. 296