Chalcones belong to the flavonoid class of phenolic compounds. They form one of the largest groups of bioactive natural products. The potential anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antiparasitic properties of naturally occurring chalcones, and their unique chemical structural features inspired the synthesis of numerous chalcone derivatives. In fact, structural features of chalcones are easy to construct from simple aromatic compounds, and it is convenient to perform structural modifications to generate functionalized chalcone derivatives. Many of these synthetic analogs were shown to possess similar bioactivities as their natural counterparts, but often with an enhanced potency and reduced toxicity. This review article aims to demonstrate how bioinspired synthesis of chalcone derivatives can potentially introduce a new chemical space for exploitation for new drug discovery, justifying the title of this article. However, the focus remains on critical appraisal of synthesized chalcones and their derivatives for their bioactivities, linking to their interactions at the biomolecular level where appropriate, and revealing their possible mechanisms of action.

Despite the fact that life expectancies are increasing and the burden of infectious diseases is decreasing, global cancer incidence rates are on the rise. Cancer outcome metrics are dismal for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including sub-Saharan Africa, where adequate resources and infrastructure for cancer care and control are lacking. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, exemplifies the miserable situation. However, the investigation of medicinal plants for better and safer anti-cancer drugs has now increased tremendously. While scientific evidence is emerging of the potential of some constituents of medicinal plants used in traditional medicine in Nigeria to have anti-cancer effects, there is now a critical need for platforms that integrate ethnomedicinal information on such plants with emerging scientific data on them, to support and accelerate the discovery and development of more efficacious and safer anti-cancer drugs and recipes. Thus, this review highlights the scientific evidence to date for the anti-cancer potential of plants commonly used in traditional medicine to treat cancers in Nigeria. Scientific databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science, as well as related sources, were searched to retrieve relevant information on anti-cancer medicinal plants. Ethnobotanical/ethnomedicinal details of the identified plants were then linked with the available scientific data on their anti-cancer potential, including the cytotoxicity to cancer and normal cells of the extracts and constituent compounds responsible for the activity. This annotated chronicle of Nigerian medicinal plants with potential anticancer activity is a great resource for all stakeholders in the prevention and management of cancers.

Functional coatings for photovoltaic (PV) cover glass are often supported by optical, photocatalytic, wettability, or dust removal measurements, but these endpoints do not by themselves establish PV performance, field persistence, maintenance reduction, or environmental benefit. This critical conceptual review uses a structured, non-comprehensive evidence map of 56 primary studies published from 2006 to 2026 (46 PV-targeted and 10 boundary cases; 24 Si-Ti-containing studies) to examine how evidence moves from coating characterization to system-level outcomes. Optical and surface-functional evidence occurred in 51/56 (91.1%) and 50/56 (89.3%) studies, durability in 30/56 (53.6%), field or outdoor evidence in 24/56 (42.9%), PV performance evidence in 23/56 (41.1%), and coating-specific environmental outcomes in 3/56 (5.4%). Fifteen studies (26.8%) contained both field/outdoor exposure and PV performance evidence. Within the mapped corpus, PV performance evidence was positively associated with publication year (odds ratio 1.30 per year, 95% CI 1.10–1.53; p = 0.002), whereas the field/outdoor association was weaker (odds ratio 1.11, 95% CI 0.98–1.26; p = 0.095). The expanded map therefore supports a diagnosis of uneven, rather than absent, evidence translation. A two-track Evidence Translation Framework separates outcome evidence from mechanistic attribution and is used as a claim–audit architecture rather than a numerical quality score. The map is not presented as a prevalence census of the entire literature. Records without full-text verification are treated conservatively, and no formal inter-rater reliability is claimed.

Plant–animal communication involves diverse forms of information transfer that can mediate ecologically important interactions, including pollination, seed dispersal, herbivory, and plant defense. This review synthesizes current knowledge of the chemical, visual, gustatory, electrical, acoustic, and vibrational information involved in these interactions, with particular emphasis on volatile organic compounds, herbivore-derived elicitors and effectors, multimodal signaling, sensory perception, learning, and evolutionary processes, including coevolution where reciprocal evidence is available. A central distinction is made between detectable traits or cues and functional biological signals, emphasizing the need for evidence linking signal production or modification to receiver detection, behavioral or physiological responses, and ecologically meaningful outcomes. Acoustic and vibrational phenomena are considered critically because their communicative significance remains less firmly established than that of chemical and visual signaling. The review further examines how climate change and other anthropogenic pressures may alter signal production, transmission, perception, and phenological synchrony, thereby reorganizing plant–animal interactions. Genetic manipulation of hormonal, volatile, and specialized-metabolite pathways is also evaluated as a potential tool for modifying plant signaling, together with its possible unintended ecological consequences. By integrating plant physiology, sensory ecology, animal behavior, evolution, and environmental change, this review identifies major evidence gaps and highlights the importance of plant–animal communication for biodiversity conservation, pollination, biological control, and sustainable agriculture.

Diesel exhaust soot (DES), a hazardous by-product of incomplete diesel combustion, was valorized into activated nanocarbon (ANC) through phosphoric acid activation for phenol removal from water. The synthesized ANC was characterized by FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM, TEM, EDX, and AFM. The results revealed predominantly spherical nanoparticles with an average size below 30 nm, a turbostratic carbon structure, and oxygen-containing surface functional groups favorable for adsorption. The adsorption performance was evaluated as a function of adsorbent dosage, contact time, initial phenol concentration, and temperature. The optimum adsorbent dosage and equilibrium time were 0.1 g and 90 min, respectively, while the highest removal efficiency was obtained at an initial phenol concentration of 10 mg L⁻¹. The equilibrium data were best described by the Langmuir model (R² = 0.999), with a maximum adsorption capacity of 23.98 mg g⁻¹, indicating predominantly monolayer adsorption. Thermodynamic analysis confirmed that phenol adsorption was spontaneous (ΔG = −22.42 to −25.79 kJ mol⁻¹) and endothermic (ΔH = +11.43 kJ mol⁻¹), with a positive entropy change (ΔS° = +113.47 J mol⁻¹ K⁻¹). These findings demonstrate the potential of DES as a low-cost precursor for functional nanocarbon adsorbents and provide a sustainable approach for converting combustion waste into a value-added material for water purification.