“Rural molecular” structure transformation from star-like aggregates of “village atoms” to networked chains in China

Understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of rural structures is critical to achieving global sustainable development. However, due to the lack of long-term, micro-scale data at the national scale, these dynamic changes remain insufficiently observed. Here, we innovatively introduce a molecular perspective that conceptualizes villages as “atoms” and village structures characterized by specific inter-village spatial connections as “rural molecular structures”. Inspired by isomer concepts in phys