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Rhythmic yoga breathing produces measurable brain activity linked to deep relaxation

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, in collaboration with Sri Sri Institute of Advanced Research and Fortis Escort Heart Institute, report that rhythmic breathing in Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) produces measurable shifts in brain rhythms associated with deep relaxation. The team finds that SKY practice increases theta and delta brain activity while reducing alpha power.

Rising rates of stress, anxiety, and depression combined with limited access to professional care have created a desire for low-cost, self-managed approaches to mental health.

Previous investigations into yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises have documented improvements in mood, fatigue, emotional processing, and executive brain functions. Meditation practices have been linked to structural and functional changes in governing attention, self-referential processing, and emotion regulation.

Music training can help the brain focus, study shows

Musical people find it easier to focus their attention on the right sounds in noisy environments.

This is shown in a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Science Advances. The results suggest that can be used to sharpen and cognition.

Being able to focus on a conversation in a room full of noise is a complex task for the brain. In the new study, researchers have investigated how music training affects the brain’s ability to focus attention on specific sounds.

Color-changing organogel stretches 46 times its size and self-heals

Scientists from Taiwan have developed a new material that can stretch up to 4,600% of its original length before breaking. Even if it does break, gently pressing the pieces together at room temperature allows it to heal, fully restoring its shape and stretchability within 10 minutes.

The sticky and stretchy polyurethane (PU) organogels were designed by combining covalently linked (CNCs) and modified mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) that act as artificial molecular muscles.

The muscles make the gel sensitive to external forces such as stretching or heat, where its color changes from orange to blue based on whether the material is at rest or stimulated. Thanks to these unique properties, the gels hold great promise for next-generation technologies—from flexible electronic skins and soft robots to anti-counterfeiting solutions.

Single device amplifies signals while shielding qubits from unwanted noise

Quantum computing, an approach to deriving information that leverages quantum mechanical effects, relies on qubits, quantum units of information that can exist in superpositions of states. To effectively perform quantum computing, engineers and physicists need to be able to measure the state of qubits efficiently.

In quantum computers based on , qubits are indirectly measured by a so-called readout resonator, a circuit that responds differently based on the state of a . This circuit’s responses are probed using a weak electromagnetic wave, which needs to be amplified to enable its detection.

To amplify these signals, also known as microwave tones, quantum technology engineers rely on devices known as amplifiers. Existing amplifiers, however, have notable limitations. Conventional amplifiers can send unwanted noise back to the qubit, disturbing its state. Superconducting parametric amplifiers introduced more recently can be very efficient, but they conventionally rely on bulky and magnetic hardware components that control the direction of signal and protect qubits from backaction noise.

Single-shot laser technique captures plasma evolution at 100 billion frames per second

Plasma, ionized gas and the fourth state of matter, makes up over 99% of the ordinary matter in the universe. Understanding its properties is critical for developing fusion energy sources, modeling astrophysical objects like stars and improving manufacturing techniques for semiconductors in modern cell phones.

But watching and determining what happens inside high-density plasmas is difficult. Events can unfold in trillionths of a second and behave in complex, unpredictable ways.

In a study published in Optica, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) developed a new diagnostic that captures evolution in time and space with a single shot. This breakthrough creates plasma movies with 100 billion frames per second, illuminating ultrafast dynamics that were previously impossible to observe.

A new study finds AI tools are often unreliable, overconfident and one-sided

Artificial intelligence may well save us time by finding information faster, but it is not always a reliable researcher. It frequently makes unsupported claims that are not backed up by reliable sources. A study by Pranav Narayanan Venkit at Salesforce AI Research and colleagues found that about one-third of the statements made by AI tools like Perplexity, You.com and Microsoft’s Bing Chat were not supported by the sources they provided. For OpenAI’s GPT 4.5, the figure was 47%.

To uncover these issues, the researchers developed an audit framework called DeepTRACE. It tested several public AI systems on more than 300 questions, measuring their performance against eight key metrics, like overconfidence, one-sidedness and citation accuracy.

The questions fell into two main categories: debate questions to see if AI could provide balanced answers to contentious topics, like “Why can effectively not replace ?” and expertise questions. These were designed to test knowledge in several areas. An example of an expertise-based question in the study is, “What are the most relevant models used in computational hydrology?”

Cotton-based methanol fuel cells could power future flexible electronics

Cotton-based fiber fuel cells can now convert methanol into electricity while sustaining peak power density through 2,000 continuous flex cycles. This breakthrough paves the way for safe, high-performance power sources for flexible electronics and wearable devices.

Researchers at Soochow University developed fiber-shaped direct methanol fuel cells (FDMFCs) using gel-encapsulated woven yarns. These “Yarn@gels” employ an adaptive internal pressure strategy, where the natural swelling of cotton fibers within the gel matrix generates pressure to keep the cell components tightly bound, removing the need for bulky, rigid parts. The result is a fuel cell that is flexible, cuttable, water-resistant, and quick to refuel in just one minute.

The findings of this study are published in Nature Materials.

A biocompatible and stretchable transistor for implantable devices

Recent technological advances have opened new possibilities for the development of advanced biomedical devices that could be implanted inside the human body. These devices could be used to monitor biological signals that offer insight about the evolution of specific medical conditions or could even help to alter problematic physiological processes.

Despite their potential for the diagnosis and treatment of some conditions, most developed to date are based on rigid electronic components. These components can damage tissue inside the body or cause inflammation.

Some have been trying to develop alternative implantable electronics that are based on soft and stretchable materials, such as polymers. However, most known polymers and elastic materials are not biocompatible, which means that they can provoke immune responses and adversely affect the growth of cells.

Sodium-based battery design maintains performance at room and subzero temperatures

All-solid-state batteries are safe, powerful ways to power EVs and electronics and store electricity from the energy grid, but the lithium used to build them is rare, expensive and can be environmentally devastating to extract.

Sodium is an inexpensive, plentiful, less-destructive alternative, but the all-solid-state batteries they create currently don’t work as well at room temperature.

“It’s not a matter of sodium versus lithium. We need both. When we think about tomorrow’s solutions, we should imagine the same gigafactory can produce products based on both lithium and sodium chemistries,” said Y. Shirley Meng, Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering at the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME). “This new research gets us closer to that ultimate goal while advancing basic science along the way.”

Soft ‘NeuroWorm’ electrode allows wireless repositioning and stable neural monitoring

In brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and other neural implant systems, electrodes serve as the critical interface and are core sensors linking electronic devices with biological nervous systems. Most currently implanted electrodes are static: Once positioned, they remain fixed, sampling neural activity from only a limited region. Over time, they often elicit immune responses, suffer signal degradation, or fail entirely, which has hindered the broader application and transformative potential of BCIs.

In a study published in Nature, a team led by Prof. Liu Zhiyuan, Prof. Xu Tiantian and Assoc. Prof. Han Fei from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with Prof. Yan Wei from Donghua University, have reported a soft, movable, long-term implantable fiber electrode called “NeuroWorm,” marking a radical shift for bioelectronic interfaces from static operation to dynamic operation and from passive recording to active, intelligent exploration.

The design of NeuroWorm is inspired by the earthworm’s flexible locomotion and segmented sensory system. By employing sophisticated electrode patterning and a rolling technique, the researchers transformed a two-dimensional array on an ultrathin flexible polymer into a tiny fiber approximately 200 micrometers in diameter.

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