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These Billionaires Plan To Bring Self-Driving Tech To Everything That Moves

Applied Intuition’s cofounders are building software that can drive everything from planes to tanks to automobiles. But to expand beyond its $800 million business selling tech for cars, they will have to take on Tesla, Google, Nvidia and a host of other startups jostling for pole position in the autonomy race.

Casimir effect

In quantum field theory, the Casimir effect (or Casimir force) [ 1 ] is a physical force acting on the macroscopic boundaries of a confined space which arises from the quantum fluctuations of a field. The term Casimir pressure is sometimes used when it is described in units of force per unit area. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] It is named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir, who predicted the effect for electromagnetic systems in 1948.

Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm and Pancreatic… : Official journal of the American College of Gastroenterology

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm and pancreatic cancer: opportunity knocks twice hamada, et al.

📕 doi.org/10.14309/ajg.


L, the wide variation in cancer risk necessitates prolonged surveillance for most patients. There is an unmet need to optimize surveillance strategies for patients with IPMNs to address the rising global mortality associated with pancreatic cancer and to balance early cancer detection against healthcare resource allocation. While published guidelines outline common risk factors of carcinoma derived from IPMN, the resource-intensive nature of surveillance underscores the need for more granular management strategies—a need not yet reflected in current recommendations. Moreover, it is important to appreciate that patients with IPMNs also face an elevated risk of developing pancreatic carcinoma arising concomitantly with IPMN. This type of carcinoma presents unique challenges for surveillance but also offers novel opportunities for the timely identification of incident pancreatic cancer.

Cosmic curveball: Distant system challenges planet-formation theory

An international team of astronomers has discovered a distant planetary system that challenges long-standing theories of how planets form. Across our galaxy, astronomers routinely observe a characteristic pattern in planetary systems: rocky planets orbiting close to their host star with gas giants farther away. Our own solar system follows this rule, with the inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, composed of rock and iron, and the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune being predominantly gaseous.

This pattern stems from a well-established theory of planet formation: intense radiation from the host star strips away gas accumulated by close-in planets, leaving behind bare rocky bodies. While further from the star, cooler conditions allow thick atmospheres to build, forming gaseous planets.

But a newly discovered planetary system orbiting the star LHS 1903 breaks this rule. The findings are published in Science.

This special solar cell system produces both electricity and heat

Researchers have developed a solar cell system that uses mirrors to concentrate solar energy. In addition to electricity, it produces heat for a plant that will capture carbon from industrial emissions. The solar cells in the large pilot plant are a full 5 meters high and consist of many mirrors that are angled toward the solar cells to concentrate sunlight. They make it possible to collect the sun’s rays into concentrated solar energy, as well as heat that supports a plant designed to capture CO2.

“The system has been tested and validated. It is quite innovative and unique and stands out by storing heat in addition to the electrical current,” says SINTEF research scientist Alfredo Sanchez Garcia.

The energy from the plant will be used to capture carbon from industrial emissions.

Engineered CAR-NK cells appear more ‘attack-ready’

Researchers at the Ribeirao Preto Blood Center and the Center for Cell-Based Therapy (CTC) conducted a study using the NK-92 cell line to test new models of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) with specific costimulatory domains, such as 2B4 and DAP12. The tests showed that these components helped make the cells “ready to attack,” thereby increasing their ability to destroy tumors. The results were published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.

The CTC is one of the Research, Innovation, and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) supported by FAPESP. It is based at the Ribeirao Preto Blood Center and is linked to the general and teaching hospital (“Hospital das Clínicas”) of the Ribeirao Preto Medical School of the University of São Paulo (FMRP-USP).

CAR-based cell therapies are revolutionizing cancer treatment, especially for hematological tumors. However, although it is already known which components work best in CAR-T cells, many questions remain about which intracellular signals make CAR-NK cells more effective.

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