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A pioneering biobattery has been shown to reduce tumor growth in the body and could hold the key to a new drug-free immunotherapy treatment in cancer patients.

The breakthrough, a between Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace and Professor Caiyun Wang from the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) at the University of Wollongong (UOW) and researchers from Jilin University in China, is outlined in a new paper published in Science Advances.

Biobatteries have the same basic parts as regular batteries—two electrodes (anode and cathode), a separator and an electrolyte—but use biological processes to create electricity. The paper examines how biobatteries can be used to target tumors and spark a localized immunotherapy response in the body.

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Muons are elementary particles that resemble electrons, but they are heavier and decay very rapidly (i.e., in just a few microseconds). Studying muons can help to test and refine the standard of particle physics, while also potentially unveiling new phenomena or effects.

So far, the generation of muons in experimental settings has been primarily achieved using proton accelerators, which are large and expensive instruments. Muons can also originate from , rays of high-energy particles originating from outer space that can collide with atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere, producing muons and other secondary particles.

Researchers at the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP), Guangdong Laboratory, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and other institutes recently introduced a new method to produce muons in experimental settings, using an ultra-short high-intensity laser.

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Fuel cells that run on hydrogen are efficient and emit water vapor instead of exhaust. But so far, the technology is still expensive and therefore not competitive with the electric motor alternative.

Norwegian researchers have now figured out how they can accelerate competitiveness by reducing two critical components. This could make fuel cells both cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

The technology has great potential to cut in the transportation sectors, especially in heavy transport, the maritime sector and—in a somewhat longer timeframe—also in aviation.

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Recent technological advances have opened new possibilities for the efficient and sustainable synthesis of various valuable chemicals. Some of these advances rely on nanotechnologies, systems or techniques designed to design and study materials or devices at the nanometer scale.

Nanoreactors are nanotechnologies designed to host and control within confined spaces. These small structures serve as tiny “reaction vessels” that enable the precise manipulation of the reactants, catalysts and conditions to elicit desired chemical reactions.

Researchers at Inner Mongolia University, Fudan University and Julin University in China recently developed a new paddle-like mesoporous silica nanoreactor that can stir itself when exposed to a rotating magnetic field. This nanoreactor, outlined in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, can mix chemicals at a , enhancing the efficiency of reactions and thus potentially enhancing the synthesis of various compounds.

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Using the Magellan Clay Telescope, astronomers have performed a spectroscopic study of blue straggler stars in the globular cluster NGC 3201. Results of the new study, published May 21 on the arXiv preprint server, could help us better understand the properties and chemical composition of this cluster.

First identified in the 1950s, the blue straggler stars (BSSs) are unique main-sequence (MS) stars that are brighter, bluer, and appear younger than their coeval counterparts, hence more massive than MS stars. They are positioned to the left and above the main-sequence turnoff (MSTO) in the optical color-magnitude diagram (CMD).

One of the places to look for and investigate the BSS population are (GCs)—gravitationally bound groups of stars. Due to their relatively high masses, the blue straggler stars can be used to probe the internal dynamics of GCs.

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Published in Brain, Behavior and Immunity—is the first to suggest that a tumor-driving gene known as AEG-1 actively regulates the inflammation responsible for causing chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a common and painful side effect of cancer treatment. Eliminating the function of this gene using targeted therapies could become a critical strategy for managing a debilitating side effect experienced by many cancer patients.

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Researchers have uncovered that some childhood cancers have a substantially higher number of DNA changes than previously thought, changing the way we view children’s tumors and possibly opening up new or repurposed treatment options.

Concentrating on a type of childhood kidney cancer, known as Wilms tumor, an international team genetically sequenced multiple tumors at a resolution that was previously not possible.

This collaboration included researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge, Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, the Oncode Institute in the Netherlands, Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

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The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and the study of neurobiological processes are deeply interlinked, as a deeper understanding of the former can yield valuable insight about the other, and vice versa. Recent neuroscience studies have found that mental state transitions, such as the transition from wakefulness to slow-wave sleep and then to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, modulate temporary interactions in a class of neurons known as layer 5 pyramidal two-point neurons (TPNs), aligning them with a person’s mental states.

These are interactions between information originating from the external world, broadly referred to as the receptive field (RF1), and inputs emerging from internal states, referred to as the contextual field (CF2). Past findings suggest that RF1 and CF2 inputs are processed at two distinct sites within the neurons, known as the basal site and apical site, respectively.

Current AI algorithms employing attention mechanisms, such as transformers, perceiver and flamingo models, are inspired by the capabilities of the human brain. In their current form, however, they do not reliably emulate high-level perceptual processing and the imaginative states experienced by humans.

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