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Stem cells are special in the way they can keep on replicating, and turn themselves into many other types of cell. Now scientists have discovered how their superpowers get a remarkable boost when they’re grown in space.

The microgravity environment increases some of the regenerative capacities of stem cells even further, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Florida have found, based on experiments carried out on the International Space Station (ISS).

As stem cells play such a crucial role in the body’s repair process, with their ability to quickly replicate and differentiate, these findings could help in the study of disease prevention and treatment.

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Acoustic Cluster Therapy (ACT®)consists of clusters of gas-filled microbubbles and oil microdroplets.

During the last decade ACT® has been evaluated preclinically in various cancer models and combined with different drugs. It was first observed that ACT was able to increase the fluorescence from a tumor when sonoenhancement was combined with fluorescent macromolecules (Wamel 2016, Figure 1). Here it was found that already one minute after sonoenhancement, fluorescence had increased in the tumor compared to a non-treated control, followed by a fluorescence uptake that remained for several hours. Subsequently, ACT has been tested therapeutically in preclinical models of prostate cancer (Wamel 2016), pancreatic cancer (Kotopoulis 2016, Ng 2022), colon cancer (Bush 2019) and breast cancer (Bush 2020). The combination of ACT and drug was significantly better than the drug alone in all these studies, with quite large numbers of complete remissions. Combining ACT with the drug nab-paclitaxel for treatment of prostate cancer resulted in complete tumor remission in all tested animals. This shows that ACT provides sonoenhancement across very different cancer types and with different types of drugs, which increases the likelihood of seeing effects also in clinical trials as the tumor models collectively represents a variety of cancer biology.

Side effects and toxicity have also been tested in various small animal models during the last decade. During treatment, no bleeding or macroscopic damage was observed, and pathological evaluation has not identified microscopic damages. ACT was extensively tested for systemic toxicities, including studies in rats and dogs where ultrasound to the heart and liver was used to activate the ACT bubbles, and no significant adverse effects have been detected.

Sonoenhancement describes the actions of ACT. This is distinct from sonoporation describing the mode of action of ultrasound with the conventional free-flowing microbubbles, which are designed for ultrasound contrast enhancement. The mode of action of ACT is that the microclusters expand and lodge in tumor capillaries. This gives multiple effects in the tumor that can be separated into primary and secondary effects. The primary effect of ACT is the oscillations inside the capillaries, which affects the vascular wall and propagate into the extravascular domain of the tumor. This is clearly different from the action achieved with conventional microbubbles. An activated ACT bubble has a volume 1,000 times that of a conventional microbubble and a large contact area with endothelial cells. An activated ACT bubble will temporarily block the capillary and oscillations will affect the entire inner surface of the vessel. The volume of the bubble and the amplitude of the oscillations results in biomechanical work that is 1,000 times greater than that of conventional microbubbles.

Continue reading “Improving cancer therapy using sonoenhancement with acoustic cluster therapy” | >

Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery of binary star systems, consisting of a white dwarf and a main sequence star, within young star clusters.

This discovery opens up new avenues for understanding stellar evolution and could provide insights into the origins of phenomena such as supernovas and gravitational waves.

Breakthrough Discovery in Star Clusters.

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The biggest battleground in the robotaxi race may be winning public trust.

Autonomous vehicles are already clocking up millions of miles on public roads, but they face an uphill battle to convince people to climb in to enjoy the ride.

A few weeks ago, I took a tour of San Francisco in one of Waymo’s self-driving cars. As we drove around the city, one thing that struck me was how comfortable people had become with not seeing a driver. Not only were there multiple driverless vehicles on any given street at any given time, but tourists no longer had their mouths agape as one drove by. The technology has become a familiar sight.

Continue reading “How robotaxis are trying to win passengers’ trust” | >

“Quantum physicists are realizing that they can’t ignore the fact that the reference frame Alice is anchored to … might have multiple possible locations at once.”

The quantum nature of reference frames can even affect the perceived order of events.

In a paper this year, the physicist Časlav…

The reference frames from which observers view quantum events can themselves have multiple possible locations at once — an insight with potentially major ramifications.

Continue reading “In the Quantum World, Even Points of View Are Uncertain” | >

The rise of quantum computing is more than a technological advancement; it marks a profound shift in the world of cybersecurity, especially when considering the actions of state-sponsored cyber actors. Quantum technology has the power to upend the very foundations of digital security, promising to dismantle current encryption standards, enhance offensive capabilities, and recalibrate the balance of cyber power globally. As leading nations like China, Russia, and others intensify their investments in quantum research, the potential repercussions for cybersecurity and international relations are becoming alarmingly clear.

Imagine a world where encrypted communications, long thought to be secure, could be broken in mere seconds. Today, encryption standards such as RSA or ECC rely on complex mathematical problems that would take traditional computers thousands of years to solve. Quantum computing, however, changes this equation. Using quantum algorithms like Shor’s, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could factorize these massive numbers, effectively rendering these encryption methods obsolete.

This capability could give state actors the ability to decrypt communications, access sensitive governmental data, and breach secure systems in real time, transforming cyber espionage. Instead of months spent infiltrating networks and monitoring data flow, quantum computing could provide immediate access to critical information, bypassing traditional defenses entirely.

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