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“Is larger always better?” An in vitro comparison of cyclical and static aspiration with different catheters in a neurovascular flow model
Background Recent advances in mechanical thrombectomy for large vessel occlusion suggest that cyclical aspiration (CyA) may enhance clot ingestion and reduce embolic complications compared with static aspiration (StA). We aimed to identify the experimental conditions under which CyA outperforms StA.
Methods A 3D-printed neurovascular model in a flow loop (137÷89 mmHg, 72 bpm) simulated middle cerebral artery M1 segment (MCA-M1) occlusions with soft and stiff clot analogs. CyA (4.5 Hz and Δp=85–105 kPa) was performed with a dual-solenoid device coupled to a vacuum pump. Eighty experiments were randomized into four treatment arms combining aspiration patterns and 0.071″ and 0.088″ aspiration catheters: CyA-71, CyA-88, StA-71, and StA-88.
Results The overall first pass recanalization (FPR) rate was 74% (59÷80), with CyA significantly outperforming StA (92% vs 55%, p0.001).
Acid-treated carbon nanotubes boost efficiency and stability of flexible perovskite solar modules
Flexible perovskite solar modules (f-PSMs) are a key innovation in current renewable energy technology, offering a pathway toward sustainable and efficient energy solutions. However, ensuring long-term operational stability without compromising efficiency or increasing material costs remains a critical challenge.
In a study published in Joule, a joint research team from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhengzhou University has achieved power conversion efficiency (PCE) surpassing 20% in flexible modules capable of withstanding a range of external stresses. The study highlights the use of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as window electrodes for scalable f-PSMs.
SWCNT films exhibit excellent hydrophobicity, resisting moisture-induced degradation while enhancing device stability. Their flexibility and affordability further position SWCNT-based electrodes as a practical option for sustainable energy systems, providing an ideal opportunity for buildings and infrastructure to incorporate their own power sources in support of a net-zero carbon emissions future.
Antarctica in 2025: Drivers of deep uncertainty in projected ice loss
Antarctic ice plays a crucial role in regulating Earth’s climate, global sea levels, ocean circulation, and planetary reflectivity.
Learn more in this Science Review.
Antarctica is a vital component of Earth’s climate system, influencing global sea level, ocean circulation, and planetary albedo. Major knowledge gaps in critical processes—spanning the atmosphere, ocean, ice sheets, underlying beds, ice shelves, and sea ice—create uncertainties in future projections, hindering climate adaptation and risk assessments of ice intervention strategies. Antarctica’s ice sheet could contribute 28 centimeters to sea level by 2100, and potentially more if we surpass warming thresholds that trigger instabilities and rapid retreat. We review recent advances in understanding the changing stability of the ice sheet margins and identify key processes that require further research. Progress requires high-resolution satellite data, targeted field campaigns, improved modeling, and refined theory.
Global AI Adoption in 2025 — AI Economy Institute
Global adoption of artificial intelligence continued to rise in the second half of 2025, increasing by 1.2 percentage points compared to the first half of the year, with roughly one in six people worldwide now using generative AI tools, remarkable progress for a technology that only recently entered mainstream use.
To track this trend, we measure AI diffusion as the share of people worldwide who have used a generative AI product during the reported period. This measure is derived from aggregated and anonymized Microsoft telemetry and then adjusted to reflect differences in OS and device-market share, internet penetration, and country population. Additional details on the methodology are available in our AI Diffusion technical paper. 1
No single metric is perfect, and this one is no exception. Through the Microsoft AI Economy Institute, we continue to refine how we measure AI diffusion globally, including how adoption varies across countries in ways that best advance priorities such as scientific discovery and productivity gains. For this report, we rely on the strongest cross-country measure available today, and we expect to complement it over time with additional indicators as they emerge and mature.
On March 23, 2178, Pluto Will Complete Its First Full Orbit Since Its Discovery
Sadly, we doubt you’ll be around for Pluto’s NYE party.
Autonomous STING signaling in Purkinje cells drives neurodegeneration independent of type I interferon
Microglial STING-type I interferon signaling is known to play a role in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. Yang et al. find that STING is also expressed in Purkinje neurons. STING activation dysregulates the autonomous firing and pace-making function of Purkinje neurons independently of interferon signaling, leading to neurodegeneration and cerebellar ataxia.
CRISPR Supercharges a Meatlike Fungus Into a Sustainable Protein Powerhouse
The modified strain grows faster, uses far fewer resources, and lowers greenhouse gas emissions by up to 60%. It also dramatically outperforms chicken farming in land and water use. The findings highlight a promising path for eco-friendly protein…
…’There is a popular demand for better and more sustainable protein for food,’ says corresponding author Xiao Liu of Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China. ‘We successfully made a fungus not only more nutritious but also more environmentally friendly by tweaking its genes.’
Animal agriculture contributes roughly 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It also requires large areas of land and significant amounts of fresh water, which are already under pressure from climate change and human activity. Because of these drawbacks, microbial proteins found in organisms such as yeast and fungi are gaining attention as a more sustainable alternative to traditional meat.
CRISPR has turned a simple fungus into a fast-growing, meat-like protein source with impressively low environmental impact.
Water’s enigmatic surface: X-ray snapshots reveal atoms and molecules at work
Water is all around us, yet its surface layer—home to chemical reactions that shape life on Earth—is surprisingly hard to study. Experiments at SLAC’s X-ray laser are bringing it into focus.
Two-thirds of Earth’s surface is covered in water, most of it in oceans so deep and vast that only one-fifth of their total volume has been explored. Surprisingly, though, the most accessible part of this watery realm—the water’s surface, exposed on wave tops, raindrops and ponds full of skittering water striders—is one of the hardest to get to know.
Just a few layers of atoms thick, the surface plays an outsized role in the chemistry that makes our world what it is—from the formation of clouds and the recycling of water through rainfall to the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.