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Nitrous oxide, a commonly used analgesic gas, temporarily improved the opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to allow gene therapy delivery in mouse models using focused ultrasound (FUS), UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in a new study. Their findings, published in Gene Therapy, could eventually lead to new ways to treat a variety of brain diseases and disorders.

“The approach we explored in this study has the potential to advance care for diseases of the brain that can be treated by targeted therapeutic delivery,” said study leader Bhavya R. Shah, M.D., Associate Professor of Radiology, Neurological Surgery, and in the Advanced Imaging Research Center at UT Southwestern. He’s also an Investigator in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and a member of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. Deepshikha Bhardwaj, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate at UTSW, was the study’s first author.

The BBB is a highly selective border of semipermeable cells that line tiny blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. It is thought to have developed during evolution to protect the brain from toxins and infections in the blood. However, the BBB also impedes the delivery of drugs that could be used to treat neurologic or neuropsychiatric conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or brain tumors. Consequently, researchers have worked for decades to develop solutions that can temporarily open the BBB to allow treatments to enter.

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In a discovery that’s already turning heads in the scientific world, a team of physicists has achieved what was once thought impossible: they’ve measured the actual shape of a moving electron. This leap forward could not only reshape how we understand matter at the smallest scale—it might also unlock a new era of smarter, faster, and more energy-efficient electronics.

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We also simulated “open-system” dynamics, where the molecule interacts with its environment. This is typically a much harder problem for classical computers.

By injecting controlled noise into the ion’s environment, we replicated how real molecules lose energy. This showed environmental complexity can also be captured by quantum simulation.

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Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s chief scientist since 2024, believes artificial intelligence models will soon be capable of producing original research and making measurable economic impacts. In a conversation with Nature, Pachocki outlined how he sees the field evolving — and how OpenAI plans to balance innovation with safety concerns.

Pachocki, who joined OpenAI in 2017 after a career in theoretical computer science and competitive programming, now leads the firm’s development of its most advanced AI systems. These systems are designed to tackle complex tasks across science, mathematics, and engineering, moving far beyond the chatbot functions that made ChatGPT a household name in 2022.

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The world’s only net-positive fusion experiment has been steadily ramping up the amount of power it produces, TechCrunch has learned.

In recent attempts, the team at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) increased the yield of the experiment, first to 5.2 megajoules and then to 8.6 megajoules, according to a source with knowledge of the experiment.

The new results are significant improvements over the historic experiment in 2022, which was the first controlled fusion reaction to generate more energy than it consumed.

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Researchers at the University of Alabama in the United States have used duct tape from a store to create a triboelectric nanogenerator capable of collect electricity from the human body and the environment.

Their development is capable of powering small devices such as biosensors by converting mechanical energy from friction and movement into electricity. The generator is made of metallized films polyethylene terephthalate, which act as electrodes, and layers of adhesive tape.

The developers emphasize that power generation occurs through interaction polypropylene and of the acrylic adhesive layer when they are pressed and released. At the same time, due to the weak intermolecular interaction (Van der Waals forces) on the borders of the atomic-sized gaps.

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Researchers have now ‘heard’ the echo of cyclones whirling ocean waters from all the way on the other side of our planet.

Microseismic waves generated by interactions between the ocean and Earth’s crust might be able to help us peer into otherwise hidden parts of Earth’s geological structure, such as regions left shrouded by a scarcity of high-energy earthquakes in the North Atlantic.

“Our research uses these microseismic phenomena as an alternative data source to study the Earth’s structure beneath Australia,” says seismologist Hrvoje Tkalčić from Australian National University.

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