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Using eyedrops in space—wearable patch offers a new approach

Applying eyedrops is difficult in space, where there is almost no gravity. A KAIST research team has developed a wearable patch that delivers eyedrops to the eye without relying on gravity. The research team was led by Professor Ki-Hun Jeong from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, in collaboration with a research team led by Professor Se Joon Woo from Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. The paper is published in the journal Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.

During long-duration space exploration, technologies that allow astronauts to manage their health without direct help from medical staff are essential. In particular, microgravity causes body fluids to shift toward the head, which can change the structure of the eyes and visual function. However, the standard method of applying eyedrops on Earth depends on drops falling by gravity, so it cannot be used in space without modification.

AI slays the dragon as four agents conquer Minecraft without human intervention

Minecraft is one of the world’s most popular video games, where players explore, gather resources, craft items and try to survive in a virtual universe constructed of 3D cubes that represent different materials.

The Ender Dragon is the game’s difficult final test. To reach and defeat this dragon, players must complete a long series of connected challenges, such as gathering raw resources, building tools and finding a hidden underground stronghold.

Now, four AI agents have done it, and they only needed one game-specific instruction: “defeat the Ender Dragon.”

‘Smoking gun’ may help solve mystery of high-temperature superconductivity

Superconductivity has many important practical applications, including creating powerful magnets used in high-resolution medical scans, transporting electricity efficiently and building ultrasensitive measuring devices. Until now, understanding exactly what lay behind this unique phenomenon at high temperatures has eluded scientists over many decades.

But research, led by physicists at the University of Bristol and published this week in the journal Nature Physics, has identified the mechanism which explains how electrons in these copper-oxide high-temperature superconductors combine to transmit power with no loss of energy—the ‘superconductive’ state of infinite electrical conduction.

Study co-lead author Nigel Hussey, professor of physics at the University of Bristol, said, Superconductivity is a remarkable, almost magical, phenomenon which has long fascinated famous physicists and resulted in various breakthroughs recognized with Nobel Prizes over the decades.

Supercomputer reveals how size could shape the future of nanomedicine

Scientists have long been interested in cellular nanodiscs, tiny particles made from natural cell membranes that mimic many of the functions of living cells. While previous studies demonstrated the therapeutic potential of nanodiscs for drug delivery, detoxification and vaccines, one fundamental question remained unanswered: How does size influence how well they work?

Researchers from the University of California San Diego have discovered that size has more of an impact than scientists once realized. Shrinking cellular nanodiscs dramatically improves their ability to bind biological targets and neutralize harmful bacterial toxins. The findings, recently published in the journal Small, establish new design principles that could help scientists build more effective nanomedicines by combining laboratory experiments with high-performance computing.

The interdisciplinary research effort included Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing affiliates Liangfang Zhang and Kesong Yang, who are professors in UC San Diego’s Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering. The study paired experimental biology with computer simulations, using National Science Foundation (NSF) ACCESS allocations on the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) Expanse system to uncover why particle size has such a profound effect on biological performance.

Secret trigger words could make AI-powered robots dangerous

Large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google Gemini are increasingly being used to help robots perform tasks, but what if LLMs could be exploited to turn helpful robots into harmful robots?

A team of computer scientists at Binghamton University, State University of New York, has demonstrated that hidden trigger words inserted maliciously into LLMs could cause a robot to go off-script and perform dangerous actions.

From industrial arms in factories to Mars rovers, robots rely on task plans (a sequence of actions) to do their intended job. Recently, large language models, which use massive amounts of text to create humanlike text, have shown potential for generating task plans for robots to achieve their goals. Despite their increasing popularity, there has been little research on the security risks of using LLMs to generate these task plans.

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Is Sharper Than Anyone Expected

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope has achieved nearly 30% better optical performance than required, promising stunningly sharp views of the universe and its greatest mysteries.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is performing even better than scientists anticipated after engineers completed an extensive series of tests and precision adjustments. The work has sharpened the observatory’s focus and brought its primary instrument closer to regular scientific operations. Remarkably, the telescope’s Wide Field Instrument is now delivering optical performance nearly 30% better than predicted.

“All of Roman’s sweeping surveys will rely on the Wide Field Instrument,” said Dave Hickey, a Wide Field Instrument systems engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Many of the mission’s primary goals, like studying dark matter and dark energy, wouldn’t be possible without it, so it’s both exciting and a huge relief to see that it’s working well!”

40 Years of Superconductor Science Just Got Turned Upside Down by a Stunning Discovery

A material that carries electricity without resistance may be held back by its own structure, challenging 40 years of assumptions about copper-based superconductors.

A crystal that scientists thought had the same structure throughout is actually a patchwork of two subtly different arrangements of atoms. The boundaries between those regions are hundreds of times wider than expected, so broad that they behave almost like a structure in their own right rather than a simple dividing line.

The material belongs to a family called cuprates, copper-based superconductors that can carry electricity without resistance at unusually high temperatures for superconductivity, although those temperatures are still very cold. High-temperature superconductivity underpins research into future power grids, medical scanners, and quantum computers. Its promise also includes magnets far more powerful than those possible today.

Study Uncovers a Surprising New Way Deadly Brain Cancer Spreads

Scientists have uncovered evidence that glioblastoma cells can retain a lasting mechanical memory of their surroundings.

Glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer, spreads by sending tumor cells into surrounding healthy tissue. Along the way, those cells encounter an unusual physical challenge: fluid at the tumor’s invasive edge can be about eight times more viscous than fluid near its dying center.

New research suggests that prolonged exposure to this thicker environment may actually help glioblastoma cells invade. After spending a month in highly viscous fluid, laboratory-grown cancer cells became smaller, more deformable, and better able to squeeze through narrow spaces. Rather than simply slowing their movement, the increased resistance appeared to produce lasting changes in how the cells behaved.

Scientists Discover a Hidden Electrical Signal in the Heart That Could Predict Sudden Death

Researchers have discovered a previously unrecognized electrical signal in the heart that could help predict sudden cardiac death before it strikes.

Sudden cardiac death can strike without warning, killing people who appear healthy and have no known history of heart problems. For decades, doctors have struggled to identify who is most vulnerable, even though a potentially lifesaving treatment already exists. Now, researchers have discovered that clues to these fatal events may have been hiding in one of medicine’s most familiar diagnostic tests.

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley developed an artificial intelligence system that detects subtle electrical patterns in routine electrocardiograms (EKGs) associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death. In a study published in Nature, the AI outperformed a standard clinical screening method, raising the possibility that doctors could identify more at-risk patients before their hearts suddenly stop.

Scientists May Have Solved a Billion-Year-Old Mystery About DNA’s Evolution

On an early Earth exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation, the evolution of DNA may have depended on an unexpected molecular advantage.

Early life on Earth faced intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun without the protection of an ozone layer. Yet DNA came to rely on thymine, a chemical building block that is more prone to UV damage than uracil, its counterpart in single-stranded RNA.

A study at Texas A&M University suggests that thymine may have helped early genetic molecules survive by directing that damage into a form that was easier to reverse. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), offer a possible explanation for why thymine replaced uracil as genetic systems evolved toward DNA.