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AI tool improves prediction of who will respond to cancer immunotherapy drugs

Cancer immunotherapy drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can be miracle drugs for cancer patients, curing some and turning deadly disease into a manageable chronic condition in others. But these drugs work for only a subset of patients, with few indications why—a knowledge gap that has detrimental effects on patient prognosis, clinical trial recruitment and research that could lead to new therapies.

A new artificial intelligence model called COMPASS, developed by Harvard Medical School researchers and their colleagues, improves prediction of which patients are most likely to respond to ICIs. Using data from patients treated in the past, the model outperformed the best existing approaches by 8.5%. It makes its predictions based on patients’ tumor gene activity and provides a rationale for its output.

If these results are validated in a future clinical trial, COMPASS could lead to better personalized medicine for cancer patients, more efficient trial enrollment for new therapies and new drug targets for researchers to explore.

A 200-year-old physics experiment could help build future computers

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found a much simpler way to produce unusual light structures known as optical skyrmions by reviving a classic optics experiment that dates back more than 200 years.

Optical skyrmions are tiny, stable swirling patterns formed within the properties of light. Their structure has often been compared to the spines of a hedgehog. Because they can potentially encode and store information, researchers see them as promising building blocks for future data storage, communications, and computing technologies.

Instead of relying on expensive, highly engineered metamaterials that have traditionally been needed to generate optical skyrmions, the NTU team created them by shining a laser at a small circular disc. The approach provides a far simpler way to produce, study, and control these complex light structures.

Six massive landslides discovered on icy Pluto

Scientists have detected evidence of landslides on Pluto for the first time. A paper published in the journal Icarus reports that images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft during a flyby revealed six large landslides in three impact craters.

These mass movements of ice, rock and debris are common on Earth and have been detected elsewhere in our solar system, including Mars and Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But evidence from icy Pluto has been nonexistent until now, even though it has steep crater walls and rugged icy terrain where landslides could occur.

Secure glass containers for storing chemical waste through laser welding

As the adoption of electric vehicles continues to grow, so does the need for the safe and permanent storage of battery materials and industrial chemical waste. Certain waste streams require disposal in what are known as Category IV landfills, which impose particularly stringent requirements on storage containers. These must simultaneously ensure environmental protection, safe handling and long-term structural integrity.

Glass is a highly promising material for this application: It is exceptionally chemically inert—meaning it reacts with virtually no other substances—making thick-walled glass containers especially well-suited for the permanent containment of hazardous materials. Glass containers are also of particular interest in the context of potential new recycling methods in the future. The stored residual materials do not react with the containers and can be readily recovered from them.

Until now, these glass containers have been manufactured primarily using thermal gas processes. However, these are limited by uncontrolled heat input, high residual stresses and restricted automation potential. Laser welding, on the other hand, enables high processing speeds and shows excellent potential for automation.

Solving a 30-year-old puzzle about a mysterious superconducting material

A material made from yttrium, barium and copper oxide (better known as YBCO) has intrigued scientists since its discovery in 1987, largely because it retains its superconductive properties at a higher-than-normal temperature. However, it is extremely brittle, which makes it tricky to put to practical use.

But researchers can still learn much from it. For instance, its unusual properties can provide insight into designing possible room-temperature superconductors —that is, materials that conduct electricity with no resistance at room temperature. Doing so would have a huge impact on power transmission, medical imaging and fusion reactor magnets.

One thing about YBCO that has mystified researchers is that doping it with praseodymium, a rare earth element, completely kills the material’s superconductive properties. That is unusual because adding other rare earth elements to YBCO does not have the same effect.

World’s first superconducting quantum heat engine offers path to larger quantum computers

Recent improvements in our understanding of how the principles of thermodynamics apply in the quantum realm could give a boost to quantum technology, and a clearer picture of quantum thermodynamics could in turn enhance our understanding of classical thermodynamics. Now, Aalto University researchers have demonstrated the first cyclic quantum heat engine inside a superconducting circuit.

Physicists have become increasingly fascinated with the idea that classical thermodynamics could be combined with quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics captures the behavior of particles on tiny scales—smaller than atoms—while thermodynamics is about large systems, from molecules up to the entire universe. How do strange quantum phenomena like tunneling, entanglement and superposition mix with the stolid familiarity of the heat engines that kick-started the Industrial Revolution?

Heat engines, like James Watt’s famous steam engine, convert heat into useful energy, or work. They power our cars, ships and planes, and heat engines are how most power plants generate electricity. Now, the world’s first superconducting quantum heat engine has been built: a tiny device consisting of a transmon qubit, a resonator and a quantum refrigerator.

Oobleck droplets reveal 5 ways cornstarch ‘goo’ behaves when hitting water

Cornstarch can thicken soup or serve as a base for a DIY shampoo, but there’s more to the humble pantry staple. Given the right conditions, it seems to defy the laws of physics. Mixing cornstarch with water creates “oobleck”—a shape-shifting substance classified as a non-Newtonian fluid that changes states when subjected to a force.

Leave it alone, and it oozes like liquid. Stir it up, and it gets more viscous before locking into a solid. Under certain conditions, if it’s punctured, it can even fracture, according to Northeastern University researchers. The thickening phenomenon is known as the oobleck effect.

Back in 1949, Seuss made oobleck famous as the “green goo” wreaking havoc on a fictional kingdom that a boy named Bartholomew endeavors to rescue. But today, Northeastern mechanical and industrial engineering scientist Xiaoyu Tang and Ph.D. student Boqian Yan are using the same mix of ingredients for a different purpose.

White-beam neutron device unlocks precise control of twisted quantum waves

CANISIUS is the official name of the new spin-echo neutron interferometer developed at Atominstitut, TU Wien. It enables precise control of neutron waves, something that was previously impossible.

Neutrons cannot be imagined as tiny spheres; they have wave properties similar to light. This was spectacularly demonstrated in 1974 at the nuclear reactor of the Atominstitut—and it was precisely here that researchers succeeded in exploiting this wave nature of neutrons in a novel way: A measuring device was developed that can use the angular momentum of neutrons in a particularly clever way for experiments. Not only the intrinsic angular momentum—the spin—but also the orbital angular momentum, which is related to the waveform of the neutron, can be adjusted.

The research is published in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments.

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