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Therapeutic brain implants that travel through blood defy the need for surgery

What if clinicians could place tiny electronic chips in the brain that electrically stimulate a precise target, through a simple injection in the arm? This may someday help treat deadly or debilitating brain diseases, while eliminating surgery-related risks and costs.

MIT researchers have taken a major step toward making this scenario a reality. They developed microscopic, wireless bioelectronics that could travel through the body’s circulatory system and autonomously self-implant in a target region of the brain, where they would provide focused treatment.

In a study on mice, the researchers showed that after injection, these minuscule implants can identify and travel to a specific brain region without the need for human guidance. Once there, they can be wirelessly powered to provide electrical stimulation to the precise area. Such stimulation, known as neuromodulation, has shown promise as a way to treat and diseases like Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis.

CRISPR Screening Made Easy with the Revvity Dharmacon™ All-in-One Lentiviral Platform

Revvity’s Dharmacon All-in-one lentiviral platform has expanded to include whole-genome library options for CRISPR knockout (CRISPRko), CRISPR interference (CRISPRi), and CRISPR activation (CRISPRa). Like the individual All-in-one reagents, the whole-genome libraries utilize a single vector lentiviral system with all components necessary for CRISPRko, CRISPRa, and CRISPRi whole-genome pooled screening.

The Quantum Dance: Discovery of Polarons Solves a Decades-Old Mystery in Condensed Matter Physics

In a breakthrough that reshapes our understanding of quantum materials, an international team of physicists has finally solved a decades-old mystery about how certain materials suddenly lose their ability to conduct electricity. The answer lies in an elusive quantum phenomenon known as a polaron — a quasiparticle formed when an electron becomes tightly coupled to the vibrations of the surrounding crystal lattice. This subtle “dance” between electrons and atoms can transform a good conductor into a perfect insulator.

The discovery, made by researchers from Kiel University and the DESY research center in Germany, including Professor Kai Rossnagel and Dr. Chul-Hee Min, provides the first direct evidence of polarons in a rare-earth compound composed of thulium, selenium, and tellurium (TmSe1–x Tex). Their findings, published in Physical Review Letters, illuminate one of quantum physics’ most puzzling phenomena: how subtle atomic vibrations can “kill” electrical conductivity.

Stellar Giants Forged the Chemical Diversity of Ancient Clusters

“Extremely massive stars may have played a key role in the formation of the first galaxies,” said Dr. Paolo Padoan.

How did the extremely massive stars (EMS) in the early universe help form the oldest star clusters? This is what a recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated the role that EMS played in not only forming globular clusters (GCs), but how the latter were responsible for forming the first black holes. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions of the early universe and what this could mean to better understanding our existence.

For the study, the researchers presented a new computational model to help explain how EMS contributed to GC formation with bodies celestial objects being between 1,000 to 10,000 times as massive as our Sun and containing hundreds of thousands to millions of stars, respectively. Given the massive sizes and short lifetimes of EMS, they go supernova when they die, and the new model postulates they become black holes while releasing massive amounts of chemical and hydrogen that mixes with surrounding gas and dust, resulting in the formation of GCs. Additionally, data obtained from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) discovered nitrogen-rich galaxies had chemical signatures obtained from GCs.

Micron-resolution fiber mapping in histology independent of sample preparation

To understand brain diseases, neuroscientists try to understand the intricate maze of nerve fibers in our brains. For analysis under a microscope, brain tissue is often immersed in paraffin wax to create high-quality slices. But until now, it has been impossible to precisely trace the densely packed nerves in these slices. Researchers from Delft, Stanford, Jülich, and Rotterdam have achieved a milestone: using the ComSLI technique, they can now map the fibers in any tissue sample with micrometer precision. The research is published in Nature Communications.

Micron-resolution fiber mapping in histology independent of sample preparation.

Georgiadis and colleagues conduct micron-resolution fibre mapping on multiple histological tissue sections. Their light-scattering technique works across different sample preparations and tissue types, including formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded brain sections.

The Design and Characterization of an Ultra-Compact Asymmetrical Multimode Interference Splitter on Lithium Niobate Thin Film

We propose and demonstrate a high-performance asymmetrical multimode interference splitter on X-cut lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) with an ultra-compact size of 5.8 μm × (26.4–35.6) μm. A rectangle with a small region is removed from the upper left corner of the multimode interference (MMI) coupler to achieve a variable splitting ratio. Here, we design and characterize MMIs in six different distribution ratios ranging from 50:50 to 95:5 on a 600 nm thick LNOI. Based on the cascade structure, the linear fitting method accurately shows the device loss (~0.1–0.9 dB). Our fabricated devices demonstrate robustness across a 30 nm optical bandwidth (1535–1565 nm). In addition, we numerically simulate the Z-cut LNOI, showing that the structure corresponding to the TM mode can also achieve a good variable splitting ratio.

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