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Scientific panel puts new guardrails around stem cell-based embryo models
An influential scientific panel is pumping the brakes on stem cell-based embryo models — an umbrella term for the increasingly complex structures researchers are building from stem cells and growing in the lab to mimic aspects of embryonic development. In new guidelines released Monday, the International Society for Stem Cell Research called for stricter oversight of studies involving such models and the establishment of red lines against using them for certain activities.
Specifically, the latest guidelines say that researchers should not use any stem cell-based embryo models to try to start a pregnancy in a person or animal or grow them in an artificial womb to the point of viability, because of broad consensus that such experiments would be unethical. The new restrictions also extend to purposes beyond research, including commercial and reproductive.
Although the models that scientists have built thus far remain too primitive to reach that developmental milestone, the updated guidance is aimed at addressing an explosion of rapid advances in the field over the past several years that are already raising thorny ethical dilemmas.
Invisible polymer film offers powerful conductivity for smart devices
Scientists at La Trobe University have produced a new, powerful electricity-conducting material in research which could revolutionize smartphones and wearable technologies like medical devices.
The new technique uses hyaluronic acid, well known due to its popularity in skincare, applied directly to a gold-plated surface to create a thinner, more durable film, or polymer, used to conduct electricity in devices like biosensors.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Wren Greene said the technique could lead to major improvements in the function, cost and usability of devices like touchscreens and wearable biosensors.
New Research Confirms Weight-Loss Drug Link With Sudden Vision Loss
Drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro (known as semaglutide and tirzepatide) have changed the way clinicians manage diabetes and obesity around the world.
Collectively known as GLP-1 agonists, these drugs mimic the hormone GLP-1. This limits both hunger and interest in food, helping users lose weight, and helps control blood sugar levels.
But two new studies published today show that people taking these drugs may have a small increased risk of serious eye conditions and vision loss.
Gold Survives 33,740°F, Overturning a 40-Year Physics Theory
Scientists have made the first-ever direct measurement of atomic temperatures in extreme materials, shattering a four-decade-old theory about how far solids can be superheated.
Using a powerful laser and ultrabright X-rays, researchers at SLAC and collaborating institutions heated gold to an astonishing 19,000 K, more than 14 times its melting point, while it remained solid. This breakthrough not only redefines the limits of matter under extreme conditions but also opens the door to new insights into planetary interiors, fusion energy research, and high-energy density physics.
Measuring the unmeasurable: cracking the heat code.
Invisible Polymer Film Could Revolutionize Smart Devices with Metal-Like Conductivity
From smartphones and smartwatches to medical biosensors, the demand for thinner, lighter, and more powerful electronic components continues to grow. Now, scientists at La Trobe University have developed a groundbreaking invisible polymer film that conducts electricity as effectively as metals, yet is flexible, durable, and scalable for mass production. This innovation could transform not only consumer electronics but also advanced health monitoring devices and wearable technology.
The Breakthrough: Tethered Dopant Templating
For decades, conductive polymers — synthetic materials capable of carrying an electrical current — have been hailed as a promising alternative to metals in electronics. However, they have struggled to achieve the necessary combination of thinness, transparency, conductivity, and durability required for high-performance devices.
Wave-like domain walls drive polarization switching in sliding ferroelectrics, study finds
Sliding ferroelectrics are a type of two-dimensional (2D) material realized by stacking nonpolar monolayers (atom-thick layers that lack an electric dipole). When these individual layers are stacked, they produce ferroelectric materials with an intrinsic polarization (i.e., in which positive and negative charges are spontaneously separated), which can be switched using an external electric field that is perpendicular to them.
Understanding the mechanisms driving the switching of this polarization in sliding ferroelectrics has been a key goal of many studies rooted in physics and materials science. This could ultimately inform the development of new advanced nanoscale electronics and quantum technologies.
Researchers at Westlake University and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China recently uncovered a new mechanism that could drive the switching of polarization in sliding ferroelectrics. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters (PRL), suggests that polarization switching in the materials is prompted by wave-like movements of domain walls (i.e., boundaries between regions with an opposite polarization), rather than by synchronized shifts affecting entire monolayers at once, as was assumed by some earlier works.
Ultra-metal-poor star discovered in Milky Way’s halo
By analyzing the data from ESA’s Gaia satellite, astronomers from the University of Chicago, Illinois and elsewhere, have identified a new ultra-metal-poor star. The newfound star, designated GDR3_526285, turns out to be one of the most metal-poor stars detected so far. The finding was announced in a research paper published August 8 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Experimental device demonstrates how electron beams reconfigure plasma structure
In a scientific first, South Korean scientists have provided experimental proof of “multi-scale coupling” in plasma, where interactions between phenomena at the microscopic level and macroscopic level influence each other. The findings could help advance nuclear fusion research and improve our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Plasma is often referred to as the fourth state of matter, distinct from solid, liquid and gaseous states. This unique state is formed when you heat a gas to such high temperatures that electrons are stripped away from their atoms, creating a mix of free-floating positively and negatively charged particles. This state of matter is the most abundant in the universe, and fusion reactions take place within it.
Proving multi-scale coupling has been a long-standing challenge in plasma physics. But in a study published in Nature, a research team led by Dr. Jong Yoon Park from Seoul National University and Dr. Young Dae Yoon from the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP) proved how microscopic phenomena induce macroscopic changes that affect the entire plasma system.