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A new study describes a novel anti-cancer vaccine based on antigen-producing bacteria that can tackle solid and metastatic cancers [1].

Invading an invader

Years ago, scientists discovered that bacteria can colonize tumors [2]. Some bacteria are drawn to the tumor microenvironment due to factors such as necrotic tissue, hypoxia, and nutrient availability. For example, Clostridium species prefer anaerobic conditions and have been explored in tumor-targeting therapies. Salmonella and E. coli strains have also shown an affinity for tumors [3].

Award-winning architect Lenka Petráková is pioneering a new way to tackle ocean pollution with an ambitious project named “The 8th Continent.” Her innovative design aims to recycle ocean plastic while functioning as a completely self-sustaining floating structure. If realized, it could mark a significant advancement in global conservation efforts.

“The 8th Continent” is an intricate, five-part structure designed to float on the ocean, equipped with greenhouses, living quarters, and biodegradable waste collectors. It represents more than just a plastic-collection unit; it’s a potential catalyst for restoring damaged marine ecosystems.

Designed to thrive amidst the ocean’s plastic tides, Petráková’s concept could provide a regenerative solution for our polluted waters.

Researchers have been performing these experiments for nearly 30 years but they always encounter the same problem: the bottle technique yields an average neutron survival time of 880 s, while the beam method produces a lifetime of 888 s. Importantly, this eight-second difference is larger than the uncertainties of the measurements, meaning that known sources of error cannot explain it.

A mix of different neutron states?

A team led by Benjamin Koch and Felix Hummel of TU Wien’s Institute of Theoretical Physics is now suggesting that the discrepancy could be caused by nuclear decay producing free neutrons in a mix of different states. Some neutrons might be in the ground state, for example, while others could be in a higher-energy excited state. This would alter the neutrons’ lifetimes, they say, because elements in the so-called transition matrix that describes how neutrons decay into protons would be different for neutrons in excited states and neutrons in ground states.