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New wireless system could power medical implants as they stretch

Over the past few decades, electronics engineers have developed increasingly sophisticated implantable medical devices. Reliably powering some of these devices, however, can be challenging, particularly when they are based on stretchable materials that move along with the body.

Researchers at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul National University and other institutions in South Korea recently developed a new wireless power system that could provide energy to soft implantable devices, even when they are stretching or moving. The new system, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, was initially used to develop a cardiac pacemaker, a medical device that uses electrical pulses to control heartbeats.

“This work began with a practical question: How can we reliably power a wireless implant in a body that is constantly moving?” Dae-Hyeong Kim, senior author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. “Advances in soft electronics have enabled implants to conform to living tissues and accommodate their natural motion, helping reduce mechanical stress and maintain stable contact. However, as these implants move and even stretch within the body, changes in their position and shape can disrupt wireless power delivery.”

The first stand-alone nuclear clock is ticking in Vienna

For decades, researchers around the world have been working toward this goal—and now major advances are following in rapid succession. Vienna is now home to the world’s first nuclear clock that stabilizes itself, as atomic clocks typically do. This system has been shown to remain stable for more than 24 hours without intervention, and the related findings are published in the journal Nature.

The technology has the potential to significantly surpass the precision of previous atomic clocks. It is an important step toward a new kind of high-performance metrology, allowing a range of physical quantities to be measured with previously unattainable precision.

New display technology combines record brightness with pixels that stretch like rubber

A research team led by Professor Jiwoong Yang of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at DGIST has developed the world’s first foundational technology for an ultrahigh-resolution stretchable quantum dot display (QLED) that can stretch freely like skin while maintaining sharp image quality. The findings were published in Nature Nanotechnology.

Developed in collaboration with a research team led by Professor Moon Kee Choi of UNIST and a research team led by associate director Dae-Hyeong Kim of the IBS (Institute for Basic Science) Center for Nanoparticle Research, the technology is expected to significantly expand the commercial potential of next-generation stretchable displays.

First single-cell DNA analysis reveals mitochondrial damage in vulnerable Parkinson’s brainstem neurons

Researchers have carried out the first single-cell analysis of mitochondrial DNA in a population of brainstem neurons that are particularly vulnerable to degeneration in Parkinson’s disease.

The study, published on October 7 in Brain, reveals extensive damage to mitochondrial DNA in these neurons and identifies evidence of a potentially protective response involving the mitochondrial quality-control gene PINK1. This response was particularly pronounced in people who survived longer after their Parkinson’s diagnosis.

The findings could help medical and clinical scientists understand why these neurons are vulnerable in Parkinson’s disease and identify ways to strengthen the brain’s natural mechanisms for protecting them.

Recordings from hidden brain region reveal clues to how we handle uncertainty

The claustrum is a thin sheet of neurons buried deep within the cerebral cortex. The structure is so small and hidden that neuroscientists once found it very difficult to access, let alone investigate. Now, researchers at Yale School of Medicine have not only found a way to peer into this enigmatic structure but have also discovered its surprising role in how humans learn and adapt to uncertainty.

In a study published Oct. 6 in Nature Neuroscience, researchers recorded the activity of the claustrum for the first time in seven patients undergoing epilepsy surgery.

For their epilepsy treatment, the patients had electrodes implanted on various parts of their brains to identify the precise regions that trigger their seizures. Because typical electrodes are too big for the claustrum, the scientists deployed tiny, 40-micrometer wires at the tips of the electrodes. These wires are small enough to target a single neuron.

Quantum computing shortcut makes particle collisions easier to simulate

Collisions between particles at high energies can sometimes produce new particles and shed light on interactions between the fundamental constituents of matter. Simulating these collisions and their underlying processes could yield valuable insights into how matter behaves at extremely small scales.

Quantum computers, devices that process information using the laws of quantum mechanics, could be promising new platforms for the simulation of particle collisions. However, reliably using these devices to simulate the processes following a collision has so far proved challenging.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Washington recently developed a new method that allows quantum computers to prepare the initial wavepackets (localized disturbances linked to moving particles) for particle-collision simulations more efficiently.

Cutting unnecessary tasks shows surprising links to greater employee exhaustion

Ahead of World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, attention is turning to the question of what causes psychological strain at work. A study by Bielefeld University shows that inappropriate tasks are not the only factor associated with exhaustion. Changes in day-to-day work can also leave employees feeling exhausted, even when the number of burdensome tasks decreases. Perceived uncertainty plays an important role.

The study is published in the journal Work & Stress.

Nobel physics winner’s pride at pioneering AI role

Francis Halzen, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, spoke with pride on Wednesday about his early promotion of artificial intelligence in his research on neutrinos.

Halzen, 82, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was visiting the city of Turin in northern Italy and spoke to reporters there a day after the Nobel announcement.

The U.S.–Belgian physicist is the mind behind the IceCube neutrino observatory, made up of 5,484 optical modules used as sensors deep in the Antarctic ice.

One quantum material, two superconducting states: Stretching helps explain conflicting experiments

Unconventional superconductors can host unusual electronic states, but understanding what drives their superconductivity becomes difficult when different forms of order coexist. The kagome metal CsV3Sb5 has become a particularly debated example.

It develops charge density wave order at about 94 K before becoming superconducting at about 2.5 K, yet experiments have offered conflicting views of whether its superconducting gap is conventional or contains nodes.

Resolving this question is important because knowing how superconductivity forms can guide the search for better superconducting materials.

Uranium compound known since the 1960s reveals hidden spiral structure with unusual magnetic properties

A University of Texas at Dallas scientist and her colleagues have discovered an unusual atomic pattern in a uranium-based material that gives it a rare combination of magnetic properties, a finding that could open new pathways for designing advanced electronic and computer memory devices.

Dr. Mengke Liu, an assistant professor of physics in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and her collaborators found a previously unrecognized chiral superlattice in a crystal of uranium oxytelluride (UOTe).

Liu is a corresponding author of a study detailing the research that was published online Oct. 7 in the journal Nature.

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