Scientists discover molecular ‘reshuffle’ and crack an 80-year-old conundrum
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 5-May-2026 23:15 ET (6-May-2026 03:15 GMT/UTC)
A research team from Peking University has successfully developed a vanadium oxide (VO₂)-based “locally active memristive oscillator” that operates at the edge of chaos. Through simple signal injection, the device exhibits diverse nonlinear dynamic behaviors such as frequency division, stochastic oscillation, and frequency locking. Remarkably, a single device demonstrates powerful frequency-domain feature extraction capability in speech recognition tasks, achieving performance comparable to a two-layer convolutional neural network. This breakthrough opens a new pathway for future energy-efficient and intelligent neuromorphic computing chips.
In this system, Fc could convert overexpressed H2O2 to produce ·OH. Importantly, Cur could form dynamic boronate ester bonds with BA, and be encapsulated in SPSAs-1 through responsive chemical bond to form SPSAs-2. The acidic microenvironment and excessive H2O2 within tumor cells cause the dissociation of boronate ester bonds and β-CD/Fc complexes, releasing Cur. As a result, the GSH level could be reduced through the combination of the BA-induced GSH consumption and Cur-induced inhibition of TrxR activation, further enhancing CDT efficacy.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have shown, for the first time with very high time and spatial resolution, that electrons in certain two-dimensional materials only follow the motion of the atomic nuclei with a delay. This insight could lead to the development of novel electronic devices in the future.
Structural alignment in fibrous tissues like myocardium and tendons is a key biomarker of physiological integrity and pathological remodeling. However, conventional imaging relies on staining. Researchers in Korea developed mid-infrared dichroism-sensitive photoacoustic microscopy, a label-free imaging modality that integrates molecular specificity with polarization sensitivity. It quantitatively maps protein content and extracellular matrix alignment in engineered heart tissues, enabling objective assessment of structural integrity and fibrosis without staining. This technique advances histopathology and regenerative medicine.
There are “costs of life” that mechanical physics cannot calculate. A clear example is the energy required to keep specific biochemical processes active — such as those that make up photosynthesis, although the examples are countless — while preventing alternative processes from occurring. In mechanics, no displacement implies zero work, and, put simply, there is no energetic cost for keeping things from happening. Yet careful stochastic thermodynamic calculations show that these costs do exist — and they are often quite significant.
A new paper published in the Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (JSTAT) proposes a way to calculate these costs from a thermodynamic perspective and thus to offer a new tool for understanding the selection and evolution of metabolic pathways at the root of life.
Scientists have developed a groundbreaking on-chip quantum memory platform using 3D-nanoprinted hollow-core waveguides called "light cages" to store flying photons in cesium vapor. This innovative approach achieves storage times of several hundred nanoseconds while enabling multiple quantum memories on a single chip. The technology marks a major advance in spatially multiplexed quantum memories for use in quantum repeaters and photonic quantum computing platforms.
This study demonstrates that fast raster-scan optoacoustic mesoscopy (fRSOM) enables non-invasive, detailed visualization of microvascular endothelial dysfunction (MiVED) at single-capillary resolution. The method identifies the layer-specific effects of smoking habit and cardiovascular disease on skin MiVED, which were previously unresolvable. fRSOM efficiently detects functional changes, suggesting MiVED as a promising early marker for disease detection and stratification, bridging important gaps in cardiovascular diagnostics.