Picture yourself at a busy pedestrian crossing. When the light is red, everyone waits – until one person starts to cross. Soon, others follow, and eventually everyone follows the crowd and crosses. Amsterdam physicists have discovered that a very similar process happens at the microscopic level, when two touching surfaces start to slide. Their results were published in Physical Review Letters this week.

Peking University, May 16, 2025: A research team led by Professor Li Mo at Peking University Third Hospital has developed a revolutionary battery-free, flexible NanoFLUID patch for precise drug and gene delivery to internal organs. Their study, titled "A battery-free nanofluidic intracellular delivery patch for internal organs," was published in Nature, marking a breakthrough that overcomes key biological barriers. The technology enables highly efficient, low-toxicity intracellular therapy with single-cell precision, integrating medicine, engineering, and chemistry to advance targeted treatments for severe diseases.

For the first time, researchers can study the microstructures inside metals, ceramics and rocks with X-rays in a standard laboratory without needing to travel to a particle accelerator, according to a study led by University of Michigan engineers.