Summary: “Mind reading” evokes images of futuristic scanners, but a study published in Nature Neuroscience demonstrates that a simple video may be enough. Using machine learning techniques, a team at the Champalimaud Foundation in Portugal, showed that mice’s facial movements reflect their hidden thoughts. According to the authors, this discovery could offer unprecedented insight into brain function, but also signals a need to consider safeguards for mental privacy. ***SUMMARY YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK***: https://youtu.be/eNjkmeJ-lvE

Liberate AI, an interdisciplinary project uniting researchers from the medical domain, computer science, and trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI), aims to develop an AI model capable of supporting doctors in the treatment of ischemic stroke. Serving as a digital assistance system, the AI model is intended to predict the long-term outcome of patients after mechanical thrombectomy, a minimally invasive treatment, as well as potential complications. Using a technology called Swarm Learning, the AI model will be trained in a privacy-preserving fashion on medical data residing at different sites across Germany. Further challenges addressed in the project include the AI’s explainability as well as its ability to make differentiated predictions for patient subgroups. Funded by the Helmholtz Association with 250,000 euros, Liberate AI is a joint project between Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), the Department of Vascular Neurology at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), and CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security.

What processes have regulated climate over the course of Earth’s history? Researchers are addressing this question in the face of anthropogenic climate change. Dr. Dominik Hülse of MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, and Dr. Andy Ridgwell of the University of California (USA) have uncovered a previously missing part of the puzzle in describing the global carbon cycle and climate regulation. In a new issue of the professional journal Science, they introduce an expanded Earth System model that shows how global warming can be overcorrect into an ice age.

Researchers at the Institute of Chemistry, CAS, have developed a light-driven catalytic system based on Au/NiCo₂O₄ photoanodes that efficiently converts styrene to epoxide using water as the sole oxygen source. This work highlights the critical role of plasmon-induced photothermal effects in improving mass transport and catalytic performance under solar illumination.

In a new paper published in Science Bulletin, led by Professor Haibo Wang from Jilin University (P.R. China) and co-workers have utilized a bifunctional additive strategy to precisely regulate the film growth process. This approach enables the formation of perovskite films with preferential crystal orientation, full coverage and large grains. As a result, the fabricated FETs exhibit high hole mobility of ~40 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and excellent operational stability.

Hydropower is a key source of low-carbon electricity, but dams also trap sediment that sustains deltas, farms and fisheries. In the Mekong River Basin, decades of hydropower development have already reduced sediment supply to the delta by up to 75 per cent, threatening ecosystems and livelihoods. Researchers at the College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore have created an integrated water–sediment–energy planning framework to identify alternatives that can help avoid further sediment trapping by the remaining planned hydropower projects, thereby protecting the still-available sediment supply. Their study shows that replacing a set of 19 high-impact hydropower plants with solar, wind and battery storage can preserve up to 98 per cent of remaining sediment flows at only four to six per cent higher energy system costs — most of which are offset when ecosystem benefits are included. The approach provides a transferable framework for designing renewable energy systems that protect both climate and ecosystems worldwide.