The brain, one of the most sophisticated and complex organs, remains a mystery in many aspects of its function. Scientists in Switzerland and China developed a groundbreaking hybrid imaging platform—HyFMRI—to simultaneously capture the dynamic activity of neurons, astrocytes, and hemodynamic responses. The technology, demonstrated in a mouse model, enables unprecedented studies of brain activity, opening new frontiers for understanding neuro-glial-vascular coupling in health and disease.

This work proposes a novel lower-limb motion capture system that, for the first time, combines a flexible pressure sensor array with a Transformer-based temporal regression model. The system enables accurate estimation of lower-limb joint positions using only insole-embedded sensors.

Flexible fiber sensors, with their excellent wearability and biocompatibility, are essential components of flexible electronics. However, traditional methods face challenges in fabricating low-cost, large-scale fiber sensors. In recent years, the thermal drawing process has rapidly advanced, offering a novel approach to flexible fiber sensors. Through the preform-to-fiber manufacturing technique, a variety of fiber sensors with complex functionalities spanning from the nanoscale to kilometer scale can be automated in a short time. Examples include temperature, acoustic, mechanical, chemical, biological, optoelectronic, and multifunctional sensors, which operate on diverse sensing principles such as resistance, capacitance, piezoelectricity, triboelectricity, photoelectricity, and thermoelectricity. This review outlines the principles of the thermal drawing process and provides a detailed overview of the latest advancements in various thermally drawn fiber sensors. Finally, the future developments of thermally drawn fiber sensors are discussed.

A research team from the South China University of Technology has developed an innovative statistical modeling approach that accelerates the development of advanced rare-earth-doped laser glasses. Applying neighboring glassy compounds (NGCs) model, the team accurately predicted the local structural environments and luminescence properties of complex glass systems, reducing experimental trial-and-error. The NGCs model was used to establish the composition-structure relationship and populate the composition-property space. Finally, multi-luminescence property charts are generated to select compositions that satisfy multiple constraints, thus facilitating the rational design of chemically complex laser glasses for targeted applications. This versatile methodology paves the way for discovering next-generation laser materials with superior performance, expanding the horizons of glass science and technology.

A research paper by scientists at The University of New South Wales presented a new hydraulic-driven dual soft robotic system featuring a 3 DOF-soft cutting arm (SCA) and a 3-jaw teleoperated soft grasper system (TSGS).

The research paper was published on Jun. 12, 2025 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems.

Children with asthma who use at-home monitoring are around half as likely to visit the emergency department or be hospitalised, compared to those who only receive care from their medical team, according to research presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Remote monitoring also helped keep children’s symptoms under control.