A new way to identify salts in nuclear waste melters could help improve clean-up technology, including at the Hanford Site, one of the largest, most complex nuclear waste clean-up sites in the world. Reporting in the journal Measurement, Washington State University researchers used two detectors to find thin layers of sulfate, chloride and fluoride salts during vitrification, a nuclear waste storage process that involves converting the waste into glass. The formation of salts can be problematic for waste processing and storage.

Researchers at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center in Berlin are developing a targeted treatment for muscular dystrophy with the help of gene-editing. Preclinical research led by the Spuler Lab published in “Nature Communications” now paves the way for first-in-human clinical trials. 

Extreme temperatures, scarce water resources, and unpredictable weather characterize the challenging conditions of a typical desert. The Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG), Chinese Academy of Sciences has been dedicated to transforming the stretches of arid land into thriving ecosystems, focusing on the sustainable development of these areas. On December 9 2024, XIEG showcased its contributions toward this objective at the "Green Technology, Green Future" side event at the China Pavilion of UNCCD COP16.

Leading UCLA psychiatry and psychology professor Dr. Carrie Bearden combines genetics and neuroscience to investigate early indicators of psychosis risk in adolescents. Her innovative research at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior bridges crucial gaps between genetic predisposition and clinical intervention, offering new hope for early detection and prevention.

 To clarify the visual cues contributing to skin moisture and dryness, a research team from the Cognitive Neurotechnology Unit and Visual Perception & Cognition Laboratory of Toyohashi University of Technology, the Faculty of Design of Kyushu University, and the Central R&D Laboratory of Pias Corporation conducted several psychophysical experiments to investigate how image manipulation alters visual perceptions of skin moisture. The study demonstrated that emphasizing high-spatial-frequency components of skin lightness decreased the visual perception of moisture. These changes closely resembled physiological phenomena associated with skin dryness such as the appearance of white lines and emphasized pores, indicating that these are cues for perceiving skin dryness. The results of this study were published on December 17, 2024, in the Journal of the Optical Society of America A (https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.536898).