Space manipulators play an important role in the on-orbit services and planetary surface operation whose reliability is a key issue. In the extreme environment of space, space manipulators are susceptible to a variety of unknown disturbances. Since it is difficult for the manipulator to be repaired immediately, once it fails, it will mean that it cannot complete the mission as expected, which may cause serious losses and dangers. How to have a resilient guarantee, i.e., the manipulator’s ability to resiliently recover and continue to complete tasks, in failure or disturbance is the core capability of its future development. The motion planning unit is used as the computing terminal of the manipulator’s joint motion trajectory. Compared with traditional motion planning, learning-based motion planning has gradually become a hot spot in current research. However, no matter what kind of research ideas, the single robotic manipulator is studied as an independent agent, making it unable to provide sufficient flexibility under conditions such as external force disturbance, observation noise, and mechanical failure.

Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a quick-setting, environmentally friendly alternative to concrete they hope can one day be used to rapidly 3-D print homes and infrastructure.

In a visionary commentary that bridges the gap between theory and practice, leading environmental scientists from China are pioneering a new approach to assessing the health of aquatic ecosystems. Titled "Aquatic Ecosystem Health Assessment in China Based on Metacommunity Theory: From Theory to Practice," this insightful piece is co-authored by Prof. Xiaowei Jin from the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre and Prof. Fengchang Wu from the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, both based in Beijing, China. Their work offers a fresh perspective on how metacommunity theory can be applied to real-world environmental challenges.

Researchers at WashU Medicine have developed a noninvasive medicine delivered through the nose that successfully eliminated deadly brain tumors in mice. The medicine is based on a spherical nucleic acid, a nanomaterial that travels along a nerve from the nose to the brain, where it triggers an immune response to eliminate the tumor.

All the cells in an organism have the exact same genetic sequence. What differs across cell types is their epigenetics—meticulously placed chemical tags that influence which genes get expressed in each cell. If epigenetic changes regulate our genetics, what is regulating them? Salk scientists have now used plant cells to discover that a type of epigenetic tag, called DNA methylation, can be regulated by genetic mechanisms. Prior to this study, scientists had only understood how DNA methylation was regulated by other epigenetic features, so the discovery that genetic features can also guide DNA methylation patterns is a major paradigm shift. Their findings could inform future epigenetic engineering strategies aimed at generating methylation patterns predicted to repair or enhance cell function, with many potential applications in medicine and agriculture.