By creating artificial ageing in mice, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have been able to track the formation of aneurysms in the walls of blood vessels. One finding of the study, now published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, surprised the researchers: the mice were simultaneously protected against hypertension by activating a different signalling pathway in the cells of the vessel wall – compensating for the strain exerted on the ageing vessels. The findings create potential for future complementary blood pressure medicines.

Most of Earth’s water is in the oceans and too salty to drink. Desalination plants can make seawater drinkable, but they require large amounts of energy. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Energy Letters have developed a sponge-like material with long, microscopic air pockets that uses sunlight and a simple plastic cover to turn saltwater into freshwater. A proof-of-concept test outdoors successfully produced potable water in natural sunlight in a step toward low-energy, sustainable desalination.

Quantum computers still face a major hurdle on their pathway to practical use cases: their limited ability to correct the arising computational errors. To develop truly reliable quantum computers, researchers must be able to simulate quantum computations using conventional computers to verify their correctness – a vital yet extraordinarily difficult task. Now, in a world-first, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, the University of Milan, the University of Granada, and the University of Tokyo have unveiled a method for simulating specific types of error-corrected quantum computations – a significant leap forward in the quest for robust quantum technologies.