Researchers at Graz University of Technology are using virtual reality and large language models to support people with autism spectrum disorder in training social skills. The system is intended to make treatment options more widely accessible.

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS, President Lee Ho-seong) has developed an ultrasonic sensor technology that applies a waveguide to detect defects in all directions without directly attaching sensors to the inspection target. By enabling remote ultrasonic excitation and reception, the technology is expected to help prevent industrial accidents and eliminate inspection blind spots in high-risk industrial facilities where direct sensor installation has been challenging due to heat, toxic gases, or other hazardous environmental conditions.

Scientists have developed an innovative ‘liquid-phase carbonization’ method to recycle waste polyethylene terephthalate into porous micro/nanostructured hard carbon enriched with intrinsic carbon defects. This material exhibits high specific capacity (355 mAh g^-1 at 0.1 A g^-1), superfast charging capability (132.6 mAh g^-1 input within 13 s of charging), and ultralong cycling stability (100,000 stable cycles at 50 A g^-1) as an anode for sodium-ion batteries. These findings are expected to have broader applications in energy storage and waste management.

Treating brain diseases like tumors and Alzheimer's is notoriously difficult due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which blocks most drugs. While nanomedicine offers a promising solution, its path to the brain is a complex, multi-stage journey fraught with obstacles. A new comprehensive review published in Nano Research provides a "roadmap" for this journey, systematically breaking down the entire process—from surviving in the bloodstream to crossing the BBB and precisely targeting diseased cells. By detailing the challenges at each step and highlighting innovative strategies to overcome them, this work serves as a crucial guide to accelerate the development of effective brain-targeted therapies.

As an innovative integrated practice in the field of digital traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), TCM Phenomics 2.0 deeply integrates the core technologies and values of digital medicine. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and medical digital twins, it addresses the developmental bottlenecks of the first-generation TCM phenomics, and constructs a systematic closed-loop diagnosis and treatment system. It not only upgrades TCM diagnosis and treatment toward digitization and standardization, but also builds a pivotal bridge for the integration of TCM and Western medicine, pioneering an entirely new paradigm for the advancement of precision medicine. 

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell and also a key factor in unraveling life processes and disease mechanisms. As a platform featuring cutting-edge perspectives in mitochondrial biology, Mitochondrial Communications is committed to advancing interdisciplinary research oriented toward mitochondrial health, with the aim of rapidly publishing high-quality, rigorously peer-reviewed research articles, reviews, and commentaries.