Reaching the unreachable: New technique opens route to deep lung tumors
Peer-Reviewed Publication
This month, we’re focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), a topic that continues to capture attention everywhere. Here, you’ll find the latest research news, insights, and discoveries shaping how AI is being developed and used across the world.
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 9-May-2026 11:15 ET (9-May-2026 15:15 GMT/UTC)
Researchers at The University of Osaka developed the Balloon-Assisted Bronchoscope Delivery (BDBD) technique and in a first-in-human clinical trial, the team successfully demonstrated that this technique is both safe and effective, enabling access to lesions smaller than 20 mm. By using a small balloon to gently widen airways, it allows endoscopes to reach deep, peripheral lung tumors, promising more accurate cancer diagnosis and new minimally invasive treatment options.
More than 12 million Americans experience visual impairments that limit independence and quality of life. This National Eye Institute grant will fund research on enhancing visual perceptual learning – the brain’s ability to detect subtle visual differences – by leveraging attention mechanisms to generalize improvements across the visual field. Using computational modeling, brain imaging, and neurochemical analysis, the project aims to advance vision rehabilitation, optimize training in visually demanding professions, and inform AI systems that learn and adapt like the human brain.
Security researchers have developed the first functional defense mechanism capable of protecting against “cryptanalytic” attacks used to “steal” the model parameters that define how an AI system works.
ITU’s Facts and Figures 2025 shows steady progress in connectivity, while highlighting gaps in quality and affordability
Mice pups conceived with in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the lab have slightly increased rates of DNA errors, or mutations, compared to pups conceived naturally, a new study on artificial reproductive technologies suggests.
A brief period of blindness right after birth can have lasting effects on how the brain processes visual detail—but surprisingly, not on how it recognizes faces, objects, or words. The team studied adults who were born with dense cataracts that left them blind for the first weeks or months of life, but who later had their sight restored. Using brain imaging, they compared these “cataract-reversal” participants with people who had normal vision since birth. The scans revealed a striking contrast: the primary visual cortex, responsible for fine details and contrast, showed permanent changes caused by early blindness. Yet the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC)—a region crucial for recognizing categories like faces or words—appeared to function normally. These findings challenge the idea that all visual regions must develop during a single critical period, some areas are more sensitive early on, but others can adapt later through experience.