NYU Abu Dhabi researchers have developed a biodegradable, 3D-printed gastric stent with an advanced lattice design that more than doubles drainage performance while potentially eliminating the need for a second procedure to remove the device. The study could help improve treatment for gastric leaks following weight-loss surgery.

Announcing a new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI  10.29026/oea.2026.250341.

With the increasingly urgent demand for non-toxic, high-specific-impulse propellants in space propulsion systems, ammonium dinitramide (ADN)-based liquid propellants have attracted extensive attention as a new-generation green alternative to hydrazine-based fuels. However, existing ADN-based thrusters all adopt the catalytic ignition technology route, which suffers from inherent drawbacks: the catalyst cannot withstand temperatures exceeding 1500 K, long preheating times are required prior to startup (in the Prisma mission, in-flight preheating lasted 600–720 s with a single-event energy consumption of 25 kJ), and insufficient preheating may lead to "hard start" or even explosion—these issues severely constrain the rapid response capability and operational safety of the thrusters. Although active ignition methods such as resistive ignition and laser ignition have been validated at the single-droplet level, how to achieve catalyst-free electric ignition at the thruster system level and systematically evaluate its combustion characteristics remains a critical engineering problem urgently to be addressed in the field of green space propulsion.

Researchers in China have developed a 0.55-mm-diameter OCT probe designed for internal 360-degree imaging of small brain arteries. Published in Biomedical Optics Express, the probe uses a distal piezoelectric actuator to rotate a miniature lens directly at the tip, eliminating rotational distortion. Navigating a human cerebrovascular model, it successfully imaged vascular stents and human atherosclerotic plaque at up to 58 revolutions per second.

SAN ANTONIO — August 25, 2026 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has received a $1 million, two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation to develop a sustainable domestic supply of graphite by converting captured carbon dioxide.

The U.S. National Science Foundation has renewed the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (NSF QuBBE) with a $37.5 million, five-year investment to advance quantum sensing technologies that can reveal biological processes difficult or impossible to observe with conventional tools.

In a paper published in Mycology, System and Synthetic Biotechnology, the team in Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed PAMP, an open-source automated image-analysis pipeline for quantitative morphological profiling throughout the life cycle of filamentous fungi. The platform enables high-resolution characterization of fungal development from spore germination to pellet formation, reveals quantitative relationships between fungal architecture and fermentation performance, and provides a scalable tool for morphology-guided strain engineering and industrial bioprocess optimization.