Absolutely secure transmission of large amounts of data: Quantum communication promises many advantages over today’s standard technologies. However, it requires single photons—and generating them is very difficult. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST) have developed a new method that overcomes the problems of previous approaches.

Researchers have developed a dopamine-enhanced soft electrode that helps wearable drug-delivery patches operate more reliably in wet conditions. The additive improves the electrode’s structure, protects it during electrical operation and strengthens its attachment to the device. In laboratory tests using pig skin, the electrode delivered model compounds more effectively and remained functional during repeated use, offering a potential route to longer-lasting iontophoresis patches.

CSwinUKAN, a crack-segmentation model for tunnel linings that combines Swin Transformer and Tokenized KAN within an enhanced U-Net, is introduced in the study. The model outperformed multiple baselines and delivered notably higher recall, reducing missed detections in safety-critical inspections.

POSTECH team led by Professor Sei Kwang Hahn develops a wearable patch that converts room light and sunlight into red light for phototherapy.

>Solving the problem of mRNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles accumulating in the liver and causing unintended expression of pharmacologically active proteins

>By coating the walls of intrahepatic capillaries (liver sinusoidal walls), the accumulation of lipid nanoparticles in the liver is prevented (demonstrated in animal studies)

>Improved efficacy and safety in infectious prevention vaccines, cancer treatment vaccines, and cytokine therapies

>Substances with established clinical safety profiles are used as coating agents (enabling rapid clinical trials)

>Published online in ACS Nano: http://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.6c08403

The study introduces an integrated engineering framework that combines transcriptomic analysis with a transcriptome-constrained genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) to identify metabolic engineering targets for enhanced bioplastic production. Rather than relying on conventional trial-and-error strain engineering, the approach predicts genetic modifications that redirect metabolic flux toward product biosynthesis, providing a new strategy for agricultural waste valorization and sustainable biomanufacturing.

A research team led by HONG Sungwoo, Associate Director of the Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalizations within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), has developed a new molecular editing strategy that can directly convert pyridine compounds into their positional isomers. Instead of moving individual substituents around the molecule, the method relocates the nitrogen atom within the pyridine ring itself, allowing existing molecular structures to be reorganized while preserving their substituents.

Kyoto, Japan -- Close to a phase transition, very different materials can follow the same mathematical rules. The concept of universality, which groups seemingly distinct systems based on their common properties, was developed to describe this phenomenon. In magnetic systems, ferromagnets, ferrimagnets, and antiferromagnets fall into the same universality class when short-range interactions dominate and their spatial and spin dimensionalities coincide. However, this universality has not been established when long-range interactions dominate.

In insulating magnets, long-range coupling may originate from dipole-dipole interactions. However, dipolar-driven mean-field criticality has only been firmly established in ferromagnets, leaving the ferrimagnetic and antiferromagnetic cases unexplored. A collaborative team of researchers from Kyoto University, Tohoku University, and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), set out to bridge this gap.

"Near a phase transition, the microscopically strongest interaction is not always the one that sets the critical rules," explains corresponding author Yusuke Nambu. "Exchange interactions build the ferrimagnetic state, but because dipolar interactions reach much farther, they determine how the material approaches the transition."