Inspired by a hitchhiking fish that uses a specialized suction organ to latch onto other marine animals, MIT engineers designed a mechanical adhesive device that attaches to soft, slippery surfaces and remains there for days or weeks. The device could be used to deliver drugs in the GI tract or monitor aquatic environments.

A team led by Prof. DOU Xincun at the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences synthesized a new covalent organic framework (COF)—a crystalline material made of a light element such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, or oxygen, which can be customized at the molecular level. Using the new COF—dubbed tDACH—the researchers inserted cyclohexane-based linkers as conjugation "breakpoints," thereby engineering π-conjugated domains that enable intrinsic exciton confinement at the molecular scale.

MSK researchers learn that  immune cells are the unexpected source of a protein called FAS-ligand, which has undermined the cancer-fighting ability of engineered cell therapies. The team developed a way to re-engineer the cells to disable this natural brake.

Biologging is transforming wildlife research, yet stingrays have been overlooked due to their unusual body shapes. For the first time, researchers successfully developed and field-tested a biologging tag for the whitespotted eagle ray. The multi-sensor device stayed attached for up to a record 60 hours, revealing how they feed, move and interact with other species. Virtually impossible to capture before, these insights now shed light into this threatened, understudied species that plays a vital role in marine ecosystems.

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS, President Lee Ho Seong) has successfully developed a length measurement system that achieves a level of precision approaching the theoretical limit allowed by quantum physics.

A collaborative team led by Researcher Chen Ruichong from Chengdu University, in partnership with Professor Qi Jianqi from Sichuan University and Researcher Wang Haomin from Taihang Laboratory, has achieved a groundbreaking advance in ceramic processing. By synergistically modulating nanoscale effects with the material’s intrinsic layered structure, the researchers demonstrated for the first time that water can serve as an effective transient liquid phase (TLP) for cold sintering of water-insoluble Li₂TiO₃ ceramics.

Under optimized conditions of 300°C and 700 MPa, the team successfully densified the ceramics to a relative density of 94.33%, while precisely maintaining an ultrafine grain size of 26.42 nm. This innovation provides a novel strategy for the low-temperature, environmentally friendly fabrication of water-insoluble ceramics, significantly broadening the scope of cold sintering technology. The findings hold promising applications in high-end fields such as energy storage and nuclear industries.

Researchers at Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, have taken a great stride in supporting earthquake prevention research by developing a system for seafloor position measurements with centimeter-level precision. Combining the Global Navigation Satellite System–Acoustic and an unmanned aerial vehicle, the proposed system eliminates the need for manned surface vessels.