To clarify the visual cues contributing to skin moisture and dryness, a research team from the Cognitive Neurotechnology Unit and Visual Perception & Cognition Laboratory of Toyohashi University of Technology, the Faculty of Design of Kyushu University, and the Central R&D Laboratory of Pias Corporation conducted several psychophysical experiments to investigate how image manipulation alters visual perceptions of skin moisture. The study demonstrated that emphasizing high-spatial-frequency components of skin lightness decreased the visual perception of moisture. These changes closely resembled physiological phenomena associated with skin dryness such as the appearance of white lines and emphasized pores, indicating that these are cues for perceiving skin dryness. The results of this study were published on December 17, 2024, in the Journal of the Optical Society of America A (https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.536898).

Researchers from Osaka University have developed a technology for voltage-controlled magnetization switching, which has the potential to be implemented in next-generation computational memory. This advanced technology enables low-energy data writing operations with non-volatility, making it scalable for future applications that require stable and reliable memory.

Quantum materials promise to revolutionize digital technology due to the possibilities of creating coherent superposition of multiple quantum states simultaneously. For technologies that are light-activated, the challenge has been to prepare excitonic states with long-lived coherences for efficient nanoscale transport of energy or charges. Scientists now report a diffusive quasi-particle “exction-polaron” in a  quasi-1-dimensional chain of Hexyl-Diammonium-BiI5 octahedra that can be exploited for nanoscale opto-electronic applications due to long-lived dressed lattice coherences at room temperature. 

Micro/nanorobots with controllable deformation and navigation capability are highly promising candidates to perform complicated biomedical tasks in complex and unstructured biological environments. However, it is still a big challenge to accurately control the deformation and navigation of soft microrobots to better adapt to variable environments for task execution. A recent work published in PhotoniX, a photonic nanojet-regulated soft microalga robot (saBOT) based on Euglena gracilis was developed, which has highly controllable deformation and precision navigation capability working in complex and unstructured microenvironments. Such asBOT can precisely navigate in complex and unstructured microenvironments to perform different biomedical tasks, such as precision drug delivery toward a target cell within cell clusters (Figure 1). This saBOT holds great promise in executing different biomedical tasks in complex and unstructured microenvironments that cannot be reached by conventional tools and rigid microrobots.