Studying how cells work inside a living body is one of the most powerful ways to understand health and disease. However, looking deep inside live tissue is extremely challenging, especially when trying to see very small structures like mitochondria the tiny engines inside cells that produce energy and help regulate many important biological functions. These structures are constantly moving and changing, so scientists need imaging tools that can capture them in action, clearly and without harming the animal.

A joint research team from Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) and Hiroshima University has successfully improved the performance of terahertz-band communication devices using a mechanical tuning technique based on a microactuator.

Terahertz waves exceeding 100 GHz offer the potential to utilize extremely wide frequency bandwidths for communication, and research and development in this field has been accelerating worldwide. In Japan, in addition to ongoing studies in the 300 GHz band, active research in the 150 GHz band has recently gained momentum. However, as the frequency increases, the wavelength becomes shorter, making the impact of unavoidable mechanical fabrication errors more significant. These errors can greatly affect the performance of the communication modules.

To address this challenge, the research team applied a microactuator capable of sub-micrometer precision to terahertz-band components such as the waveguide transitions that connect antennas and chips. This approach aimed to compensate for performance degradation caused by mechanical inaccuracies. A reflective surface inside a waveguide transition was constructed using a flexible conductive membrane, and its position was controlled by the microactuator. As a result, the team demonstrated that the reflection and transmission characteristics of the waveguide transition could be precisely tuned at 250 GHz.

With climate change exacerbating drought conditions, scientists in Japan have identified a hidden player in plant survival: myosin XI. This unexpected link between the motor protein and hormone signalling that regulates water loss deepens our understanding of plant stress responses. It also opens a promising avenue for engineering drought-resilient crops. Targeting myosin XI could enhance water-use efficiency and help reshape the future of agriculture in an increasingly arid world.

Volatile air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and ozone are only monitored loosely in the EU. Separate devices are used for each individual pollutant, and real-time monitoring is not possible. Birgitta Schultze-Bernhardt from the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) would like to simplify and significantly improve these measurements. In her MULTI TRACE research project, she is developing a portable device that can determine the concentration of several gaseous pollutants in ambient air with the utmost accuracy within fractions of a second. The heart of the system is a laser-based dual-comb spectrometer, which Birgitta Schultze-Bernhardt developed with funding from an ERC Starting Grant in the predecessor project ELFIS. In order to take the technology closer to real-world application, the European Research Council is funding the MULTI TRACE project for 18 months with a Proof of Concept Grant totalling 150,000 euros.