Glioblastoma is the most aggressive brain cancer and the hardest to treat, as it spreads and invades healthy brain tissue in a diffuse, microscopic way. Surgical treatment calls for a fine balance between excising all cancerous tissues and removing as little healthy brain tissue as possible. To help neurosurgeons more accurately remove glioblastoma, an international research collaboration has developed an optical imaging probe that identifies microscopic cancer cells in the margins of tumour-resected cavities in the brain.

The imaging probe works by exploiting the significantly increased fatty acid (FA) metabolism exhibited by glioblastoma cells. FA metabolism plays a key role in tumour progression and proliferation and is central to cancer immunity. To enable real-time, non-invasive imaging of FA absorption, the researchers – from Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC) in The Netherlands and the University of Missouri in the USA – covalently linked a long-chain saturated FA with the clinically approved near-infrared (NIR) dye indocyanine green (ICG).

ICG has intrinsic low autofluorescence, enables deep tissue imaging and exhibits a high signal-to-noise ratio compared with visible fluorophores. The team hypothesized that a probe combining ICG with a FA might specifically accumulate in tumours and enable efficient intraoperative visualization of tumour margins. Importantly, the spectral characteristics of ICG make it compatible with many existing intraoperative cameras and surgical microscopes.

The researchers initially investigated the uptake of the FA-ICG probe in living cells, confirming that the dye’s physiological uptake resembles that of natural FAs. They then used fluorescence imaging to assess FA-ICG uptake in mice with implanted glioblastoma, observing high accumulation in the brain tumours.

Comparing the fluorescence signal from mice administered with equivalent doses of FA-ICG and ICG revealed that the average radiance from FA-ICG was approximately 2.2 times higher than that from IGC. At 12 and 24 h post-injection, retention of the probe in the brain was approximately two to three times higher in the tumour-bearing than the non-tumour-bearing hemisphere.

Next, lead authors Meedie Ali and Pavlo Khodakivskyi and their colleagues investigated the application of FA-ICG as a preclinical imaging agent in a patient-derived model of glioblastoma. They showed that the probe could successfully image tumour growth at different time points in several mice.

“This finding is of importance for preclinical research since patient-derived xenograph models of glioblastoma are characterized by an unpredictable growth pattern and low tumour implantation rates,” explains principal investigator Elena Goun from the University of Missouri. “Thus, monitoring of tumour status by sensitive, non-invasive in vivo fluorescence imaging would be of high value as the introduction of optical imaging of reporter genes [an alternative monitoring approach] is known to result in tumour phenotypic alterations.”

Fluorescence-guided surgery

The researchers also demonstrated the feasibility of FA-ICG as a contrast agent for NIR image-guided cancer surgery, performing surgery on tumour-bearing mice using a standard NIR camera approved for use in surgical suites. Not only did the FA-ICG probe successfully image glioblastoma in the animals’ brains, but the brains also exhibited a considerably higher fluorescence signal than seen from similar mice injected with an ICG-only dye.

Subsequently, the team employed the probe during surgical resection of veterinarian-diagnosed symptomatic canine mastocytoma (a skin cancer) in a pet dog. Ten hours after injection with FA-ICG, the dog underwent surgery, with image-guided surgery performed successfully using an open-air NIR surgical camera.

If the probe transitions to routine clinical use, it could prove be of great benefit to neurosurgeons. If they can identify cancer cells, which are microscopic and resemble healthy brain tissue, outside the surgical margins, follow-up chemotherapy and radiation treatments should be more effective and cancer recurrence may be delayed. The probe also offers the practical features of a workable surgical procedure, an appropriate half-life and fluorescence that can be seen under normal operating room lights.

“Our results demonstrate that FA metabolism represents an excellent target for tumour imaging, leading to significantly enhanced uptake of the FA-ICG probe in tumours,” the researchers write. “[The probe] represents a promising candidate for a wide range of applications in the fields of metabolic imaging, drug development and most notably for translation in image-guided surgery.”

The researchers are now planning a Phase I clinical trial to examine the safety and efficacy of the probe. Specifically, they aim to determine how well patients tolerate the probe, what side effects may occur at an effective dose, and how the probe’s performance compares to existing optical imaging surgical tools.

“The upside of fluorescence-guided surgery is that you can make little remnants much more visible using the light emitting properties of these tumour cells when you give them a dye,” says Rutger Balvers, a neurosurgeon at Erasmus MC who is expected to lead the human clinical trials, in a press statement. “And we think that the upside of FA-ICG compared to what we have now is that it’s more select in targeting tumour cells. The visual properties of the probe are better than what we’ve used before.”

The study is described in npj Imaging.

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What is the gut microbiome? Learn more about why it's crucial for our health and wellness.

Once dismissed as just snoring, sleep apnea is now emerging as an early warning sign for serious conditions like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and depression.

As a mother of two, I’ve read a lot of children’s books. While there are some so good that even parents don’t mind reading them again and again, it’s also very easy for them to miss the mark and end up “accidentally” hidden behind other books. They’ve not only got to have an exciting story, but also easy wording, a rhythmic pace, flowing language and captivating pictures.

Great non-fiction kids’ books are especially hard to find as they need to add in yet another ingredient: facts. As a result, they can often struggle to portray educational topics in an accessible and engaging way without being boring. So when I saw the ever impressive Jess Wade had published her second children’s book about physics, Light: the Extraordinary Energy That Illuminates Our World, I was intrigued.

Wade is a woman of many talents. She’s an accomplished physicist at Imperial College London, a trailblazing advocate for equality in science, and an enthusiastic science communicator. Her first book, Nano: the Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small, won the 2022 UK Literary Association (UKLA) Book Award for information books (3–14+ years).

And now, with the help of beautiful illustrations by Argentinian artist Ana Sanfelippo, Wade has created a clear, concise explanation of light, how it behaves and how we use it. The book starts by describing where light comes from and why we need it, and goes on to more complex topics like reflection, scattering and dispersion, the electromagnetic spectrum, and technologies that use light.

The language is clear, the sentences are simple, and there is a flow to the narrative that makes up for the lack of a story. Wade makes the science relatable for children by bringing in real-world examples – such as how your shadow changes length during the day, and how apples reflect red light so look red. And throughout, Sanfelippo’s gorgeous illustrations fill the pages with colourful images of a girl and her dog exploring the concepts discussed, keeping the content bright and cheerful.

Cats and secrets

Now obviously I am not the target audience for Light. So, as my own children are too young (the age range listed is 7–12 years), I asked my eight-year old-niece, Katie, to take a look.

Instantly, Katie loved the illustrations, which helped keep her engaged with the content as she read – her favourite was one of a cat using a desk lamp to create a shadow. She was intrigued by how fast light is – “you’d have to run seven and a half times around Planet Earth in a single second” – and liked being “let in on a secret” when Wade explains that white light actually contains a rainbow.

But as the book went on, she found some bits confusing, like the section on the electromagnetic spectrum. “It’s definitely a book someone Katie’s age should read with a grown up, and maybe in two sittings, because it’s very information heavy (in a good way),” said her mum, Nicci. Indeed, there are a couple of page spreads that stand out as being particularly busy and wordy, and these dense parts somewhat interrupt the book’s flow. “But overall, she found the topic very interesting, and it provoked a lot of questions,” Nicci continued. “I enjoyed sharing it with her!”

I think it’s safe to say that Wade can add another success to her list of many accomplishments. Light is beautiful and educational, and personally, I wouldn’t hesitate to give it as gift or keep it at the front of the bookshelf.

• 2025 Walker Books 32pp £12.99hb

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Patients with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome are six times more at risk for the sleeping disorder. Now scientists are studying them in hopes of finding remedies beyond the CPAP machine.

Superconductors are materials that, below a certain critical temperature, exhibit zero electrical resistance and completely expel magnetic fields, a phenomenon known as the Meissner effect. They can be categorized into two types.

Type-I superconductors are what we typically think of as conventional superconductors. They entirely repel magnetic fields and abruptly lose their superconducting properties when the magnetic field exceeds a certain threshold, known as the critical field, which depends on both magnetic field strength and temperature.

In contrast, Type-II superconductors have two critical field values. As the magnetic field increases, the material transitions through different states. At low magnetic fields below the first critical field, magnetic flux is completely excluded. Between the first and second critical fields, some magnetic flux enters the material. Above the second critical field, superconductivity is destroyed.

In Type-II superconductors, when magnetic flux enters the material, it does so at discrete points, forming quantized vortices. These vortices repel each other and self-organize into a regular pattern known as the Abrikosov lattice. This effect has also been observed in Bose-Einstein condensates (bosons at extremely low temperatures) and chiral magnets (magnetic materials with spirally aligned magnetic moments). Interestingly, similar vortex self-organization is seen in liquid crystals, offering deeper insights into the underlying physics.

In this study, the researchers investigate vortex behaviour within a liquid crystal droplet, revealing a novel phenomenon termed Abrikosov clusters, which parallels the structures seen in Type-II superconductors. They examine the transition from an isotropic liquid phase to a chiral liquid phase upon cooling. Through a combination of experimental observations and theoretical modelling, the study demonstrates how chiral domains, in other words topological defects, cluster due to the interplay between vortex repulsion and the spatial confinement imposed by the droplet.

To model this behaviour, the researchers use a mathematical framework originally developed for superconductivity called the Ginzburg-Landau equation, which helps identify how certain vortex patterns emerge by minimizing the system’s energy. An interesting observation is that light passing through the chiral domains of the droplet can resultingly obtain chirality. This suggests that the research may offer innovative ways to steer and shape light, making it valuable for both data communication and astronomical imaging.

Do you want to learn more about this topic?

Vortex dynamics and mutual friction in superconductors and Fermi superfluids by N B Kopnin (2002)

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The quantum tangent kernel method is a mathematical approach used to understand how fast and how well quantum neural networks can learn. A quantum neural network is a machine learning model that runs on a quantum computer. Quantum tangent kernels help predict how the model will behave, particularly as it becomes very large – this is known as the infinite-width limit. This allows researchers to assess a model’s potential before training it, helping them design more efficient quantum circuits tailored to specific learning tasks.

A major challenge in quantum machine learning is the barren plateau problem, where the optimization landscape becomes flat, hiding the location of the minimum energy state. Imagine hiking in the mountains, searching for the lowest valley, but standing on a huge, flat plain. You wouldn’t know which direction to go. This is similar to trying to find the optimal solution in a quantum model when the learning signal disappears.

To address this, the researchers introduce the concept of quantum expressibility, which describes how well a quantum circuit can explore the space of possible quantum states. In the hiking analogy, quantum expressibility is like the detail level of your map. If expressibility is too low, the map lacks enough detail to guide you. If it’s too high, the map becomes overly complex and confusing.

The researchers investigate how quantum expressibility influences the value concentration of quantum tangent kernels. Value concentration refers to the tendency of kernel values to cluster around zero, which contributes to barren plateaus. Through numerical simulations, the authors validate their theory and show that quantum expressibility can help predict and understand the learning dynamics of quantum models.

In machine learning, loss functions measure the difference between predicted outputs and actual target values. These can relate to a global optimum (the best possible value across the entire system) or a local optimum (the best value within a small region or subset of qubits). The study shows that high expressibility can drastically reduce quantum tangent kernel values for global tasks, though this effect can be partially mitigated for local tasks.

The study establishes the first rigorous analytical link between the expressibility of quantum encodings and the behaviour of quantum neural tangent kernels. It offers valuable insights for improving quantum learning algorithms and supports the design of better quantum models, especially large, powerful quantum circuits, by showing how to balance expressiveness and learnability.

Do you want to learn more about this topic?

A comprehensive review of quantum machine learning: from NISQ to fault tolerance by Yunfei Wang and Junyu Liu (2024)

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The first flight of an orbital rocket developed by an Australian company ended seconds after liftoff July 29 when the rocket crashed near its launch pad.

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NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace for a fourth lunar lander mission, this one taking rovers and instruments to the south polar region of the moon.

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Learn why our ancient ancestors maintained their climbing abilities once they developed their walking ones, and discover how their bipedalism evolved (possibly in the trees).

Learn how cosmic rays, normally seen as a threat to humans in space, may be sustaining life beneath the surface of Mars and elsewhere in the Solar System.

Learn about how a dental floss pick could be the new and more effective vaccine delivery method.

Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Viasat, Intelsat and Astranis will receive a combined $37.2 million under six-month contracts

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Puzzling objects spotted by NASA’s JWST telescope may be entirely new class of celestial entity

Infecting marine plankton, the pathogen may use its extreme appendage to enter host cells

Stress, isolation, and uncertainty appear to have caused the brain to age quicker for those who lived through the crisis.

Colorado Springs, CO — July 29, 2025 — Frontgrade Technologies, a leading provider of high-reliability electronic solutions for space and national security missions, has launched its operationally resilient SpaceStor™ Mass […]

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Colorado Springs, CO — July 29, 2025 — Frontgrade Technologies, a leading provider of high-reliability electronic solutions for space and national security missions, has released the SBC-2A72 VNX+ Single Board […]

The post Frontgrade Unveils SBC-2A72 with 32GB NAND to Enable High-Performance Edge Computing in Air and Space Platforms appeared first on SpaceNews.

Physicists have taken a major step toward unlocking the mysteries of antimatter by being the first to perform coherent spin spectroscopy on a single antiproton. Done by researchers on CERN’s BASE collaboration, the experiment measures the magnetic properties of antimatter with record-breaking precision. As a result, it could help us understand why there is much more matter than antimatter in the universe,

“The level of control the authors have achieved over an individual antimatter particle is unprecedented,” says Dmitry Budker, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study. “This opens the path to much more precise tests of fundamental symmetries of nature.”

In theory, the universe should have been born with equal amounts of matter and antimatter. Yet all the visible structures we see today – including stars, galaxies, planets and people – are made almost entirely of matter. This cosmic imbalance remains one of the biggest open questions in physics and is known as the baryon asymmetry problem.

“The general motivation for studying antiprotons is to test fundamental symmetries and our understanding of them,” says Stefan Ulmer, a senior member of BASE and head of the Ulmer Fundamental Symmetries Laboratory at RIKEN in Japan. “What we know about antimatter is that it appears as a symmetric solution to quantum mechanical equations – there’s no obvious reason why the universe should not contain equal amounts of matter and antimatter.”

This mystery can be probed by doing very precise comparisons of properties of matter and antimatter particles – in this case, the proton and the antiproton. For example, the Standard Model says that protons and antiprotons should have identical masses but equal and opposite electrical charges. Any deviations from the Standard Model description could shed light on baryon asymmetry.

Leap in precision

Now, the BASE (Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment) team has focused on coherent spectroscopy, which is a quantum technique that uses microwave pulses to manipulate the spin states of a single antiproton.

“We were doing spectroscopy on the spin of a single trapped antiproton, stored in a cryogenic Penning trap system,” Ulmer explains. “It is significant because this is of highest importance in studying the fundamental properties of the particle.”

By applying microwave radiation at just the right frequency, the team induced Rabi oscillations –periodic flipping of the antiproton’s spin – and observed the resulting resonances. The key result was a resonance peak 16 times narrower than in any previous antiproton measurements, meaning the team could pinpoint the transition frequency with much greater accuracy. Combined with a 1.5-fold improvement in signal-to-noise ratio, the measurement paves the way for at least a tenfold increase in the precision of antiproton magnetic moment measurements.“In principle, we could reduce the linewidth by another factor of ten if additional technology is developed,” says Ulmer.

Budker described the measurement as unprecedented, adding, “This is a key to future precise tests of CPT invariance and other fundamental-physics experiments”.

Deeply held principle

CPT symmetry – the idea that the laws of physics remain unchanged if charge, parity, and time are simultaneously reversed – is one of the most deeply held principles in physics. Testing it to higher and higher precision is essential for identifying any cracks in the Standard Model.

Ulmer says the team observed antiproton spin coherence times of up to 50 s. Coherence here refers to the ability of the antiproton’s quantum spin state to remain stable and unperturbed over time, which is essential for achieving high-precision measurements.

Measuring magnetic moments of nuclear particles is already notoriously difficult, but doing so for antimatter pushes the limits of experimental physics.

“These measurements require the development of experiments that are about three orders of magnitude more sensitive than any other apparatus developed before,” says Ulmer. “You need to build the world’s most sensitive detectors for single particles, the smallest Penning traps, and superimpose ultra-extreme magnetic gradients.”

The BASE team started development in 2005 and had early successes in proton measurements by 2011. Antiproton studies began in earnest in 2017, but achieving coherent spin control – as in the current work – required further innovations including ultra-homogeneous magnetic fields, cryogenic temperatures, and the exquisite control of noise.

Toward a deeper understanding

These improvements could also make other experiments possible. “This will also allow more precise measurements of other nuclear magnetic moments, and paves a path to better measurements in proton–antiproton mass comparisons,” Ulmer notes.

There may even be distant connections to quantum computing. “If coherence times for matter and antimatter are identical – something we aim to test – then the antimatter qubit might have applications in quantum information,” he says. “But honestly, operating an antimatter quantum computer, if you could do the same with matter, would be inefficient.”

More realistically, the team hopes to use their transportable trap system, BASE STEP, to bring antiprotons to a dedicated offline laboratory for even higher-resolution studies.

“The BASE collaboration keeps a steady course on increasing the precision of fundamental symmetry tests,” says Budker. “This is an important step in that direction.”

The research is described in Nature.

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In this work, Al and W are compared as individual dopants as well as co-dopants to arrive to an optimal cathode active material design. The objective is to improve the energy density of the materials without compromising cycle life; a feat which was previously thought unattainable for Ni-rich, Co-free layered oxide materials.

The findings emphasize the importance of understanding the effect of chemical composition and synthesis conditions on the morphology of the material particles. In turn, this morphology plays a determinant role in the cycling performance of the electrode.

In addition to conventional material characterization methods (such as x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, incremental capacity analysis, etc.), measurements of the particles’ strength were also analyzed to provide better insight on how the material will perform in an expanding-contracting electrode. Mechanical resilience if often overlook when studying and designing cathode materials, however, particularly in materials that are prone to microcracking, this information provides an important piece of the puzzle to understand the degradation mechanisms of the electrode.

This led to the development of a Co-free cathode material which can provide a capacity of 260 mAh/g on the first cycle while retaining 95% capacity after 50 cycles in half cells cycled to 4.3 V. At a lower upper-cutoff voltage of 4.06 V, this material delivers 220 mAh/g with no observable capacity loss after 100 cycles.

Ines Hamam has obtained her PhD in materials engineering (in 2024) and her MSc in physics (in 2020) from the University of Dalhousie under the supervision of world-renowned battery expert Dr Jeff Dahn. She is now a technologist at BMW furthering the world effort of transport electrification.

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New AI regulations suggested by the White House mirror changes to environmental permitting suggested by Meta and a lobbying group representing firms like Google and Amazon Web Services.

Listen to an exclusive podcast episode where Discover Magazine interviews Dr. Katy Croff Bell and Professor Alan Jamieson about the deep sea.

The space plane’s test flight will advance development of a new navigation technology based on electromagnetic wave interference.

Chinese launch startup iSpace successfully sent a satellite into orbit early Tuesday with a solid fueled rocket mission a year after its previous launch failed.

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