Precision alignment in semiconductor lithography demands nanometer-scale accuracy, as even minor misalignments between the mask and wafer can drastically impact chip yield. However, existing optical measurement techniques, which rely on coherent light sources and grating structures, face significant limitations. These methods require the detection of a vast number of photons to achieve sufficient signal-to-noise ratio through statistical averaging, leading to prolonged measurement times and constraints in real-time, high-speed applications such as multi-patterning lithography. Additionally, the physical size and complexity of conventional optical systems hinder their ...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare but aggressive malignancy with high postoperative recurrence rates and poor prognosis. Mitotane remains the only approved agent for ACC, exerting antitumor effects by disrupting mitochondrial integrity, inhibiting steroidogenic enzymes, and interfering with cholesterol metabolism. Clinical evidence supports maintaining plasma concentrations between 14–20 mg/L to maximize efficacy while minimizing toxicity. This comprehensive review outlines mitotane’s mechanisms of action, clinical applications in adjuvant and advanced settings, dosage strategies, ...

Intense Laser and Nuclear Fusion In a collaborative study, Assistant Professor Jintao Qi (Shenzhen Technology University), Professor Zhaoyan Zhou (National University of Defense Technology), and Professor Xu Wang (Graduate School of China Academy of Engineering Physics) investigated the theoretical processes of nuclear fusion in the presence of intense laser fields. The study addresses a central challenge in controlled fusion research: overcoming the strong Coulomb repulsion between positively charged nuclei, which conventionally necessitates heating fusion fuel to temperatures exceeding tens of ...

Researchers tested what factors improve or worsen the quality of sleep in mice. A team including researchers from the University of Tokyo placed mice in two environments, one where they could see and sense other mice without physical contact, and one in complete isolation. They found that mice higher in their social hierarchy likely benefited from isolation, while those lower did not. However, the specific impact on the amount of REM sleep varied depending on the genetic background of the mice. The team hopes to investigate the relationship between social connections ...

Ammonia (NH₃) is an indispensable chemical in modern industry, serving as a core feedstock for fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and numerous industrial products. However, the dominant industrial ammonia synthesis method, the Haber-Bosch process, relies on harsh high-temperature and high-pressure conditions and contributes over 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, posing urgent environmental challenges. In contrast, the electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NITRR) emerges as a sustainable alternative: it converts environmentally abundant ...

A new scientific review outlines how a little understood class of battery materials could help deliver safer, higher energy lithium ion batteries while reducing reliance on critical metals such as cobalt and nickel. Researchers have synthesized and analyzed recent global advances in cation disordered rocksalt cathode materials, a promising alternative to today’s dominant lithium ion battery cathodes used in electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and grid storage. The study provides a clear framework for overcoming long standing performance challenges that have so far limited commercial adoption. Cation disordered rocksalt ...

For social animals, encounters between rival groups can often lead to conflict. While some species avoid this by maintaining fixed territories, others, like the feral horses, live in a "multilevel society" where multiple family groups (units) aggregate to form higher level group. Aggregating is considered to offer protection against predators and bachelor males, but it also brings rival males into close contact. The horses face a dilemma: they want to group together for safety but need to maintain distance to avoid fighting. How ...

Researchers from the University of St Andrews have developed an AI tool that reads animal movement from video and turns it into clear, human-readable descriptions, making behavioural analysis faster, cheaper, and scalable across species.  Published on Wednesday 21 January by The Royal Society, the PoseR plug has been developed to remove a major bottleneck in neuroscience, psychology and biology to enable larger faster, and more reproducible studies.  Animal behaviour ...

New research from the University of St Andrews has found that the social spread of group bubble-net feeding amongst humpback whales is crucial to the success of the population’s ongoing recovery.    Bubble-net feeding is when a group of whales work together to blow clouds of bubbles that corral their small fish prey schools into higher densities that they can then engulf together. It is a cooperative and highly social behaviour that requires whales to learn how to work in a group. The study published today (Wednesday ...

A long-standing mystery about how wild bats navigate complex environments in complete darkness with remarkable precision, has been solved in a new University of Bristol-led study. The findings are published today [21 January] in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. While it is well known that bats hunting at night use biosonar (also known as echolocation) to map their surroundings, the question of how they process thousands of overlapping echoes in real time when navigating more complex habitats like forests ...

A new study reveals that urban tributaries flowing through Wuhan are significant sources of phthalate esters, a widely used class of plastic chemicals, to the Yangtze River, highlighting previously underestimated risks to aquatic ecosystems in one of the world’s largest river systems. Phthalate esters, often abbreviated as PAEs, are chemicals commonly added to plastics to make them flexible and durable. They are found in everyday products ranging from packaging and construction materials to personal care items and medical devices. Because these chemicals are not chemically ...

The number of people over 40 in the UK living with glaucoma—the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide—is already higher than expected and is projected to surge to more than 1.6 million by 2060, finds research published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.   This is equivalent to a rise of 60% on 2025 figures, and outpaces the projected 28% population increase in the over 40s over the same period, say the researchers.   This trend will be driven by an increasingly ageing population and growth in the proportion of higher risk ethnically diverse groups, prompting the need for an expansion in eye health services ...

Preventing high blood glucose (pre-diabetes) from turning into type 2 diabetes with lifestyle changes could more than halve the carbon footprint associated with treating the complications of the disease, suggests a modelling study, published in the open access journal BMJ Open.   And effective management of the disease could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 21%, the calculations indicate.   In 2021, 537 million adults around the globe were living with diabetes, a number that is expected to rise to 783 million by 2045, 4.41 million of whom will be in the UK, note the researchers.    Diabetes ...

Over one million people are estimated to currently have glaucoma in the UK, a figure projected to reach more than 1.6 million by 2060, according to a study led by UCL and Moorfields researchers. The new figures, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology and commissioned by Glaucoma UK, are nearly 50% higher than previous estimates of glaucoma prevalence. The researchers say there could be more than half a million people with undiagnosed glaucoma - a common eye condition in which the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain, becomes damaged - in the ...

Treating people who are at high risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can delay the onset of the disease for several years, with benefits also continuing well after treatment has stopped. The trial showed that one year of treatment with the drug abatacept, a biologic therapy that targets immune cell activation, reduced progression to rheumatoid arthritis in people at high risk. The new King’s College London study, published in The Lancet Rheumatology, builds on results from a trial led reported by King’s researchers ...

A landmark UK study involving tens of thousands of families has shown that childhood screening for type 1 diabetes is effective, laying the groundwork for a UK-wide childhood screening programme.  Results from the first phase of the ELSA (Early Surveillance for Autoimmune diabetes) study, co-funded by charities Diabetes UK and Breakthrough T1D, are published today in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.   The findings mark a major step towards a future in which ...

Regularly doing a mix of different types of physical activity may be best for prolonging the lifespan, but the associations aren’t linear, pointing to a possible optimal threshold effect, suggests research published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine.   Variety rather than simply doing more of the same, is linked to a lower risk of death irrespective of total quantity, the findings show, although an active lifestyle is still important in its own right, emphasise the researchers.   While physical activity has consistently been associated with better physical and mental health and a lower risk of death, ...

Continuous care from community-based midwives reduces risk of preterm birth by 45% Women who receive continuous care from community-based midwives have a significantly reduced risk of preterm birth in comparison to those who receive standard care. This care model also significantly reduced risks of preterm births in women who are at greatest social risk of adverse outcomes. Researchers from King’s College London funded by the NIHR, published today in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, looked at data from 6,600 pregnancies in South London. This is ...

University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka nutrition experts are calling for dietary fibre to be officially recognised internationally as an essential nutrient - the first ‘new’ essential nutrient in more than 50 years. The researchers say fibre should sit alongside nutrients already considered essential for humans, such as certain amino acids and vitamins. Co-author Associate Professor Andrew Reynolds says increasing our dietary fibre intakes would deliver greater health benefits in Aotearoa New Zealand than increasing any other essential nutrient, ...

Auburn, AL — Jessica Eskew, a PhD student in the Department of Physics at Auburn University, has been awarded a highly competitive Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Fellowship to conduct fusion energy research at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego. Eskew is advised at Auburn by Dr. Evdokiya Kostadinova, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics whose research focuses on plasma physics, magnetic confinement, and energetic particle transport. Her mentorship reflects Auburn Physics’ growing strength in plasma and fusion research, ...

People with autism have brains that are wired differently. This can make them especially strong in some areas—such as noticing patterns, remembering details, or thinking logically—while making other things like social cues or changes in routine more challenging.  There can also be stark differences in the way autistic and neurotypical people communicate, to the point where it may seem like each is using a different language, creating complications from social situations to the workplace. For example, while non-autistic ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Incorporating a rainbow flag into a company’s website logo during Pride Month seems less meaningful to LGBTQ+ employees and customers than gestures of solidarity at other times of the year, according to new Cornell University research. The paper, published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Process, found that timing – not just content – influences whether expressions of allyship are perceived as authentic. In six experiments of 3,000 people, LGBTQ+ participants consistently rated advocacy as more genuine when it was displayed outside of annual Pride Month celebrations in June, perceiving it ...

Ikoma, Japan—Emotions are a fundamental part of human psychology—a complex process that has long distinguished us from machines. Even advanced artificial intelligence (AI) lacks the capacity to feel. However, researchers are now exploring whether the formation of emotions can be computationally modeled, providing machines with a deeper, more human-like understanding of emotional states. In this vein, Assistant Professor Chie Hieida from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, in collaboration with Assistant Professor Kazuki Miyazawa and ...

Exposure to wildfire smoke during the final months of pregnancy may raise the risk that a child is later diagnosed with autism, according to a new study led by Tulane University researchers. The study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, analyzed more than 200,000 births in Southern California from 2006 to 2014. Researchers found that children whose mothers were exposed to wildfire smoke during the third trimester were more likely to be diagnosed with autism by age 5. The strongest association was observed among mothers exposed to more than 10 days of wildfire smoke during the final three months of pregnancy. In that group, children ...

Rice University’s SynthX Center, directed by Han Xiao, has received an up to five-year, $18 million award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics and pHenotyping Technologies (LIGHT) program to develop innovative solutions for lymphatic diseases. This project award has the potential to transform the diagnosis and treatment of complex lymphatic anomalies (CLAs) and lymphedema, which are rare conditions that arise from abnormal growth of lymphatic vessels and can affect multiple organs.  LIGHT is led by ...