The pulp and paper industry consumes large amounts of energy. But despite stricter EU requirements for efficiency improvements, there has been no way to measure and compare energy consumption between different companies in a fair way. In collaboration with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, now present a solution that has great potential to be used throughout the EU. “Even if this would contribute to increasing efficiency by one or a few per cent only, this involves so much energy that it can make a huge difference,” says Kristina Nyström, PhD student at the Department ...

Deep neural networks (DNNs), which power modern artificial intelligence (AI) models, are machine learning systems that learn hidden patterns from various types of data, be it images, audio or text, to make predictions or classifications. DNNs have transformed many fields with their remarkable prediction accuracy. Training DNNs typically relies on back-propagation (BP). While it has become indispensable for the success of DNNs, BP has several limitations, such as slow convergence, overfitting, high computational requirements, ...

Tiny airborne particles known as aerosols, from biomass burning, urban pollution, and industrial emissions, can dramatically alter rainfall, cloud formation, and atmospheric stability. A new study led by Professor Kyong-Hwan Seo of Pusan National University, Korea, shows that aerosols profoundly reshape precipitation over the Maritime Continent, a region including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and surrounding seas, where millions rely on predictable rainfall for water, food, and flood protection. Published online in npj Climate and Atmospheric ...

Orthodontic treatment is most effective when timed to coincide with a child’s growth peak. Traditionally, clinicians estimate growth by examining X-ray images of the cervical vertebrae—the neck bones visible in routine dental radiographs. However, this process requires careful manual annotation of specific points on the bones, a task that is both time-consuming and prone to variation between observers. In a new article, researchers from Korea University Anam Hospital, KAIST, and the University of Ulsan introduced an artificial intelligence (AI) system designed to overcome these challenges. The paper was made available online on 29 July 2025 and published ...

With the rise of quantum computers, the security of our existing communication systems is at risk. Quantum computers will be able to break many of the encryption methods used in current communication systems. To counter this, scientists are developing quantum communication systems, which utilize quantum mechanics to offer stronger security. A crucial building block of these systems is a single-photon source: a device that generates only one light particle at a time. These photons, carrying quantum information, are then sent through optical fibers. For quantum communication systems to work, it is essential ...

RICHLAND, Wash. — New research has found cover crops that are viable in Washington’s normal “off season” don’t hurt the soil and can be sold as a biofuel source.  After harvest, farmland often sits fallow and unused until growers seed in the next crop. Soil can erode, weeds can take root, and farmers don’t make any money during that time. Cover crops can eliminate or reduce some of those issues, but many farmers have concerns about their effects on soil quality, a reduced growing window for their primary crop, and the inability to sell ...

A study published in Environment International concludes that air pollution during pregnancy is associated with slower brain maturation in newborns. It is the first study to analyze brain development within the first month of life and stems from the collaboration between researchers at Hospital del Mar, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) —a center promoted by the “la Caixa” Foundation—, and the CIBER area of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP). Myelination is a key process in brain maturation, in which myelin coats neuronal connections ...

Expanding farming capabilities will not close Africa’s ‘hidden hunger’ gaps Researchers combined data on demand, production, and resource constraints, moving beyond calories to nutrients that matter for health across all 54 African countries   ‘Hidden hunger’ in Africa cannot be addressed by expanding domestic farming alone, according to a new study from Cardiff University. The first-of-its-kind assessment, published in Nature Food, moves beyond calories to measure the availability of nutrients that matter for health, across all 54 African countries.  According to the research, limited land and water supply ...

A glittering hunk of crystal gets its iridescence from a highly regular atomic structure.  Frank Wilczek, the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics, proposed quantum systems –– like groups of particles –– could construct themselves in the same way, but in time instead of space. He dubbed such systems time crystals, defining them by their lowest possible energy state, which perpetually repeats movements without external energy input. Time crystals were experimentally proved to exist in 2016. Now researchers at Aalto University’s Department of Applied Physics have, for the first time, connected a time crystal to another ...

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications reveals that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a key driver of global climate variability, is projected to undergo a dramatic transformation due to greenhouse warming. Using high-resolution climate models (Figure 1), a team of researchers from South Korea, the USA, Germany, and Ireland found that ENSO could intensify rapidly over the coming decades and synchronize with other major climate phenomena, reshaping global temperature and rainfall patterns by the end of the 21st century. The study projects an abrupt shift within the next 30-40 years from irregular El Niño-La ...

Quantum radio antenna A team from the Faculty of Physics and the Centre for Quantum Optical Technologies at the University of Warsaw has developed a new type of all-optical radio receiver based on the fundamental properties of Rydberg atoms. The new type of receiver is not only extremely sensitive, but also provides internal calibration, and the antenna itself is powered only by laser light. The results of the work, in which Sebastian Borówka, Mateusz Mazelanik, Wojciech Wasilewski and Michał Parniak participated, were published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. They open a new chapter ...

Soft tissue injuries of the gastrointestinal tract, like ulcers or hemorrhages, can currently be treated only with some form of surgery, which is invasive and may not result in permanent repair. Bioprinting is emerging as an effective treatment that deposits biocompatible ‘ink’ – often made of natural polymers derived from seaweed – directly over the site of tissue damage, creating a scaffold for new cell growth. But like traditional surgical tools, these kinds of bioprinters tend to be bulky and require anesthesia.   At the same time, ‘untethered’ ...

The deal is done for the new underwater vehicle that will replace Ran, the submarine that was lost under a glacier in Antarctica in 2024. A large donation means that researchers at the University of Gothenburg can plan for new expeditions. The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Ran contributed to groundbreaking research, education and technological development for six years. The most groundbreaking results were achieved during risky missions under the floating glaciers of Antarctica. It was also during one such mission that Ran was ...

Women are affected by severe depression twice as often as men. The reasons for this have not yet been fully clarified. One potential factor is sex-specific differences in the blood-brain barrier. This barrier is formed by astrocytes (widely branching cells in the brain) and endothelial cells (flat cells that line the blood vessels). If the barrier is leaky, diseases of the brain can develop. Together with colleagues from the University of Regensburg, Kerstin Lenk from the Institute of Neural Engineering at TU Graz is investigating whether or not and if so, how the functioning of the blood-brain barrier changes ...

Feedback is one of the most important aspects of teacher education, but how exactly it works in practice remains underexplored. Most studies focus on how teachers deliver lessons, while little attention has been paid to how teacher educators provide feedback and how that feedback can shape reflection and professional growth. Published in TESOL Quarterly, a new study by Dr. Eunseok Ro (Pusan National University, South Korea) and Dr. Mika Ishino (Doshisha University, Japan) addresses this gap. Drawing on conversation analysis (CA), ...

More than half of all premature babies born before the 28th week of pregnancy develop respiratory distress syndrome shortly after birth. As their lungs are not yet fully developed, they produce too little of the seemingly magical fluid that reduces surface tension in the lungs. As a result, some alveoli collapse – and the lungs are unable to get enough oxygen.   Lungs become more deformable Until 40 years ago, this usually spelled death. But then, in the late 1980s, pediatricians developed a life-saving procedure: they extracted the fluid from animal lungs and injected it ...

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and the US space agency NASA have made an unexpected discovery that challenges one of the basic rules of chemistry and provides new knowledge about Saturn’s enigmatic moon Titan. In its extremely cold environment, normally incompatible substances can still be mixed. This discovery broadens our understanding of chemistry before the emergence of life.  Scientists have long been interested in Saturn’s largest, orange-coloured moon as its evolution can teach us more about our own planet and the earliest chemical steps ...

The VICT3R project is expanding its consortium by adding new beneficiaries and organisations to the network of contract research organisations (CROs) associated with the project. This expansion increases the project budget to €30 million and reinforces VICT3R's mission to transform the way safety is assessed in drug and chemical development, reducing reliance on laboratory animals. New beneficiaries include leading industrial partners such as Servier Group and Zoetis Belgium SA. Servier is an independent international pharmaceutical group governed by a foundation, ...

Thursday, 16 October 2025: A new clinical trial co-led by researchers at FutureNeuro and RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences is investigating how advanced brain monitoring could improve the diagnosis and management of epilepsy. Led in Ireland by consultant neurologists Professor Norman Delanty of RCSI and Beaumont Hospital and Dr Daniel Costello of Cork University Hospital (CUH) – two of the country’s busiest neurology departments – the trial involves multiple sites across Europe, with Irish patients making up more than ...

Dogs aren’t just our best friends, they’re also key allies in the fight against terrorism. Thousands of teams of explosive detection dogs and their handlers work 24/7 at airports, transit systems, cargo facilities, and public events around the globe to keep us safe. But canine detection is an art as well as a science: success depends not only on the skill of both dog and human, but also on their bond, and may vary with their physiological state and environmental conditions. Practices are often passed down informally between handlers, which can further hamper the consistency of performance across teams. To remedy this, the American ...

The most reliable predictor of an ex-smoker’s relapse isn’t strong urges to smoke or low confidence in the ability to stay off tobacco – it’s weariness with the efforts to remain a non-smoker, according to a new study published today in Addiction.  Ex-smokers appear to return to smoking most often because they’re exhausted from the constant vigilance needed to remain a non-smoker.  This effect is called psychological cessation fatigue, and its influence on ex-smokers is not affected by how long you’ve been an ex-smoker or whether you vape to reduce ...

Chemists at Université de Montréal have developed "signaling cascades" made with DNA molecules to report and quantify the concentration of various molecules in a drop of blood, all within 5 minutes. Their findings, validated by experiments on mice, are published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, may aid efforts to build point-of-care devices for monitoring and optimizing the treatment of various diseases. This breakthrough was made by a research group led by UdeM chemistry professor Alexis Vallée-Bélisle. “One of the key factors ...

As global demand for green hydrogen grows, scientists are exploring direct seawater electrolysis as a sustainable way to produce hydrogen without consuming scarce freshwater. Yet, seawater contains abundant chloride ions, which corrode electrodes and drastically shorten device lifetimes — a major barrier to commercialization.   A recent study by Shen et al., published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS, 2025), presents a promising breakthrough: a rare-earth oxide protection layer that shields seawater ...

As wearable health technologies evolve, smart contact lenses (SCLs) are emerging as powerful platforms for non-invasive, real-time ocular diagnostics. Now, researchers from Istanbul Okan University and Istinye University, led by Prof. Ali Zarrabi and Dr. Siavash Iravani, have presented a comprehensive review on MXene-based smart contact lenses, highlighting their transformative potential in vision care and ophthalmic health monitoring. This work outlines how MXenes—2D transition metal carbides—can revolutionize contact lens functionality through biosensing, therapy, and user comfort. Why MXene-Based Contact Lenses Matter Multifunctionality: Enable real-time ...

Acetaldehyde is a key chemical intermediate traditionally produced via the ethylene-based Wacker oxidation process, which is both costly and environmentally harmful. Selective oxidation of bioethanol to acetaldehyde offers a greener and more sustainable alternative, yet most reported catalysts struggle with the usual trade-off between activity and selectivity, typically yielding less than 90% acetaldehyde.   Notably, Liu and Hensen demonstrated a specific Au0-Cu+ synergy in the state-of-the-art Au/MgCuCr2O4 catalyst, achieving over 95% AC yield at 250oC with stable performance for over ...