AI could help us more accurately screen for breast cancer – new research

Sasun Bughdaryan/Unsplash Carolyn Nickson, University of Sydney; The University of Melbourne and Bruce Mann, The University of Melbourne

At least 20,000 Australian women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. And more than 3,300 die from the disease.

To save women’s lives, we need to detect breast cancer early. Breast screening, which halves women’s risk of dying from breast cancer, is key to that.

A new Australian study published today in The Lancet Digital Health suggests AI could help improve how we screen for breast cancer.

How do we currently screen for breast cancer?

Since 1992, Australia has offered free breast X-rays, known as mammograms, every two years to women aged between 50 and 74. Just over half of eligible women participate.

Of the women found to have cancer, about 25% are diagnosed between the biennial screens. These “interval cancers” are often aggressive and, unfortunately, more likely to be fatal.

In some cases, a more sensitive screening test may have detected them earlier.

The role of AI

Australia’s BreastScreen program was established in response to several major clinical trials conducted between the 1960s and 1980s. The screening technology used by the program has not substantially changed since then.

Researchers are now exploring risk-adjusted screening, which tailors screening to women based on their risk, as a way to detect more cancers earlier. This may include programs offering different technologies for women at higher risk of developing breast cancer.

Currently, we generally assess cancer risk via questionnaires that help identify if a woman has any risk factors associated with breast cancer.

One risk factor is breast density which refers to how much glandular tissue is in the breast. As well as being a risk factor for breast cancer, the higher a woman’s breast density, the harder it is to detect cancer on a mammogram.

We can also use one-off genetic testing to identify women with a higher lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. This involves looking for high-risk gene mutations such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are associated with increased breast and ovarian cancer risk. Genetic testing can also help us estimate a person’s lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.

More recently, researchers have been investigating artificial intelligence (AI) as a new approach to assess breast cancer risk. A new Australian study, published in The Lancet Digital Health today, focused on a specific AI tool known as BRAIx.

What did the study involve? And what did it find?

This study used an AI tool, known as BRAIx, trained using BreastScreen Australia data to help radiologists assess mammograms.

The study assessed how well BRAIx predicted women’s risk of developing breast cancer in the next four years, among women who had a clear mammogram.

Of the 95,823 Australian women assessed, 1.1% (1,098) had developed breast cancer in the four years after they received a clear mammogram. Of the 4,430 Swedish women assessed, 6.9% had developed breast cancer within two years of a clear screen.

The study findings show that BRAIx scores were very useful for identifying women who were more likely to develop cancer one to two years after having a clear screen. Findings from the Australian dataset suggest BRAIx scores identified cancers found three to four years later, but with less accuracy.

These findings suggest BRAIx could help identify women who might benefit from additional tests. This may include an MRI (which uses a magnetic field to produce images of organs and tissue) or contrast-enhanced mammography (which uses an iodine dye to improve the visibility of a regular mammogram).

These findings reinforce a 2024 Swedish study that used an AI-based risk assessment to select women for additional testing. The researchers referred 7% of women to have a follow-up MRI, and 6.5% of were found to have cancers missed by mammograms.

Does the study have any limitations?

As with most studies, yes. Here are two.

• it’s difficult to compare BRAIx to genetic testing. This is because BRAIx is trained to find missed or emerging cancers over a four year period. In contrast, genetic testing identifies a person’s risk of developing cancer over their lifetime

• it might not use the best breast density data. This study found BRAIx more accurately predicts breast cancer risk compared to assessments based on breast density. But this breast density data was collected using a different tool to those used by the Breastscreen program. So this finding should be interpreted carefully.

So, where to from here?

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that AI risk assessment could help breast screening programs find cancers earlier.

BRAIx is now being trialled as part of the BreastScreen Victoria program, to help read mammograms. And other states are already using and evaluating different AI tools for reading mammograms.

So it may be time for Australia to conduct a national, independent review of these new tools. As part of a more risk-adjusted approach to breast screening, they could save lives.

Carolyn Nickson, Principal Research Fellow, Cancer Elimination Collaboration, University of Sydney; The University of Melbourne and Bruce Mann, Professor of Surgery, Specialist Breast Surgeon, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→March 07, 2026

Planting Billions of Trees Turned Barren Desert into a Carbon Sink That Lowers CO2

A mixed-species section of the Green Great Wall – Credit: 中国新闻网 CC 3.0. BY

China’s multi-decade long, successful effort to plant a ring of trees around one of the world’s most hostile deserts has sprouted an unexpected benefit to humanity.

Along with protecting the nation’s grasslands and agriculture from the spreading sands of the dismal Taklamakan Desert, the giant ring of trees has turned previous unproductive land into a carbon sink that draws CO2 out of the atmosphere.

It’s thought, and some isolated research has indeed demonstrated, that humans can prevent the worst effects of a rise in average global temperatures by planting trees to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere.

This strategy has limits, however, when viewed on a global scale. Atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise, while there is a limit in the amount of land that can be turned over to forests.

One-third of our planet is covered in deserts, where vegetation is sparse or absent, and rainfall is scarce, yet despite their vast acreage they collectively hold less than one-tenth of the world’s carbon stock, or the amount of carbon that is held underground.

A study conducted by NASA and California Technical Institute (Caltech) has used satellite data to demonstrate that the “sea of death” as the Taklamakan Desert was called in antiquity, could be utilized to store carbon and reduce the greenhouse effect.

The Taklamakan Desert. Credit: NASA World Wind 1.4.

Starting in 1978, China’s Three-North Shelter Belt program aimed to plant trees along the borders of the great Taklamakan to stop sandstorms from ruining adjacent pasture and agriculture land. As the world’s single farthest point from any ocean, the Taklamakan is one of the driest and most hostile landscapes on our planet.

The massive Himalayas rise to the south and east, the Pamirs to the southwest, and a pair of mountains known as the Tian Shan and the Altai to the west, leaving landscape completely isolated from moisture.

66 billion trees have been planted by estimates since the start of the Shelter Belt program, which finished in 2024. Monikered the “Green Great Wall,” this incredible increase in greenery has raised average rainfall by several millimeters, resulting in a natural growth of foliage during the wet season that boosts photosynthesis along the tree line, leading to greater degrees of sequestration.

“We found, for the first time, that human-led intervention can effectively enhance carbon sequestration in even the most extreme arid landscapes, demonstrating the potential to transform a desert into a carbon sink and halt desertification,” study co-author Yuk Yung, a professor of planetary science at Caltech and a senior research scientist in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Live Science in an email.

By precise numbers, it has reduced the average carbon content in the desert air from 416 parts per million to 413 ppm. Parts per million is used as a measurement for the greenhouse effect. Worldwide, the number is 429.3. It was 350 in before the advent of industrialization.If more shelter belt-style tree planting efforts could be used to reclaim desert landscapes, it could open vast areas to absorbing carbon. With little to no vegetation, deserts in their natural state have precious little ability to do so. Planting Billions of Trees Turned Barren Desert into a Carbon Sink That Lowers CO2

Read More........→March 03, 2026

New Spray-on Powder Instantly Seals Life-Threatening Wounds in Battle or During Disasters

South Korean scientists win award for wound powder – SWNS

A spray-on powder that instantly seals life-threatening wounds could save thousands of lives, say scientists.

The new substance can help prevent excessive bleeding which is the leading cause of death due to injuries in war, according to a study.

The fast-acting powder that stops bleeding in just one second was developed by South Korean scientists who say it can also be applied in emergency hospital procedures.

The research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, which included an Army Major, created the powder that rapidly forms a strong hydrogel barrier when sprayed directly onto a bullet wound.

The team designed the technology with real combat conditions in mind, and the direct involvement of an Army Major helped ensure its practical readiness.

Major Kyusoon Park, who is also a PhD candidate and served as a study co-author, said the substance not only allows “instant hardening” under extreme conditions like combat or disasters but also delivers high usability and storage stability.

“Until now, patch-type hemostatic agents widely used in medical fields have had limitations due to their flat structure and sensitivity to temperature and humidity.”

They cannot withstand pressure applied to the wound. Also, current powders that stop blood flow have limited functionality by physically absorbing blood to form a barrier, according to the study published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Medical first aide equipment for combat care at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune – Credit: Navy Medicine via Unsplash

“The new AGCL powder reacts with cations, such as calcium in the blood, to turn into a gel state in one second, instantly sealing the wound,” said study co-leader Professor Steve Park.

“Furthermore, by forming a three-dimensional structure inside the powder, it can absorb blood amounting to more than seven times its own weight.”

“It shows superior sealing performance compared to commercial hemostatic agents—with a high adhesive strength and a level of pressure that can withstand being pressed strongly by hand.”

AGCL powder is composed entirely of naturally derived materials with an antibacterial effect of 99.9%.

It has a structure that combines biocompatible natural materials such as alginate and gellan gum—that react with calcium for fast gelation and physical sealing—and chitosan, which bonds with blood components to enhance chemical and biological hemostasis.

“In animal experiments, excellent tissue-regeneration effects, such as rapid wound recovery and promotion of blood vessel and collagen regeneration, were confirmed,” explained Prof. Park.

“In surgical liver injury experiments, the amount of bleeding and hemostasis time were significantly reduced compared to commercial methods.”

“It also maintains its performance for two years, even in room temperature and high humidity environments, possessing the advantage of being ready for immediate use in harsh environments.

“Although this is an advanced new material technology developed with national defense purposes in mind,” said Major Park, “it has great potential for emergency medicine, disaster sites, developing countries, and medically underserved areas.”“I started the research with a sense of mission to save even one more soldier—but I also hope this technology will be used as a life-saving technology in private medical fields.” New Spray-on Powder Instantly Seals Life-Threatening Wounds in Battle or During Disasters

Read More........→February 23, 2026

Scientists Develop Biodegradable Smart Textile–A Big Leap Forward for Eco-Friendly Wearable Technology

Flexible inkjet printed E-textile – Credit: Marzia Dulal

Wearable electronic textiles can be both sustainable and biodegradable, shows a new study.

A research team led by the University of Southampton and UWE Bristol in the UK tested a new sustainable approach for fully inkjet-printed, eco-friendly e-textiles.

Named SWEET—for Smart, Wearable, and Eco-friendly Electronic Textiles—the new ‘fabric’ was described in findings published in the journal Energy and Environmental Materials.

E-textiles are those with embedded electrical components, such as sensors, batteries or lights. They might be used in fashion, for performance sportswear, or for medical purposes as garments that monitor people’s vital signs.

Such textiles need to be durable, safe to wear and comfortable, but also, in an industry which is increasingly concerned with clothing waste, they need to be kind to the environment when no longer required.

“Integrating electrical components into conventional textiles complicates the recycling of the material because it often contains metals, such as silver, that don’t easily biodegrade,” explained Professor Nazmul Karim at the University of Southampton.

“Our eco-friendly approach for selecting sustainable materials and manufacturing overcomes this, enabling the fabric to decompose when it is disposed of.”

The team’s design has three layers, a sensing layer, a layer to interface with the sensors and a base fabric. It uses a textile called Tencel for the base, which is made from renewable wood and is biodegradable.

The active electronics in the design are made from graphene, along with a polymer called PEDOT: PSS. These conductive materials are precision inkjet-printed onto the fabric.

The research team, which included members from the universities of Exeter, Cambridge, Leeds, and Bath, tested samples of the material for continuous monitoring of heart rates. Five volunteers were connected to monitoring equipment, attached to gloves worn by the participants. Results confirmed the material can effectively and reliably measure both heart rate and temperature at the industry standard level.

Gloves with e-textile sensors monitoring heart rate – Credit: Marzia Dulal

“Achieving reliable, industry-standard monitoring with eco-friendly materials is a significant milestone,” said Dr. Shaila Afroj, an Associate Professor of Sustainable Materials from the University of Exeter and a co-author of the study. “It demonstrates that sustainability doesn’t have to come at the cost of functionality, especially in critical applications like healthcare.”

The project team then buried the e-textiles in soil to measure its biodegradable properties.

After four months, the fabric had lost 48 percent of its weight and 98 percent of its strength, suggesting relatively rapid and also effective decomposition.

Furthermore, a life cycle assessment revealed the graphene-based electrodes had up to 40 times less impact on the environment than standard electrodes.

Four strips in a variety of decomposed states, during four months of decomposition – Credit: Marzia Dulal

Marzia Dulal from UWE Bristol, the first author of the study, highlighted the environmental impact: “Our life cycle analysis shows that graphene-based e-textiles have a fraction of the environmental footprint compared to traditional electronics. This makes them a more responsible choice for industries looking to reduce their ecological impact.”

The ink-jet printing process is also a more sustainable approach for e-textile fabrications, depositing exact numbers of functional materials on textiles as needed, with almost no material waste and less use of water and energy than conventional screen printing.“These materials will become increasingly more important in our lives,” concluded Prof. Karim, who hopes to move forward with the team to design wearable garments made from SWEET, particularly in the area of early detection and prevention of heart diseases. Scientists Develop Biodegradable Smart Textile–A Big Leap Forward for Eco-Friendly Wearable Technology

Read More........→February 19, 2026

Heat with no end: climate model sets out an unbearable future for parts of Africa

Luis Graterol/Unsplash

Oluwafemi E. Adeyeri, Australian National University

People often think of a heatwave as a temporary event, a brutal week of sun that eventually breaks with a cool breeze. But as the climate changes globally, in parts of Africa, that level of heat is becoming a permanent part of the weather.

Research shows Africa’s exposure to dangerous heat is rising rapidly. Until now, estimating how severe this heat would become was challenging. This was because many widely used global climate models struggled to capture the local factors that shape heat in Africa’s diverse climate zones and habitats (humid tropics, dry savannas and rapidly changing agricultural areas).

It is very important to analyse how these different local factors cause dangerous heat because they all play a role in causing it. For example, rapid changes to the way land is used, such as deforestation, alter soil moisture and humidity. Turning forests into crop land therefore becomes a driver of extreme heat.

We are a team of hydroclimate and land-atmosphere scientists who study heat extremes, water resources, the way land use changes, and hydroclimate risk. We set out to produce reliable, locally relevant projections of future heatwaves. Our team realised that to understand the true heatwave risk in Africa, we had to look down as well as up. It is not only the warming atmosphere from above, it is also the way people are transforming the land below.

To better understand how heat is likely to affect African countries, and to avoid relying on any single climate model, we developed a framework built on four pillars:

• To get the most accurate data, we studied 10 global climate models rather than betting on one model.

• The global climate model outputs were adjusted so they matched observed heatwave patterns (the frequency, duration, magnitude, amplitude, number and timing of heatwaves) and showed the links between temperature, wind, radiation and humidity.

• Artificial intelligence (AI) was used to quantify how much the different drivers of heat (such as temperature, humidity, soil moisture, wind, radiation, land use) contributed to heatwave changes. We also used AI to highlight how these drivers made heat worse when they interacted.

• We compared what would happen in a high-pollution future as opposed to one where governments and industry managed to reduce carbon emissions.

Our research found that by the late 21st century, most regions in Africa will stop having occasional heatwaves and will suffer from extreme heat lasting most of the year. The study shows that by 2065-2100, many parts of Africa (apart from Madagascar) could experience heatwaves on 250-300 days per year.

Some areas, such as the western side of southern Africa, will experience heatwaves that are 12 times as long and frequent as they are now, even if global emissions are reduced. Many heatwaves will last longer than 40 days at a time.

This is not just a slight warming; it is a fundamental change in how people will have to survive on the continent. Once regions in Africa enter a state of almost continuous heatwaves, the human body will have no window of time to recover.

Africa’s heat risk comes from global emissions and local land choices. This means that cutting greenhouse gases matters, and so does protecting and restoring the land’s natural ways of cooling the planet down.

How heat will build dramatically across Africa

In places with intact forests that cool the air, heat and humidity usually remain below a deadly limit. Forests act like natural air-conditioners, preventing fatal heat.

But when forests are cut down and replaced with cropland, the local climate changes. Crops release large amounts of moisture into the air, raising humidity. Heat and moisture build, and the surface heats up faster during the day and stays warmer at night. The land becomes a heat trap. A hot spell that would have been tolerable under forest cover becomes a prolonged, hazardous heatwave.

Rising background heat can affect entire regions. Rural communities, including smallholder farmers, are also highly exposed because they work outdoors and often have limited access to cooling, healthcare or heat-resilient infrastructure.

Heatwaves will affect shack or informal settlement areas more because they generally lack trees and vegetation, and homes built from metal are harder to cool. Without shade, heat will build and linger.

A ‘deadly threshold’ will be reached

Our modelling shows that there is a specific combination of heat and humidity where conditions can intensify heatwaves very quickly, especially in landscapes dominated by cropland.

This is a different kind of heat risk. It is not the familiar “dry heat” driven by parched soils. It is a crop‑driven humidity effect that pushes the atmosphere into a danger zone. For example, in west Africa, extreme heat will peak at about 26.5°C-26.8°C with 74%-75% humidity, producing heatwaves that last 30-35 days.

In southern east Africa, heatwaves will happen even at lower temperatures (23.6°C-23.8°C) and humidity (70%-72%). The danger there is that even small increases in heat or moisture, including those caused by cutting down forests, will make heatwaves more common and longer.

Across all nine African climate regions, our research found that heatwaves will stop being rare events and start becoming a regular part of the year.

The good news is that local land choices will offer immediate protection. Keeping forests, restoring vegetation and using climate-smart farming (where animals and crops are farmed with trees) are not just environmental actions. They are public health defences that weaken the intensity and duration of heatwaves.

What needs to happen next

This research highlights something simple but powerful: a forest is a shield.

This study also shows how planning in cities and in rural areas can keep “nature’s air‑conditioner” working.

Protecting the continent means acting on two fronts. Globally, we need to keep reducing fossil fuel emissions, because even moderate cuts lower the chance of long, near-permanent heatwaves.

Locally, every land-clearing decision matters. Removing natural vegetation adds heat to communities, but keeping forests and cover on the land helps hold temperatures down.

The message is straightforward. Countries cannot control global warming on their own, but they can control how the land responds to it.

Oluwafemi E. Adeyeri, Research Fellow in Climate Science, Australian National University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→February 18, 2026

Southern right whales are having babies less often, but why?

Ivan Stecko/Pexels, CC BY-SA Claire Charlton, Flinders University

For decades, southern right whales have been celebrated as one of conservation’s success stories.

Once driven to the brink of extinction by commercial whaling, southern right whales slowly returned to Australian coastlines through the late 20th century. Their recovery reflected the power of international protection, marine sanctuaries and long-term science working together.

But our new research shows this success story is changing. We drew on more than 30 years of continuous shore-based monitoring of southern right whales in the Great Australian Bight, from within the Yalata Indigenous Protected Area in South Australia. We found clear evidence whales are having calves less often, with the average calving interval increasing for 3 to 4 years. This means the number of calves being born has slowed over the past decade.

This decline appears closely linked to climate-driven changes in the Southern Ocean — similar patterns are now being observed across the southern hemisphere.

More than 3 decades of photos

Our study analysed photo-identification data collected by researchers between 1991 and 2024 from a major calving area in the Great Australian Bight. Each whale is identified using its unique pattern of callosities — the hard patches of skin on its head that remain throughout its life.

This allows individual whales to be tracked across decades, providing rare insight into long-term population dynamics and how these change over time. Photo-identification is a globally accepted method used for whale population assessments. By tracking known individuals over time, researchers can directly measure their reproductive histories.

Long-term datasets like this are rare — and that is precisely what makes them so powerful. The Australian Right Whale Research Program at Flinders University is one of the longest continuous photo-identification studies of any whale species in the world. It has used the same methods over decades. In the context of climate change, where impacts often emerge slowly and unevenly, this long-term evidence is essential.

What we found

Since around 2015, female southern right whales have not given birth as often. These extended calving intervals mean fewer calves are being born overall, and this reduces population growth over time.

For a long-lived species that reproduces slowly, this matters. Small changes in reproductive rates impacts population growth. The slowdown in reproduction signals a shift away from the recovery seen in previous decades.

A signal from the south

The cause of this change is not immediately visible from Australia’s coastline. Southern right whales spend much of their lives feeding thousands of kilometres away in the Southern Ocean, where they rely on the cold, nutrient-rich waters created by Antarctic sea ice. These waters support krill and prey that are crucial for whales to build up the energy reserves they need for pregnancy and lactation.

Over the past decade, the ocean has warmed, the ice is melting and there have been dramatic shifts in food availability weather patterns. Our analysis shows longer calving intervals coincide with these environmental changes, suggesting the impacts of climate change on conditions in the Southern Ocean are linked to whales having fewer calves.

A global pattern emerges

Importantly, this is not just an Australian story.

Similar trends are being reported in southern right whale populations off South America and South Africa, where researchers have documented reduced calving rates, whales in poor condition and environmental changes.

Southern right whales are a sentinel species: animals whose health reflects broader changes in their environment. Our findings signal deeper disruption in ocean systems that also support fisheries, affect how the climate is regulated and influence marine plants, animals and other species.

Southern right whales are long-lived, reproduce slowly, and rely on energy-rich feeding grounds. This makes them particularly vulnerable to climate-driven changes in prey.

What needs to change?

Protecting the Southern Ocean and its increasingly vulnerable natural ecosystems demands urgent collective climate action. This must bridge disciplines, industries, governments and interconnected regions.

This action should include the expansion of sanctuaries across the migratory ranges of threatened species. It should also limit threats, such as whales being struck by ships, getting entangled in ropes and being exposed to noise pollution.

The future of southern right whales is likely to be closely tied to the management of krill harvesting and addressing climate change.

We need to listen — and act — while there is still time.

The author would like to acknowledge the contribution of research collaborators and all of the people involved in the long-term research program that make this work possible.

Claire Charlton, Leader of Australian Right Whale Research Program, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→February 17, 2026

Why your brain has to work harder in an open-plan office than private offices: study

Arlington Research/Unsplash, CC BY Libby (Elizabeth) Sander, Bond University

Since the pandemic, offices around the world have quietly shrunk. Many organisations don’t need as much floor space or as many desks, given many staff now do a mix of hybrid work from home and the office.

But on days when more staff are required to be in, office spaces can feel noticeably busier and noisier. Despite so much focus on getting workers back into offices, there has been far less focus on the impacts of returning to open-plan workspaces.

Now, more research confirms what many suspected: our brains have to work harder in open-plan spaces than in private offices.

What the latest study tested

In a recently published study, researchers at a Spanish university fitted 26 people, aged in their mid-20s to mid-60s, with wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets. EEG testing can measure how hard the brain is working by tracking electrical activity through sensors on the scalp.

Participants completed simulated office tasks, such as monitoring notifications, reading and responding to emails, and memorising and recalling lists of words.

Each participant was monitored while completing the tasks in two different settings: an open-plan workspace with colleagues nearby, and a small enclosed work “pod” with clear glazed panels on one side.

The researchers focused on the frontal regions of the brain, responsible for attention, concentration, and filtering out distractions. They measured different types of brain waves.

As neuroscientist Susan Hillier explains in more detail, different brain waves reveal distinct mental states:

• “gamma” is linked with states or tasks that require more focused concentration
• “beta” is linked with higher anxiety and more active states, with attention often directed externally
• “alpha” is linked with being very relaxed, and passive attention (such as listening quietly but not engaging)
• “theta” is linked with deep relaxation and inward focus
• and “delta” is linked with deep sleep.

The Spanish study found that the same tasks done inside the enclosed pod vs the open-plan workspace produced completely opposite patterns.

It takes effort to filter out distractions

In the work pod, the study found beta waves – associated with active mental processing – dropped significantly over the experiment, as did alpha waves linked to passive attention and overall activity in the frontal brain regions.

This meant people’s brains needed progressively less effort to sustain the same work.

The open-plan office testing showed the reverse.

Gamma waves, linked to complex mental processing, climbed steadily. Theta waves, which track both working memory and mental fatigue, increased. Two key measures also rose significantly: arousal (how alert and activated the brain is) and engagement (how much mental effort is being applied).

In other words, in the open-plan office participants’ brains had to work harder to maintain performance.

Even when we try to ignore distractions, our brain has to expend mental effort to filter them out.

In contrast, the pod eliminated most background noise and visual disruptions, allowing participant’s brains to work more efficiently.

Researchers also found much wider variability in the open office. Some people’s brain activity increased dramatically, while others showed modest changes. This suggests individual differences in how distracting we find open-plan spaces.

With only 26 participants, this was a relatively small study. But its findings echo a significant body of research from the past decade.

What past research has shown

In our 2021 study, my colleagues and I found a significant causal relationship between open-plan office noise and physiological stress. Studying 43 participants in controlled conditions – using heart rate, skin conductivity and AI facial emotion recognition – we found negative mood in open plan offices increased by 25% and physiological stress by 34%.

Another study showed background conversations and noisy environments can degrade cognitive task performance and increase distraction for workers.

And a 2013 analysis of more than 42,000 office workers in the United States, Finland, Canada and Australia found those in open-plan offices were less satisfied with their work environment than those in private offices. This was largely due to increased, uncontrollable noise and lack of privacy.

Just as we now recognise poorly designed chairs cause physical strain, years of research has shown how workspace design can result in cognitive strain.

What to do about it

The ability to focus and concentrate without interruption and distraction is a fundamental requirement for modern knowledge work.

Yet the value of uninterrupted work continues to be undervalued in workplace design.

Creating zones where workers can match their workplace environment to the task is essential.

Responding to having more staff doing hybrid work post-pandemic, LinkedIn redesigned its flagship San Francisco office. LinkedIn halved the number of workstations in open plan areas, instead experimenting with 75 types of work settings, including work areas for quiet focus.

For organisations looking to look after their workers’ brains, there are practical measures to consider. These include setting up different work zones, acoustic treatments and sound-masking technologies, and thoughtfully placed partitions to reduce visual and auditory distractions.

While adding those extra features in may cost more upfront than an open plan office, they can be worth it. Research has shown the significant hidden toll of poor office design on productivity, health and employee retention.

Providing workers with more choice in how much they’re exposed to noise and other interruptions is not a luxury. To get more done, with less strain on our brains, better design at work should be seen as a necessity.

Libby (Elizabeth) Sander, MBA Director & Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond Business School, Bond University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→February 16, 2026

AI-powered digital stethoscopes show promise in bridging screening gaps

(Photo: Eko Health, US) IANS

New Delhi, As tuberculosis (TB) continues as the deadliest infectious cause of deaths globally, a new study has shown that artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled digital stethoscopes can help fill critical screening gaps, especially in hard-to-reach areas.

In a commentary published in the journal Med (Cell Press), global experts contended that stethoscopes combined with digital technology and AI can be a better option against the challenges faced in screening programmes, such as under-detection, high cost, and inequitable access.

“AI-enabled digital stethoscopes have demonstrated promising accuracy and feasibility for detecting lung and cardiovascular abnormalities, with promising results in early TB studies. Training and validation in diverse, high-burden settings are essential to explore the potential of this tool further,” said corresponding author Madhukar Pai from McGill University, Canada, along with researchers from the UAE, Germany, and Switzerland.

Despite advancements in screening and diagnostic tools, an estimated 2.7 million people with TB were missed by current screening programmes, as per data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Routine symptom screening is also likely to miss people with asymptomatic or subclinical TB.

While the WHO recently recommended several AI-powered computer-aided detection (CAD) software, as well as ultra-portable radiography hardware, higher operating costs and upfront hardware act as a deterrent.

This particularly appeared difficult in primary care settings and or among pregnant women due to radiation concerns.

At the same time, AI showed significant potential for screening, including applications beyond CAD of TB from radiographs, said the researchers.

“One application of AI for disease screening is to interpret acoustic (sound) biomarkers of disease, with potential to identify sounds that appear nonspecific or are inaudible to the human ear,” they added, while highlighting the potential of AI in detecting and interpreting cough biomarkers and lung auscultation to analyse breath sounds.

Studies from high-TB burden countries, including India, Peru, South Africa, Uganda, and Vietnam, highlighted that AI-enabled auscultation could hold promise as a TB screening and triage tool.

"AI digital stethoscopes may become useful alternatives to imaging-based approaches for TB screening, with the potential to democratise access to care for populations underserved by radiography," the researchers said."Importantly, AI digital stethoscopes offer a scalable, low-cost, and person-centered tool that could bring us closer to reaching TB case finding goals," they added. AI-powered digital stethoscopes show promise in bridging screening gaps | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→February 14, 2026

Apes Show Ability to Imagine in ‘Tea Party’ Experiments, and Scientists are Very Excited

43-year-old bonobo named Kanzi – Courtesy of Ape Initiative / Johns Hopkins / SWNS

Apes share the human ability to imagine and pretend, suggests new research that included a series of tea party experiments.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, called it the first study to show the capacity for pretending is not unique to mankind.

They learned that apes can use their imagination and play pretend. One bonobo engaged with cups of imaginary juice and bowls of pretend grapes “consistently and robustly” across three experiments, challenging long-held assumptions about the abilities of animals.

The findings, published this week in the journal Science, suggest that the capacity to understand pretend objects is within the cognitive potential of, at least, an “enculturated ape”, and likely dates back six to nine million years, to our common evolutionary ancestors.

“It really is game-changing that their mental lives go beyond the here and now,” said study co-author Dr. Christopher Krupenye.

“Imagination has long been seen as a critical element of what it is to be human, but the idea that it may not be exclusive to our species is really transformative.

“Jane Goodall discovered that chimps make tools and that led to a change in the definition of what it means to be human—and this, too, really invites us to reconsider what makes us special and what mental life is out there among other creatures.”

He said that, by the age of two, human children can engage in pretend scenarios, like tea parties. Even at 15-months-old, infants show measures of surprise when they see a person “drinking” from a cup after pretending to empty it.

Credit: Getty Images For Unsplash+

There had been no previous studies of pretend behavior in non-human animals, despite several reports of animals seemingly engaging in pretending behavior from both the wild and in zoos or captivity.

For instance, in the wild, young female chimps have been observed carrying and playing with sticks, holding them like mothers would hold their infants. And a chimp in captivity seemed to drag imaginary blocks along the floor after playing with real wooden blocks.

Dr. Krupenye and co-author Amalia Bastos, a former Johns Hopkins postdoctoral fellow who is now a lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, wondered if they could test the capacity to pretend in a controlled environment.

They created experiments similar to a child’s tea party to test Kanzi, a 43-year-old bonobo living at Ape Initiative in Iowa, is the world’s only research center and sanctuary dedicated exclusively to the study and conservation of bonobos, our closest primate relative.

Kanzi had been anecdotally reported to engage in pretense, and could respond to verbal prompts by pointing.

In each test, a researcher and Kanzi faced one another, tea party-style, across a table. In the first task there were two transparent cups on the table, both empty, alongside an empty transparent pitcher.

Kanzi – Courtesy of Ape Initiative / Johns Hopkins / SWNS

The researcher tipped the pitcher to “pour” a little pretend juice into each cup, then pretended to dump the juice out of one cup, shaking it a bit to really get it out.

The researcher then asked Kanzi: “Where’s the juice?”

The bonobo pointed to the correct cup that still contained pretend juice, even when the researcher changed the position of the cup filled with pretend juice.

In case Kanzi thought there was real juice in the cup, even if he couldn’t see it, the team ran a second experiment, during which a cup of real juice was placed alongside the cup of pretend juice.

When Kanzi was asked what he wanted, he pointed toward the real juice almost every time.

A third experiment repeated the same concept, except with grapes. A researcher pretended to sample a grape from an empty container, then placed it inside one of the two jars.

After pretending to empty one of the containers, he asked Kanzi: “Where’s the grape?”

Kanzi again indicated the location of the pretend object. The researchers said Kanzi wasn’t perfect, but he was consistently correct.

“It’s extremely striking and very exciting that the data seem to suggest that apes, in their minds, can conceive of things that are not there,” said Dr. Bastos.

“Kanzi is able to generate an idea of this pretend object and, at the same time, know it’s not real.”

The researchers now want to test whether other apes and animals can engage in pretend play or track pretend objects. They also hope to explore other facets of imagination in apes, perhaps their ability to think about the future or to think about what’s going on in the minds of others.

“Imagination is one of those things that in humans gives us a rich mental life,” said Dr. Krupenye.“And if some roots of imagination are shared with apes, that should make people question their assumption that other animals are just living robotic lifestyles constrained to the present. We should be compelled by these findings to care for these creatures with rich and beautiful minds and ensure they continue to exist.” Apes Show Ability to Imagine in ‘Tea Party’ Experiments, and Scientists are Very Excited

Read More........→February 10, 2026

INST scientists find natural protein that can reshape future of electronic materials

(Photo: PIB)

New Delhi, (IANS) A team of scientists from Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have discovered semiconductor property of a known self-assembling bacterial shell protein could pave the way for safe, environmentally friendly electronics -- from mobile phones and smart watches to medical instruments and environmental sensors.

Traditional semiconductor materials, such as silicon, are valuable technological tools; however, they also have limitations. They are rigid, require high-energy processing, and contribute to the growing problem of electronic waste. Thus, there is increasing demand for sustainable, soft, and biocompatible electronics (wearables, implantable, green sensors).

The INST scientists experimented with self-assembling bacterial shell proteins to explore whether the proteins that naturally form stable, large flat 2D sheets with built-in electron density patterns and aromatic residues could be intrinsically photoactive.

They found that when the proteins form flat, sheet-like films, they absorb UV light and generate an electrical current without any added dyes, metals, or external power and act as light-driven, scaffold-free semiconductors, much like the materials used in electronic circuits and sensors.

Further, the team discovered that these proteins naturally arrange themselves into thin, sheet-like structures. When UV light shines on them, tiny electrical charges begin to move across the protein surface.

“This happens because the proteins contain tyrosine, a natural amino acid that can release electrons when excited by light. As these electrons and protons move, the protein sheet produces an electrical signal -- similar to how a miniature solar cell would operate. This light-driven effect relies on the protein’s internal order and does not require any synthetic additives or high-temperature manufacturing,” said the team led by Dr. Sharmistha Sinha, together with student researchers Silky Bedi and S. M. Rose.

“The discovery opens up exciting possibilities for real-world applications. Because the material is flexible and body-friendly, it could be used to create wearable health monitors, skin-safe UV-detection patches, and implantable medical sensors that work safely inside the human body,” the team said.

In the paper, published in the journal Chemical Science of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the team could also be used in temporary or disposable environmental sensors, such as pollution detectors or sunlight trackers, that naturally break down after use without harming the environment.Families, patients, and consumers may one day benefit from soft, comfortable, and environmentally responsible devices that integrate smoothly into daily life. INST scientists find natural protein that can reshape future of electronic materials | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→January 30, 2026

Red flowers have a ‘magic trait’ to attract birds and keep bees away

Joshua J. Cotten Adrian Dyer, Monash University and Klaus Lunau, Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf

For flowering plants, reproduction is a question of the birds and the bees. Attracting the right pollinator can be a matter of survival – and new research shows how flowers do it is more intriguing than anyone realised, and might even involve a little bit of magic.

In our new paper, published in Current Biology, we discuss how a single “magic” trait of some flowering plants simultaneously camouflages them from bees and makes them stand out brightly to birds.

How animals see

We humans typically have three types of light receptors in our eyes, which enable our rich sense of colours.

These are cells sensitive to blue, green or red light. From the input from these cells, the brain generates many colours including yellow via what is called colour opponent processing.

The way colour opponent processing works is that different sensed colours are processed by the brain in opposition. For example, we see some signals as red and some as green – but never a colour in between.

Many other animals also see colour and show evidence of also using opponent processing.

Bees see their world using cells that sense ultraviolet, blue and green light, while birds have a fourth type sensitive to red light as well.

Our colour perception illustrated with the spectral bar is different to bees that are sensitive to UV, blue and green, or birds with four colour photoreceptors including red sensitivity. Adrian Dyer & Klaus Lunau, CC BY

The problem flowering plants face

So what do these differences in colour vision have to do with plants, genetics and magic?

Flowers need to attract pollinators of the right size, so their pollen ends up on the correct part of an animal’s body so it’s efficiently flown to another flower to enable pollination.

Accordingly, birds tend to visit larger flowers. These flowers in turn need to provide large volumes of nectar for the hungry foragers.

But when large amounts of sweet-tasting nectar are on offer, there’s a risk bees will come along to feast on it – and in the process, collect valuable pollen. And this is a problem because bees are not the right size to efficiently transfer pollen between larger flowers.

Flowers “signal” to pollinators with bright colours and patterns – but these plants need a signal that will attract birds without drawing the attention of bees.

We know bee pollination and flower signalling evolved before bird pollination. So how could plants efficiently make the change to being pollinated by birds, which enables the transfer of pollen over long distances?

Avoiding bees or attracting birds?

A walk through nature lets us see with our own eyes that most red flowers are visited by birds, rather than bees. So bird-pollinated flowers have successfully made the transition. Two different theories have been developed that may explain what we observe.

One theory is the bee avoidance hypotheses where bird pollinated flowers just use a colour that is hard for bees to see.

A second theory is that birds might prefer red.

But neither of these theories seemed complete, as inexperienced birds don’t demonstrate a preference for a stronger red hue. However, bird-pollinated flowers do have a very distinct red hue, which suggests avoiding bees can’t solely explain why consistently salient red flower colours evolved.

Most red flowers are visited by birds, rather than bees. Jim Moore/iNaturalist, CC BY

A magical solution

In evolutionary science, the term magic trait refers to an evolved solution where one genetic modification may yield fitness benefits in multiple ways.

Earlier this month, a team working on how this might apply to flowering plants showed that a gene that modulates UV-absorbing pigments in flower petals can indeed have multiple benefits. This is because of how bees and birds view colour signals differently.

Bee-pollinated flowers come in a diverse range of colours. Bees even pollinate some plants with red flowers. But these flowers tend to also reflect a lot of UV, which helps bees find them.

The magic gene has the effect of reducing the amount of UV light reflected from the petal, making flowers harder for bees to see. But (and this is where the magic comes in) reducing UV reflection from a petal of a red flower simultaneously makes it look redder for animals – such as birds – which are believed to have a colour opponent system.

Red flowers look similar for humans, but as flowers evolved for bird vision a genetic change down-regulates UV reflection, making flowers more colourful for birds and less visible to bees. Adrian Dyer & Klaus Lunau, CC BY

Birds that visit these bright red flowers gain rewards – and with experience, they learn to go repeatedly to the red flowers.

One small gene change for colour signalling in the UV yields multiple beneficial outcomes by avoiding bees and displaying enhanced colours to entice multiple visits from birds.

We lucky humans are fortunate that our red perception can also see the result of this clever little trick of nature to produce beautiful red flower colours. So on your next walk on a nice day, take a minute to view one of nature’s great experiments on finding a clever solution to a complex problem.

Adrian Dyer, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Monash University and Klaus Lunau, Professor, Institute of Sensory Ecology, Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→January 29, 2026

New Eco-Friendly Tech Eliminates ‘Forever Chemicals’ With Record-Breaking Speed–And it’s Reusable

PFAs self-destruct in this layered double hydroxide material made from copper and aluminum – credit: Rice University

University researchers in Texas and Korea have collaborated to developed an eco-friendly water purifier that captures—and destroys—toxic “forever chemicals” (PFAS) more than 1,000 times better than current methods.

Their study marks a major milestone in addressing one of the world’s most persistent environmental and health threats.

PFAS are synthetic chemicals first created in the 1940s for use in products ranging from Teflon pans to waterproof clothing and food packaging. Their ability to resist heat, grease, and water has made them valuable for industry and consumers, but that same resistance means they do not easily degrade.

Current health studies have suggested their lingering residues in water are linked to possible liver damage, reproductive disorders, immune system disruption, and certain cancers.

Traditional PFAS cleanup methods typically rely on adsorption, where molecules cling to materials like activated carbon or ion-exchange resins. While these methods are widely used, they come with major drawbacks: low efficiency, slow performance, and the creation of additional waste that requires disposal.

“Our new approach offers a sustainable and highly effective alternative,” said Professor Michael Wong at Rice University, who specializes in nanotechnology, chemistry, and biomolecular engineering.

The innovation centers on a layered double hydroxide (LDH) material made from copper and aluminum, first discovered by South Korean Professor Keon-Ham Kim, while he was a grad student at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2021.

While experimenting with these materials, a student at Rice, Youngkun Chung, discovered that one formulation with nitrate could adsorb PFAS with record-breaking efficiency.

“To my astonishment, this LDH compound captured PFAS more than 1,000 times better than other materials,” said Chung, a lead author of the study.

“It also worked incredibly fast, removing large amounts of PFAS within minutes, about 100 times faster than commercial carbon filters.”

The material’s effectiveness stems from its unique internal structure.

Its organized copper-aluminum layers combined with slight charge imbalances create an ideal environment for PFAS molecules to bind—with both speed and strength.

Works equally well in river water, tap water and wastewater

To test the technology’s practicality, the team evaluated the LDH material in river water, tap water and wastewater. In all cases, it proved highly effective, performing well in both static and continuous-flow systems.

The results, recently published in the journal Advanced Materials, suggest strong potential for large-scale applications in municipal water treatment and industrial cleanup.

Closing the waste loop

Removing PFAS from water is only part of the challenge. Destroying them safely is equally important. The team at Rice developed a method to thermally decompose PFAS captured on the LDH material. By heating the saturated material with calcium carbonate, the team eliminated more than half of the trapped PFAS without releasing toxic by-products.

Remarkably, the process also regenerated the LDH, allowing it to be reused multiple times—refreshing itself for reuse.

“It’s a rare one-two punch against pollution,” wrote Science Daily, “fast cleanup and sustainable destruction.”

Preliminary studies showed the material could complete at least six full cycles of capture, destruction and renewal, making it the first known eco-friendly, sustainable system for PFAS removal.

“We are excited by the potential of this one-of-a-kind LDH-based technology to transform how PFAS-contaminated water sources are treated in the near future,” said Professor Wong said.“It’s the result of an extraordinary international collaboration and the creativity of young researchers.” New Eco-Friendly Tech Eliminates ‘Forever Chemicals’ With Record-Breaking Speed–And it’s Reusable

Read More........→January 13, 2026

Time of day may determine heart surgery outcomes: Study

(Photo: AI generated image/IANS)

New Delhi, (IANS) Heart surgery that begins late in the morning may raise the risk of cardiovascular deaths when compared to other times of the day, according to a study.

Researchers at The University of Manchester, UK, suggested that integrating body clock biology into the planning of heart surgery could support a more personalised, precision medicine approach, as some people’s body clock makes them early birds and others make them night owls.

The data, based on the analysis of national datasets comprising over 24,000 patients in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, showed late-morning surgery was linked to an 18 per cent higher risk of death -- almost one fifth -- from heart-related causes compared with early-morning surgery.

And the most common surgical start time was 07:00 am to 09:59 am -- accounting for 47 per cent of all surgeries.

Though complication rates and readmissions were unaffected by the time of day, the findings still pose questions about the best time to schedule heart surgery.

The study, published in the journal Anaesthesia, also gives an important insight into the potential influence of the body clock -- a set of 24-hour biological cycles present in our cells and organs -- on surgery as a whole.

“This research shows that a slightly higher risk of heart-related mortality is likely to occur when heart surgery starts in the late morning. Even small improvements in timing-related outcomes could have significant benefits to patients,” said lead author Dr Gareth Kitchen, Clinical Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester.

“However, though the risk is statistically significant, it is relatively modest, and patients can be reassured that most people will almost certainly be unaffected. It is, though, our duty as clinicians to ensure the best possible outcomes, and moderating timings is a potentially inexpensive method to achieve that,” Kitchen added.“With more understanding of how body clock biology varies between individuals, precision and personalised scheduling of cardiac surgery may one day allow us to achieve better patient outcomes,” the researcher said. Time of day may determine heart surgery outcomes: Study | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→January 13, 2026

A Rare Cancer-Fighting Plant Compound has Finally Been Decoded

Anti-cancer plant enzyme uncovered by Tuan-Anh Nguyen and Dr Thu-Thuy Dang – UBC Okanagan

Canadian researchers have figured out how plants make a rare natural substance—mitraphylline—with its potential for fighting cancer and becoming a sustainable new medicine.

Mitraphylline is part of a small and unusual family of plant alkaloids, molecules that are defined by their distinctive twisted ring shapes, which help give them powerful anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory effects.

For years, scientists knew these compounds were valuable but had little understanding of how plants actually assembled them at the molecular level.

In solving a long standing biological mystery, progress came in 2023, when a research team led by Dr. Thu-Thuy Dang at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan identified the first known plant enzyme capable of creating the signature ‘spiro’ shape found in these molecules.

Building on that discovery, doctoral student Tuan-Anh Nguyen led new work to pinpoint two key enzymes involved in making mitraphylline—one enzyme that arranges the molecule into the correct three dimensional structure, and another that twists it into its final form.

“This is similar to finding the missing links in an assembly line,” says Dr. Dang, the university’s Research Chair in Natural Products Biotechnology. “It answers a long-standing question about how nature builds these complex molecules and gives us a new way to replicate that process.”

Red vein kratom leaves by Jade at Thehealingeast – CC BY-SA 4.0

Many promising natural compounds exist only in extremely small quantities within plants, making them expensive or impractical to produce using traditional laboratory methods. Mitraphylline is a prime example. It appears only in trace amounts in tropical coffee trees such as Mitragyna (kratom) and Uncaria (cat’s claw).

By identifying the enzymes that construct and shape mitraphylline, scientists now have a clear guide for recreating this process in more sustainable and scalable ways.

Toward Greener Drug Production

“With this discovery, we have a green chemistry approach to accessing compounds with enormous pharmaceutical value,” says Nguyen. “This is a result of UBC Okanagan’s research environment, where students and faculty work closely to solve problems with global reach.”

“Plants are fantastic natural chemists,” Dr. Dang said.

“Our next steps will focus on adapting their molecular tools to create a wider range of therapeutic compounds.”“Being part of the team that uncovered the enzymes behind spirooxindole compounds has been amazing,” added Nguyen, whose team collaborated with researchers at the University of Florida. A Rare Cancer-Fighting Plant Compound has Finally Been Decoded

Read More........→January 08, 2026

First projects selected for INL reactor experiments

(Image: INL)

The five initial selections for end user experiments at Idaho National Laboratory's Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) reactor include projects related to data centres, technology application in commercial and advanced reactors, and applications for nuclear-generated process heat.

MARVEL is a sodium-potassium-cooled microreactor being developed by the US Department of Energy (DOE). It will generate 85 kilowatts of thermal energy and up to 20 kilowatts of electricity. It is to be located at the Transient Reactor Test Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and will serve as a nuclear test bed to demonstrate microreactor operations and end-use applications, providing a platform for the private sector to access to an operational microreactor to demonstrate innovative new use cases for the technology. The reactor will be connected to INL's microgrid, and is expected to be operational by late 2027.

The projects selected in a competitive process as the first potential end-users for Marvel are:

- Amazon Web Services Inc, which proposes coupling the MARVEL reactor with a modular data centre, which could potentially provide a simple and cost-effective way for government agencies to build data centres anywhere in the world by enabling the creation of a self-sustaining, rapidly deployable system that can operate independently of traditional power infrastructure;

- DCX USA and Arizona State University, with a proposal to use MARVEL to demonstrate the feasibility of a microreactor to power a data centre for artificial intelligence to yield valuable data on how to provide a stable, continuous power supply capable of handling the unique demands of AI processing;

- General Electric Vernova, which proposes to use MARVEL to demonstrate remote and autonomous reactor operations and establish controls standards for broader application of the technology with commercial reactors;

- Radiation Detection Technologies Inc, proposing to use MARVEL to test advanced high-performance sensor technologies that could help monitor the performance of advanced reactors;

- Shepherd Power, NOV and ConocoPhillips with a proposal to leverage MARVEL for a pilot-scale desalination project using nuclear-generated process heat to demonstrate the viability of advanced nuclear energy for addressing produced water challenges in oil and gas operations.

"Nowhere else in the world will you find this level of support for public sector innovation in nuclear energy," said John Jackson, national technical director for the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy's Microreactor Program. "With access to MARVEL, companies can explore how microreactors will potentially help us win the global AI race, solve water challenges and so much more."The selectees will now work with DOE and national laboratory staff to create implementation plans and to determine the feasibility of their proposed application using MARVEL. Final agreements for proposed projects are expected to be announced in 2026. First projects selected for INL reactor experiments

Read More........→January 06, 2026

Nanotechnology breakthrough may boost treatment for aggressive breast cancer: Study

IANS Photo

Sydney, (IANS): Researchers in Australia are developing next-generation nanoparticles to supercharge current treatments for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) -- one of the most aggressive and deadly forms of the disease.

The researchers are designing innovative iron-based nanoparticles, or "nano-adjuvants," small enough to fit thousands on a single strand of hair, to strengthen the body's immune response against TNBC, according to the University of Queensland's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Unlike other breast cancers, TNBC lacks the proteins targeted by some of the conventional treatments used against other cancers, making effective therapy a significant challenge, according to Prof. Yu Chengzhong from the AIBN.

"Despite the promise of immunotherapy, its effectiveness against triple-negative breast cancer is extremely limited, which is leaving too many women without options -- and that's what our research is trying to change," Yu said.

The nanoparticles are designed to enhance the activity of T-cells, the white blood cells used by the immune system to fight disease, within the tumour microenvironment, improving the immune system's ability to recognise and attack cancer cells, according to Yu.

Supported by a 3 million Australian dollar ($1.89 million) National Health and Medical Research Council grant, the five-year research project aims to bridge a critical treatment gap, and could pave the way for clinical applications, not only for TNBC but also for other hard-to-treat cancers like ovarian cancer.

With over two decades of experience in nanotechnology and nanomedicine, Yu hopes this breakthrough will transform cancer treatment by making immunotherapy more effective for patients with aggressive solid tumours."This research will push the boundaries of science to find innovative treatments that change the way we fight this cancer, offering hope for women facing devastating outcomes," said AIBN Director Alan Rowan. Nanotechnology breakthrough may boost treatment for aggressive breast cancer: Study | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→January 05, 2026