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Imagine a prosthetic hand that does more than simply move. One day, it could allow an amputee to sense whether an object is hot or cold, soft or hard, smooth or rough. Scientists at Washington State University (WSU) are working toward that future with a new electronic skin, or e-skin , designed to detect pressure and temperature across prosthetic limbs. The research, published in Cell Reports Physical Science , introduces a customizable sensing system that could make advanced artificial touch more practical, affordable and comfortable. The system can detect changes at a scale about 10 times finer than current commercial glove sensors , according to the researchers. Bringing a Sense of Touch to Prosthetics For people who have lost a limb, modern prosthetics can restore important movement and function. However, most prosthetic devices do not provide the natural feeling of touch. A person using a prosthetic hand may be able to pick up a cup, for example, but may not actually feel how tigh...

For decades, cancer treatment has largely followed a common approach: identify the type of cancer and then give patients treatments designed for that disease. But a new generation of cancer therapy is moving toward something much more personal—treatment designed around the unique genetic features of an individual patient’s tumor. Now, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna, working with Merck, has reported encouraging Phase 3 results for a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine called intismeran autogene , also known as mRNA-4157/V940 . The therapy is designed specifically for each patient and can target up to 34 tumor-specific mutations . The latest results could represent an important step toward making personalized cancer vaccines a practical treatment option, particularly for people with high-risk melanoma. A Cancer Vaccine Built for Each Patient Unlike traditional vaccines, which are generally designed to protect people against the same infectious disease, intismeran is create...

Mars may look like a quiet, dry world, but its atmosphere is constantly moving. Strong winds, temperature changes, atmospheric waves and huge amounts of dust interact with each other every day. Sometimes, these interactions can produce dust storms that grow from small local events into storms covering large parts of the planet. Now, scientists have found an important clue that could help explain how these storms develop. Researchers led by Asumi have directly detected a special atmospheric wave called the K1 Kelvin wave using pressure measurements collected by NASA’s InSight lander. The wave is normally difficult to identify because its frequency is very close to another atmospheric signal caused by Mars’ daily cycle. The new study shows that the K1 wave becomes much stronger during certain seasons and can become especially powerful during a major Martian dust storm. Scientists also found evidence that the K1 wave can interact with another atmospheric wave, possibly helping dust sprea...

Imagine a material that can be 3D printed into complex electronic structures, conducts electricity efficiently, works safely with the body, and does not need lengthy chemical treatment after printing . Scientists have now taken an important step toward making this possible. A research team led by Oh has developed a new type of conductive ink called PEDOT:PSS-ionic liquid colloidal (PILC) ink . The material is designed for 3D printing of bioelectronic devices and could help researchers build flexible sensors, medical implants and other electronic systems that interact directly with the human body. The development addresses several major problems that have limited the use of conductive polymers in 3D printing. Why PEDOT:PSS Is Important Three-dimensional printing has become an important manufacturing technology because it can quickly create customized objects with complicated shapes. In healthcare and biomedical research, 3D printing is especially useful because devices can be designed f...

3D printing has already transformed the way engineers, researchers and manufacturers create complex objects. But a new approach called Tomographic Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (TVAM) could take this technology much further. Researchers led by Tisato and colleagues have demonstrated a method that combines volumetric 3D printing with embedded 3D printing to create multi-material structures and extremely small internal channels in a single printing process. The technique could open new possibilities for microfluidics, advanced manufacturing, robotics, medical devices and other technologies that require complex structures made from different materials. Moving Beyond Layer-by-Layer 3D Printing Most familiar 3D printers create objects layer by layer. In material-extrusion technologies such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) , a printer moves a nozzle along a programmed path and deposits material one line at a time. Direct Ink Writing (DIW) follows a similar principle but can print sp...

A new hollow nanoreactor inspired by the way living cells organize chemical reactions could provide a cleaner and more efficient route for producing hydrogen peroxide using visible light. The innovative material combines a light-trapping inner cavity with a proton-shuttling outer shell, allowing chemical reactions to occur in a highly controlled nanoscale environment. The research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society . It was led by Prof. Li Can at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. Jian Liu's team at Inner Mongolia University. The researchers developed a hollow CdS@polydopamine nanoreactor that imitates two important characteristics of living cells: controlled compartmentalization and efficient movement of chemical species. Their work demonstrates how principles found in biology can be incorporated into artificial nanomaterials for applications in clean chemistry and artifi...

Astronomers have discovered what could be the fastest known star in the Milky Way. Named S301 , the star is racing around Sagittarius A* , the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, at an astonishing speed of about 25,000 kilometers per second . That is more than 8% of the speed of light and roughly 100,000 times faster than a commercial aircraft. But S301 is remarkable for another reason: it passes closer to Sagittarius A* than any other star observed so far. Its extreme orbit could give scientists a rare opportunity to measure the rotation, or spin, of the black hole and test Einstein’s theory of general relativity in one of the most extreme environments in the Universe. A Star on an Extraordinary Orbit Sagittarius A* contains the mass of roughly four million Suns and lies at the center of the Milky Way. For decades, astronomers have carefully tracked stars moving around it to understand how gravity behaves near such an enormous object. S301 has now emerged as an esp...