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Russia forges nuclear steel to brave 1112°F for next-gen reactors

It could solve the corrosion and thermal challenges of lead-cooled reactors.

The development of this steel was conducted under the “Breakthrough” (Proryv) project, which focuses on the implementation of a closed nuclear fuel cycle using fast neutron reactors.

The new steel provides corrosion resistance and thermal stability at temperatures up to 600°C (1,112°F).

According to Sergei Logashov, Director of the Institute of Materials Science at CNIITMASH, the material was designed using computer modeling and data from heavy liquid metal coolant systems.

Enhancement of Patient-Centered Lung Cancer Screening: The MyLungHealth Randomized Clinical Trial

The MyLungHealth randomized trial found that digital tools improved eligibility assessment and CT ordering for LungCancer screening, but gains in scan completion were limited.

Question Does adding a patient-facing, electronic health record (EHR)–integrated tool to a clinician-facing clinical decision support system improve the identification and ordering of lung cancer screening?

Findings In this randomized clinical trial of 31 303 adults aged 50 to 79 years with uncertain or documented eligibility for lung cancer screening, the EHR-integrated tool significantly increased the identification of screening-eligible patients and the ordering of low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening.

Meaning Combining patient-facing and clinician-facing decision support in primary care may enhance lung cancer screening by improving eligibility identification and computed tomography scan ordering.

Clinical Implications of Left Atrial and Ventricular Reverse Remodeling After Atrial Fibrillation Ablation in Patients With Systolic Dysfunction

AFib ablation promotes LA/LV reverse remodeling.

Read this study about how combined assessment better stratifies distinct trajectories in systolic dysfunction. @MasatoOkada1105

BackgroundCatheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) is an effective treatment to achieve left atrial (LA) and left ventricular (LV) reverse remodeling in patients with systolic dysfunction. However, the relationship between LA and LV reverse remodeling (LARR and LVRR) and their clinical implications remains unclear.

Liquid Crystal Monomers Released from LCD Displays Accumulate in Endangered Marine Cetaceans Triggering Health Concerns

Liquid crystal monomers (LCMs), critical substances of liquid crystal displays in consumer electronics, are persistent pollutants, posing potential threats to marine ecosystems. Despite their bioaccumulative potential, their occurrence and possible biological impacts on marine megafauna remain understudied. We investigated LCM occurrence in Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) and finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides) collected from the South China Sea (2007–2021) and assessed their toxicity through in vitro assays using established dolphin cell lines. By employing robust source-tracing methodologies, we provide the first evidence that LCMs from household electronics and coastal e-waste accumulate in cetacean tissues, including blubber, muscle, and, critically, brain tissues, demonstrating blood–brain barrier penetration, a previously undocumented phenomenon of LCMs in mammalian wildlife. The temporal trend of LCM burden in porpoise blubber is correlated with shifts in global liquid crystal display production. Transcriptomic profiling revealed LCM-induced DNA damage, cell cycle arrest, and impaired cell division in cetacean cells. These findings suggest that LCMs may pose potential risks to the nervous system and other organs of marine mammals, warranting further investigation into their toxicological effects and possible implications for human health. By bridging critical gaps among everyday electronics, LCM contamination, and marine conservation, this study highlights the need for urgent regulatory actions and improved e-waste governance to mitigate ecological and public health risks.

N-Terminal Actin-Binding Site of Lmod2 Promotes Controlled Pointed End Elongation

Larrinaga & colleagues discovered how a heart muscle protein fine-tunes muscle contraction by acting like a “leaky cap” & controlling how important muscle fiber components (actin filaments) grow. Learn how disrupting this control causes actin filaments to grow unusually long, perturbing the beating of the heart at.

BACKGROUND: Lmods (leiomodins) are critical for the assembly and maintenance of thin filaments in striated muscles by allowing thin filament elongation at the pointed ends. Lmod2’s elongation function has been linked to both actin-binding sites (ABSs) 2 and 3, while the existence and function of an N-terminal ABS1 has been debated. METHODS: To elucidate the little-known role of Lmod2’s ABS1, we created a mutant (F64D/L69D/W72D/W73D: Lmod2-quadruple mutant) predicted to decrease the binding of ABS1 to actin. We analyzed the effect of the mutations using several in vitro, cellular, and in vivo assays. RESULTS: By disrupting the interaction of Lmod2 ABS1 with actin in isolated cardiomyocytes and in mice, we engineered a super Lmod2 that results in remarkably longer thin filaments.

Metasurface-based SLM could enhance AR, VR and LiDAR performance

Many cutting-edge technologies, ranging from augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to LiDAR (light detection and ranging) systems, rely on components that enable the precise control of light. These components include so-called spatial light modulators (SLMs), systems that dynamically adjust the position of a light wave within its cycle (i.e., phase), as well as its amplitude or direction across several pixels.

Conventional SLMs rely on liquid crystals, materials in a state of matter at the intersection between solid and liquid. While these components are widely used, they typically struggle to reach the speed and pixel density required to create high-quality three-dimensional (3D) images known as holographs.

Researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and other institutes recently developed a new metasurface, an ultrathin and nano-engineered surface, that could be used to produce dynamic and high-quality holographic images in real time, with a remarkable definition. The new metasurface, introduced in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, was used to create a SLM that could be used to enhance the performance of AR, VR, and LiDAR technology.

Promoters and enhancers: Tool catches gene-controlling DNA sequences doing each other’s jobs

Researchers at the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology have uncovered new evidence that two major types of gene-controlling DNA sequences, promoters and enhancers, operate with a shared logic and often perform the same jobs. The finding, made possible through a high-throughput assay they developed called QUASARR-seq, could reshape how scientists design gene therapies, interpret disease-related mutations, and understand cancer genetics.

New research from the lab of Haiyuan Yu, Tisch University Professor of Computational Biology at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and faculty at the Weill Institute, reveals that drawing a distinction between the two classes gene controllers may be too black and white—they seem to respond to the same biological rules and act in concert.

In a study published in Nature Communications on Jan. 30 and led by Mauricio Paramo, a graduate student at the Weill Institute, the team developed a technology capable of measuring an element’s promoter and enhancer activity simultaneously, in close collaboration with the lab of John Lis, Barbara McClintock Professor of Molecular Biology & Genetics. This is significant because, until now, most technologies could measure only one function at a time, leaving open the question of whether—and how—the two activities interact inside the same DNA sequence.

How a common fungus outsmarts drugs and our immune system

Our bodies are home to millions of fungi that, for the most part, are completely harmless. However, they can sometimes change from peaceful residents into dangerous invaders. One such is Candida parapsilosis, which normally lives on our skin or in our intestinal tract but can also be found on medical devices and hospital surfaces. If it gets into a wound or onto a catheter, it can cause a serious blood infection.

Treatments typically include a class of medicines called echinocandins, but the fungus is increasingly developing resistance to them. In a new study published in the journal Microbiology Spectrum, scientists describe how it can resist our strongest drugs and evade the immune system—by undergoing cell wall remodeling.

The researchers collected four separate samples of the fungus at different stages of a persistent blood infection. They were taken from a patient who was undergoing treatment with echinocandins but was failing to get better.

Dynamical freezing can protect quantum information for near-cosmic timescales

Preserving quantum information is key to developing useful quantum computing systems. But interacting quantum systems are chaotic and follow laws of thermodynamics, eventually leading to information loss. Physicists have long known of a strange exception, called dynamical freezing, when quantum systems shaken at precisely tuned frequencies evade these laws. But how long can this phenomenon postpone thermodynamics?

Not forever, but for an astonishingly long time, Cornell physicists have determined, giving the first quantitative answer. Using a new mathematical framework, they demonstrate that the frozen state can be stabilized long enough to be a useful strategy for preserving information in quantum systems. This can be a promising route for maintaining coherence in quantum computers as the numbers of qubits scale up to the millions.

“It’s like asking, how do you evade the laws of physics from eventually taking over?” said Debanjan Chowdhury, associate professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Imagine that you had a hot cup of coffee that even without a heater, stayed hot. Or a block of ice placed on a heater that never melts. Is that even possible? This has been one of the big open problems in the field of quantum many-body systems.”

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