Researchers have developed a novel "theragnostic" approach for ischemic stroke using extracellular vesicles derived from human exfoliated deciduous teeth stem cells (SHED-EVs). Engineered with quantum dots, these vesicles allow for real-time imaging of the blood-brain barrier while simultaneously scavenging harmful reactive oxygen species to reduce brain injury.

The Cr-substituted LRMs with high capacity and stability is successfully fabricated for high energy-density solid-state batteries.

This study developed a pH-responsive nanovaccine (Lyc-OVA) based on Lycium barbarum-derived carbon dots (Lyc-CDs) synthesized via a green hydrothermal method, which suppressed primary/distal tumor growth by activating CD4⁺CD8⁺ T cells, reducing immunosuppressive Treg/MDSC populations, and reshaping the tumor immune microenvironment.

Researchers at the Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Sciences report in PLOS Pathogens a novel role for the neural guidance protein Netrin-1 in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

The consciousness debate is often trapped between two extremes: either the brain is “just software” (computational functionalism) or consciousness is uniquely biological (biological naturalism). Our paper proposes a third view: biological computationalism. This means that brains do compute, but not like standard digital machines.

We argue that the classical computational picture doesn’t fit the brain, because biological computation has three key traits: it’s hybrid (discrete events inside continuous dynamics), scale-inseparable (no clean split between software and hardware), and metabolically grounded (energy constraints shape how intelligence is organized). In this framework, the brain isn’t merely running an abstract algorithm. Rather, the algorithm is the substrate, unfolding in physical time through fields, flows, and multi-scale dynamics.

This doesn’t mean consciousness belongs only to biology. But it may require biology-like computation, potentially in new non-biological materials. So the challenge of synthetic consciousness isn’t just finding a better algorithm to run—it’s building the kind of matter that matters.