We report a novel marine polysaccharide-based biomimetic bilayer scaffold, d-ACT@MIC/SIM, featuring a dense upper layer serving as a barrier layer and a porous lower layer mimicking the native bone matrix microenvironment. This sophisticated architecture, coupled with the programmed co-delivery of minocycline and simvastatin, endowed the scaffold with a multifaceted therapeutic armamentarium. In vitro assessments identified its significant antibacterial efficacy and osteoinductive potential. Animal experiments further validated its capacity to suppress inflammatory cytokine expression and facilitate alveolar bone regeneration. The integrated strategy of a structurally biomimetic, dual drug-releasing scaffold thus offers a significant advancement over conventional therapeutic modalities for periodontitis by concurrently addressing infection, inflammation, and tissue regeneration. As such, this innovative bilayer asymmetric bionic drug-carrying scaffolds emerge as a compelling and prospective therapeutic option for advancing periodontitis treatment.

Researchers developed a photonic spiking hashing framework that uses a DFB-SA laser to generate robust binary codes for similarity retrieval. By introducing a hardware-aware quantization margin loss, the system reduces noise-induced bit flips near the threshold boundary. Hardware-in-the-loop experiments on image and text datasets produced error-free binary outputs in the tested queries while maintaining high retrieval accuracy.

In a recent study published in the journal PLOS Water, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin took a closer look at the water quality in Austin's Colony neighborhood, which has long faced issues with discolored and hard water. The researchers found evidence of contamination, with some samples exceeding state regulatory standards for lead, arsenic and other contaminants.

A new study reports a simple way to make ZSM-5 catalysts last longer during plastic waste conversion, offering a practical step toward more efficient plastic valorization.

Continuous cropping is common in modern vegetable production, but planting the same crop repeatedly in the same soil can gradually weaken soil health, increase disease pressure, and reduce yields. A new review published in Biochar X examines how biochar, a carbon-rich material produced from biomass under oxygen-limited conditions, may help farmers manage these long-standing challenges in solanaceous vegetables, including tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and potatoes.

Rice researchers’ detector concept uses engineered semiconductor materials to search for axions in a range of possible masses that has remained difficult to probe with existing experiments.

SPIE, the international society of optics and photonics, invites the optics and photonics community to apply for this year’s SPIE Prism Awards, which recognize outstanding new products making waves on the market. Honorees will be announced at the highly-anticipated award ceremony on 3 February 2027 at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco, California. These awards, dubbed the “Oscars of Photonics,” provide scientists and engineers in the optics and photonics industry the opportunity to showcase their contributions to the field.

Gas giant orbits its dead star so closely that it takes just 1.4 days to complete a full revolution. At this proximity, planet shouldn’t have survived its star’s red giant phase. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astrophysicists measured the planet’s atmosphere, mass and temperature. They found the planet orbited at a safe distance when its star died and migrated closer billions of years after its death.