Immersive media, including augmented and virtual realities, are taking over the world by storm, underscoring the need to progressively improve user experience through more realism. A relatively underexplored area in this field is how the user perceives the speaker’s orientation. Accordingly, research led by Sophia University showed that the loudness of the speaker’s voice, followed by spectral cues, helped the listener judge the speaker’s orientation. Their findings answer longstanding questions in auditory perception.

Mid-infrared spectroscopy, with its molecular fingerprint recognition capability, plays a crucial role in environmental monitoring, biomedical diagnosis, and industrial chemical analysis. However, traditional spectrometers suffer from drawbacks such as large size, system complexity, high cost, and operational difficulty. The research team led by Prof. Qin Chen at Jinan University has developed a chip-scale mid-infrared spectral sensing technology that pioneers a light source-side regulation strategy in contrast to dispersion element and photodetector regulartions in literature. By employing metasurface arrays as wavelength-selective thermal emission sources, the system enables "instant-camera"-style substance sensing through thermal imaging encoding/decoding, moreover, achieving an exceptional angular tolerance exceeding ±40 degrees. This innovative approach successfully integrates three key components -- light source, collimation unit, and dispersive element -- into a single platform, offering a novel solution for portable mid-infrared spectral detection.

The review highlights how disrupting the cell cycle, a process often hijacked by cancer cells for unchecked growth offers a promising strategy for cancer therapy. It focuses on drugs that precisely target key cell cycle regulators, several of which are already in clinical use. By showcasing the latest breakthroughs and outlining future research directions, the article provides a comprehensive look at how targeting cell cycle dysregulation is shaping the future of cancer care.

Researchers have unveiled the transformative potential of micropattern arrays—engineered microstructures—to probe and guide cellular biomechanics. These arrays not only help decipher how cells sense physical cues but also steer tissue regeneration and stem cell fate, paving the way for breakthroughs in tissue regeneration, organ-on-a-chip systems, and disease modeling.