Electronic implants are commonly used to diagnose and treat various diseases and to restore lost motor and sensory functions. Conductive hydrogels increase an implant’s electrical conductivity and flexibility within the body, improving the overall effectiveness of electronic implants. However, traditional electrically conductive hydrogels contain toxic additives that may have negative impacts on patients after long-term use. In a recent study published in Science Advances, researchers led by Dr. Limei Tian reported on a sweet solution to this problem: replacing these toxic additives with D-sorbitol, a safe sugar alternative commonly found in chewing gum.

Quantum materials exhibit remarkable emergent properties when they are excited by external sources. However, these excited states decay rapidly once the excitation is removed, limiting their practical applications. A team of researchers from Harvard University and the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have now demonstrated an approach to stabilise these fleeting states and probe their quantum behaviour using bright X-ray flashes from the X-ray free electron laser SwissFEL at PSI. The findings are published in the journal Nature Materials.

Fraunhofer IAF’s unique quantum computing infrastructure operates the latest quantum accelerator by Quantum Brilliance. It is Europe’s first compact quantum accelerator based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. With its compact size and robust integration without cryogenics, the second-generation Quantum Development Kit (QB-QDK2.0) enables hybrid quantum-classical computing. The system will be made available to partners across science and industry to explore its capabilities and advance real-world quantum applications.