In many neurodegenerative diseases, proteins misfold and clump together in brain tissue. Scientists developed a new therapy made of peptides and a sugar that naturally occurs in plants. The therapeutic molecules self-assemble into nanofibers, which bond to the neuron-killing proteins. Now trapped, the toxic proteins can no longer enter neurons and instead harmlessly degrade.

Researchers at the University of the Basque Country (EHU) have explored how a combination of photovoltaic energy and heat pumps could be used to carry out the energy retrofitting of social rental housing. The Basque Government’s Zero Plan was used as the basis, and the technologies that the European Union is keen to promote were assessed. The buildings in Araba-Álava were generally found to offer the greatest potential for implementing the system.

After its new extension, which increased its computing power fourfold, the Jean Zay supercomputer is now capable of 125.9 million billion operations per second. Hosted and operated by the CNRS’s Institute for Development and Resources in Intensive Scientific Computing (IDRIS), Jean Zay, which was acquired by the French Grand Équipement National de Calcul Intensif (GENCI), has become one of France’s most powerful supercomputers. The official inauguration of this extension, which was announced by the French President, was held on Tuesday, 13 May 2025.

Researchers in Japan have developed a digital laboratory (dLab) system that fully automates the material synthesis and structural, physical property evaluation of thin-film samples. With dLab, the team can autonomously synthesize thin-film samples and measure their material properties. The team’s dLab system demonstrates advanced automatic and autonomous material synthesis for data- and robot-driven materials science.