The Wearable Imaging for Transforming Elderly Care (WITEC) project, led by SMART in collaboration with MIT, NTU, NUS and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, is developing the world’s first wearable ultrasound imaging system for continuous, real-time monitoring of chronic conditions such as hypertension and heart failure. Supported by advanced tools like Southeast Asia’s first sub-micrometre 3D printer and cutting-edge ultrasonic imaging technology, WITEC aims to shift healthcare from hospital-based interventions to proactive, home-based care, enabling earlier detection, personalised diagnosis and improved patient outcomes.

At the base of mossy trees, deep in the mountains of Taiwan and mainland Japan or nestled in the subtropical forests of Okinawa, grows what most might mistake for a mushroom – but what is actually a very unique plant with some of the smallest flowers and seeds in the world. With no chlorophyll to photosynthesize with and no root system to supply it with water from the ground, Balanophora has evolved a series of extreme traits to survive entirely as a parasite on the roots of specific trees. Some species and populations produce seeds only without fertilization (obligate agamospermy) – which is exceedingly rare in the plant kingdom. 

 

Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Kobe University, and the University of Taipei have now joined forces to survey Balanophora across its sparse and inaccessible habitats, upending our understanding of photosynthesis loss in land plants, obligate agamospermy, and the role of the plastids.   

You’ve heard of qubits, now get ready for p-bits! These units form the building blocks of probabilistic computers that can solve certain problems more efficiently than traditional computers. A team of international researchers found a way to do without a power-hungry, bulky, analog component to allow for a fully digital p-bit design.

Scientists at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) in Japan have discovered a way to make a superconducting thin film from iron telluride, which is surprising because it is not normally superconducting. Being superconducting at extremely low temperatures makes it suitable for use in quantum computing. In addition to this particular new thin film, the new method of fabrication should greatly impact thin-film research in general.