X-rays are a common component of diagnostic testing and industrial monitoring, used for everything from monitoring your teeth to scanning your suitcase at the airport. But the high-energy rays also produce ionizing radiation, which can be dangerous after prolonged or excessive exposures. Now, researchers publishing in ACS Central Science have taken a step toward safer X-rays by creating a highly sensitive and foldable detector that produces good quality images with smaller dosages of the rays.

An international team of scientists has identified a surprising factor that accelerates the degradation of lithium-ion batteries leading to a steady loss of charge. This discovery provides a new understanding of battery life and offers strategies to combat self-discharge, which could improve performance in various applications from smartphones to electric vehicles.

Sometimes plants are so similar to each other that the methods developed by 18^th century scientist Carl Linnaeus for identifying species are not enough. In a thesis from the University of Gothenburg, completely new species of daisies have been discovered when analysed using modern DNA technology.

Ising machines are specialized computing systems designed to solve complex optimization problems by arranging “spins” to minimize system energy. However, their fully connected architecture leads to a large circuit footprint, limiting scalability. In a recent study, researchers from Japan developed a method to halve the required spin–spin interactions using a novel matrix-folding technique. Their findings will pave the way for highly scalable Ising machines, making them more practical for real-world applications.

The predominant treatment for prostate cancer, a prevalent malignancy in men, is the surgical removal of the prostate (radical prostatectomy) for which biopsy is a prerequisite. However, the high costs and associated complications of biopsy impose financial and health burdens on patients. A new study developed a diagnostic strategy for patients with prostate cancer to undergo radical prostatectomy without the need for biopsy, potentially decreasing hospital stay duration and reduced expenditure for patients.