Dr. Johnson V. John, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, has been appointed as a standing member of the NIH Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering (MTE) Study Section. His four-year term begins in November 2025. The appointment recognizes Dr. John’s leadership in biomaterials and regenerative medicine and his ongoing contributions to advancing musculoskeletal tissue repair and engineering.

This review presents a comprehensive analysis of the electromagnetic shielding mechanisms, advanced synthesis techniques, and material optimization strategies for ceramic-based electromagnetic shielding materials. Meanwhile, this review discusses the research progress of traditional ceramics (such as oxides, carbides, borides, nitrides and ferrites) and emerging ceramics (such as polymer-derived ceramics, MAX phase ceramics and high-entropy ceramics). Furthermore, the review outlines future research directions in four key areas: microstructure engineering for high-efficiency electromagnetic shielding ceramics, advanced manufacturing technologies, multifunctional integration of shielding properties, and the development of artificial intelligence-driven design approaches for ceramic materials.

FAU’s “Art of Science” contest turns research into stunning visual stories. The top image, “First Selfie … Cephie,” shows an octopus seemingly posing for a camera, showcasing its incredible dexterity. Other top winners are the “Sea Turtle Beginning,” capturing embryonic development inside an egg, and “Journey to Space,” a high-altitude balloon bursting nearly 100,000 feet above Earth. The contest celebrates creativity across science, art, and the community, revealing the hidden beauty and wonder of discovery.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects approximately 14.1 million people in the U.S. Pharmacological treatment options for AUD have advanced only minimally since 2004, underscoring the urgent need for novel therapeutic targets. To uncover some of these potential targets, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism awarded a two-year grant to TTUHSC’s Dawei Li, Ph.D., who will seek to identify new neurobiological factors for potential intervention, including a possible link between endogenous retroviruses and neuroinflammation.

An AI from the University of Würzburg autonomously controlled a satellite in orbit for the first time, demonstrating the potential of intelligent, self-learning space systems. 

A study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London and University College London has found that humans have a form of remote touch, or the ability to sense objects without direct contact, a sense that some animals have.  

Human touch is typically understood as a proximal sense, limited to what we physically touch. However, recent findings in animal sensory systems have challenged this view. Certain shorebirds, such as sandpipers and plovers, use a form of “remote touch” to detect prey hidden beneath the sand (du Toit et al. 2020; de Fouw et al. 2016). Remote touch allows the detection of objects buried under granular materials through subtle mechanical cues transmitted through the medium, when a moving pressure is applied nearby. 

  The study in IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) investigated whether humans share a similar capability. Participants moved their fingers gently through sand to locate a hidden cube before physically touching it. Remarkably, the results revealed a comparable ability to that seen in shorebirds, despite humans lacking the specialized beak structures that enable this sense in birds. 

Mechanoluminescence materials are highly promising for haptic interface sensors. However, they fail to achieve sharp signal generation and high spectral resolution owing to a broad emission spectra. Recently, Hanyang University scientists have innovatively utilized a dual-functional chromatic filtration strategy employing F8BT conjugated polymer shell on copper-doped zinc sulfide to achieve a refined and intensified signal. This work paves the way for a scalable framework for high-resolution mechanoluminescence platforms.