New therapeutic brain implants defy the need for surgery
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 3-Apr-2026 15:15 ET (3-Apr-2026 19:15 GMT/UTC)
Microscopic bioelectronic devices could one day travel through the body’s circulatory system and autonomously self-implant in a target region of the brain. These “circulatronics” can be wirelessly powered to provide focused electrical stimulation to a precise region of the brain, which could be used to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and cancer.
Ahead of the G20 summit in Johannesburg/South Africa, on 22 and 23 November 2025, the science academies of the G20 countries, including the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, have issued science-based recommendations developed in the Science20 process. The joint statement “Climate Change and Well-Being”, recommends measures to address the consequences of climate change and to adapt in the areas of health, ecology and technology.
A new deep learning framework can accurately classify four molecular subgroups of medulloblastoma and predict critical genetic risk factors using magnetic resonance imaging, according to a study by researchers from China. The artificial intelligence model achieved a median accuracy of 77.5% for subgroup classification and up to 91.3% for predicting high-risk genetic alterations. This approach could help clinicians stratify risk and tailor therapies without invasive testing.
A study by researchers from the UK, Ghana and the USA - and led by the University of Plymouth (UK) used thermal imaging technology and other sensors to measure the leaf temperatures found at CO2 levels forecast to occur in 2050. It found that temperatures within the forest canopies rose by around 1.3°C as a direct consequence of increases in CO2 – from an average of 21.5°C under current conditions to 22.8°C at the predicted 2050 CO2 levels. They believe that as well as having a direct impact on leaf pore structure, it could impact trees’ ability to transmit water back into the environment, which would have a knock-on effect on the water cycle globally.
The research team led by Professor Daping He at Wuhan University of Technology reported a method for actively controlling the shielding efficiency of microwaves based on a micrometer-thick graphene metasurface. The continuous modulation between wave transmission and shielding in an ultra-wide range of 9.66%–99.78% is achieved, due to the remarkable anisotropy of wave-induced electron oscillation. The metasurface achieves facile preparation and open-air processability utilizing laser-induced ultrafast kinetics, facilitating its application in advanced smart electromagnetic devices. Additionally, the metasurface demonstrates potential in a novel paradigm for data electromagnetic encryption.