Cells all require the transport of materials to maintain their function. In nerve cells, a tiny motor made of protein called KIF1A is responsible for that. Mutations in this protein can lead to neurological disorders, including difficulties in walking, intellectual impairment and nerve degradation. It’s known that mutations in KIF1A also result in a weakened motor performance, but this has been difficult to measure so far. Researchers including those from the University of Tokyo and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan have measured changes in the force of KIF1A using a nanospring, a tiny, coiled structure, made of DNA which could lead to improved diagnosis of diseases related to the protein’s mutations.

Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a research team led by Professor Jae-Hyeung Park from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has developed a holographic augmented reality (AR) display that significantly enhances realism through the incorporation of optical occlusion effects.

The study, titled “Enhancing Realism in Holographic Augmented Reality Displays Through Occlusion Handling,” was published on October 7 as an inside cover article in Laser & Photonics Reviews (Impact Factor: 10.0), a leading international journal in optics published by Wiley-VCH (Germany).