physicsworld--2020-09-22--Closing the skills gap - Physics World

Closing the skills gap - Physics World

There are several big challenges in physics where we are constantly told to “ mind the gap ” .
There ’ s the gender pay and promotions gap .
There ’ s the student attainment gap .
And then there ’ s the graduate skills gap , which refers to the difference between the skills commonly exhibited by physics graduates and the skills employers commonly report as being required .
All three gaps can be confusing and frustrating for students , academics , industry and government , but progress in the skills gap is fortunately being achieved .
In 2019 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SEPnet ) , were challenged by a group of university leaders to characterize this physics skills gap : what skills were missing , why and which actions were proving effective in addressing it .
We took initial lessons from the Higher Education Academy , UK Physical Sciences Centre ’ s extensive 2010 study Skills Required by New Physics Graduates and their Development in Degree Programmes by Steve Hanson and Tina Overton .
We also considered many industry , university and political voices that have shaped the issue subsequently , not least the 2016 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Graduate Employability .
Crucially , we acquired insights from hundreds of physics students and employers who have taken part in the SEPnet Employer Engagement programme .
Consistently , one activity stood out as particularly beneficial : short , structured , paid summer work placements .
Moreover , such placements can benefit employers in all regions of the country – not just in the capital – as well as small and medium-sized enterprises ( SMEs ) in a range of different sectors .
This key finding and others are outlined in our recent report @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – What it is and How to Address it .
The report found that universities and businesses need to work together , in effective and meaningful ways , to reduce the impact of the skills gap on physicists ’ futures and on industry .
There is also an onus on academia to make sure that physics departments are providing the specialist and transferable skills that graduates need and employers seek .
Employers of physics graduates continue to cite the importance of both technical and transferable skills – they do not want to see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Nevertheless , employers frequently report that physicists ’ transferable skills ( often described as soft skills ) tend to be poorly developed – students , for example , often lack commercial understanding .
Such messages can put students and academics on the defensive , so it is important not to view the debate as a blame game .
Indeed , the skills gap may equally be considered an expectations gap on the part of employers , reflecting the mismatch between what individual employers expect from graduates , and the experience students can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a non-commercial university environment .
Closing the skills gaps requires co-operation , not antagonism , between students , universities and employers .
The potential to address the skills gap by placing students in physics-related work mid-way through their degrees is not rocket science .
However , the historical sandwich-degree model , which involves a full-year placement during a degree , has rarely achieved a high uptake .
SEPnet students pointed out some of the core failings of that model – a year added to their degree , the opportunity cost of delayed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their study paths from that of their peers ( with knock-on effects for social support and accommodation ) .
In contrast , the SEPnet eight-week summer placement scheme provides enough time for students to develop some commercial awareness , and to understand how their knowledge and skills relate to industry needs , but is not so long as to disrupt their degree-completion timescale , earnings trajectory or peer networks .
For employers , such an eight-week placement scheme represents a much lower financial and human-resource risk than a traditional placement scheme .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reach of many SMEs , for which a full-year placement may be beyond consideration .
Feedback from both students and employers alike is positive , despite the placement only being two months long .
Moreover , SEPnet ’ s short placement scheme is also open to PhD students during or at the end of their thesis , providing them with equivalent opportunities to develop industry-relevant skills , while also enabling employers to explore higher-skilled graduates .
These summer placements are not just short , they are also structured and paid .
The existence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diverse pool of undergraduates from across the nine SEPnet member universities can participate , crucially including students who do not already have social connections in physics-related industry .
While an employer ’ s efforts to find a work placement for the child of an employee might engender staff goodwill , it can also perpetuate gender and racial stereotypes seen in physics-based industry .
In contrast , in the summer 2020 cohort of SEPnet placement students , 32 % were women and 24 % were from BAME backgrounds .
Paying the placement students , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SEPnet scheme , is similarly important .
By doing so , both employers and students can attach monetary value to the scheme in addition to its non-monetized benefits , and avoid excluding students who are not able to sustain a summer of unpaid work .
The principal limitation on the SEPnet scheme is the number of employers offering placements – typically 75 students undertake placements each year , but four times that number submit full applications .
If graduates are not exhibiting the full range of industry-relevant skills that employers desire , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from students to develop those skills .
Physics students across the UK – not just those we meet through SEPnet – need more businesses ton provide short , structured , paid summer placements that will let them develop industry-relevant skills in employment .
Universities , for their part , need to ensure that students focus on the applicability and transferability of their knowledge and skills , and that they are materially supported in gaining crucial experience that the university alone can not provide .

Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue Taken from the September 2020 issue of. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app
Why do many science graduates lack the skills that industry is looking for? Sean Ryan and Veronica Benson of the South-East Physics Network explore the problem and discover that there is one straightforward way for universities and businesses to address this
Mutual benefit Industry placements during physics degrees that are short, structured and paid work out best for everyone involved. (Courtesy: iStock/monkeybusinessimages)
There are several big challenges in physics where we are constantly told to “mind the gap”. There’s the gender pay and promotions gap. There’s the student attainment gap. And then there’s the graduate skills gap, which refers to the difference between the skills commonly exhibited by physics graduates and the skills employers commonly report as being required. All three gaps can be confusing and frustrating for students, academics, industry and government, but progress in the skills gap is fortunately being achieved.
In 2019 we, the South-East Physics Network (SEPnet), were challenged by a group of university leaders to characterize this physics skills gap: what skills were missing, why and which actions were proving effective in addressing it. We took initial lessons from the Higher Education Academy, UK Physical Sciences Centre’s extensive 2010 study Skills Required by New Physics Graduates and their Development in Degree Programmes by Steve Hanson and Tina Overton. We also considered many industry, university and political voices that have shaped the issue subsequently, not least the 2016 Wakeham Review of STEM Degree Provision and Graduate Employability.
A joint problem
Crucially, we acquired insights from hundreds of physics students and employers who have taken part in the SEPnet Employer Engagement programme. Consistently, one activity stood out as particularly beneficial: short, structured, paid summer work placements. Moreover, such placements can benefit employers in all regions of the country – not just in the capital – as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a range of different sectors. This key finding and others are outlined in our recent report The Physics Graduate ‘Skills Gap’ – What it is and How to Address it.
Universities and businesses need to work together, in effective and meaningful ways, to reduce the impact of the skills gap on physicists’ futures and on industry
The report found that universities and businesses need to work together, in effective and meaningful ways, to reduce the impact of the skills gap on physicists’ futures and on industry. There is also an onus on academia to make sure that physics departments are providing the specialist and transferable skills that graduates need and employers seek. Employers of physics graduates continue to cite the importance of both technical and transferable skills – they do not want to see the core physics content diminished or degraded. Nevertheless, employers frequently report that physicists’ transferable skills (often described as soft skills) tend to be poorly developed – students, for example, often lack commercial understanding. Such messages can put students and academics on the defensive, so it is important not to view the debate as a blame game.
Indeed, the skills gap may equally be considered an expectations gap on the part of employers, reflecting the mismatch between what individual employers expect from graduates, and the experience students can reasonably develop over three or four years in a non-commercial university environment. Closing the skills gaps requires co-operation, not antagonism, between students, universities and employers.
Short, structured, paid
The potential to address the skills gap by placing students in physics-related work mid-way through their degrees is not rocket science. However, the historical sandwich-degree model, which involves a full-year placement during a degree, has rarely achieved a high uptake. SEPnet students pointed out some of the core failings of that model – a year added to their degree, the opportunity cost of delayed graduate employment, and the dephasing of their study paths from that of their peers (with knock-on effects for social support and accommodation). In contrast, the SEPnet eight-week summer placement scheme provides enough time for students to develop some commercial awareness, and to understand how their knowledge and skills relate to industry needs, but is not so long as to disrupt their degree-completion timescale, earnings trajectory or peer networks.
For employers, such an eight-week placement scheme represents a much lower financial and human-resource risk than a traditional placement scheme. It has also proven to be well within reach of many SMEs, for which a full-year placement may be beyond consideration. Feedback from both students and employers alike is positive, despite the placement only being two months long. Moreover, SEPnet’s short placement scheme is also open to PhD students during or at the end of their thesis, providing them with equivalent opportunities to develop industry-relevant skills, while also enabling employers to explore higher-skilled graduates.
These summer placements are not just short, they are also structured and paid. The existence of a structured scheme ensures that the diverse pool of undergraduates from across the nine SEPnet member universities can participate, crucially including students who do not already have social connections in physics-related industry. While an employer’s efforts to find a work placement for the child of an employee might engender staff goodwill, it can also perpetuate gender and racial stereotypes seen in physics-based industry.
In contrast, in the summer 2020 cohort of SEPnet placement students, 32% were women and 24% were from BAME backgrounds. Paying the placement students, even at the modest level of the SEPnet scheme, is similarly important. By doing so, both employers and students can attach monetary value to the scheme in addition to its non-monetized benefits, and avoid excluding students who are not able to sustain a summer of unpaid work.
The principal limitation on the SEPnet scheme is the number of employers offering placements – typically 75 students undertake placements each year, but four times that number submit full applications. If graduates are not exhibiting the full range of industry-relevant skills that employers desire, it is clearly not because of any unwillingness from students to develop those skills.
Crucial experience
Physics students across the UK – not just those we meet through SEPnet – need more businesses ton provide short, structured, paid summer placements that will let them develop industry-relevant skills in employment. Universities, for their part, need to ensure that students focus on the applicability and transferability of their knowledge and skills, and that they are materially supported in gaining crucial experience that the university alone cannot provide.


physicsworld--2020-09-23--New class of supergiant stars could explain missing supernova progenitors - Physics World

A new class of stars called “ fast yellow pulsating supergiants ” has been identified by astronomers in the US and Switzerland .
The discovery could solve the “ red supergiant problem ” of astrophysics , which refers to the lack of observations of Type IIP supernova progenitor stars with masses in the range of 16–30 solar masses .
Stars heavier than about 8 solar masses are thought to spent their final phase of life as red supergiants , before undergoing core collapse and exploding as supernovae .
The mass of a Type IIP supernova progenitor can be determined by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before it collapses – which itself occurs before the star explodes .
Although red supergiants have been observed in the 16–30 solar masses range , none so far have been identified as progenitors of Type IIP supernovae .
This contradiction of the current theory of stellar evolution is known as the red supergiant problem .
It seems that only the lower-mass RSGs explode , which raises the question : what is the fate of the more massive RSGs ?
One possibility is that many RSGs evolve back to their previous yellow or blue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would end their lives as something other than RSGs , thereby resolving the red supergiant problem .
Recently , a team of astronomers sought to observe such post-RSGs .
Trevor Dorn-Wallenstein at the University of Washington and colleagues reasoned that stars called pulsating yellow supergiants might be candidates for post-RSGs .
If an RSG were to lose enough mass , it would evolve towards yellow and blue on the Hertzsprung-Russell ( HR ) diagram and pulsate noticeably .
The HR diagram plots stars ’ luminosity against their effective temperature .
“ The red @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” notes Philip Massey of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona , who was not involved in this latest research .
“ One explanation is that these stars ‘ turn around ’ and return to the blue side of the HR diagram .
Then the question becomes : how do you distinguish between a post-red supergiant star from a pre-red supergiant star ?
One way to do it would be to look for pulsations – only post-RSGs should display unusual pulsations .
And that ’ s just what [ Dorn-Wallenstein and colleagues ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite ( TESS ) , which collects light curves of the brightest stars across 85 % of the sky .
TESS takes observations every two minutes and light curves are graphs that show the brightness of a star as a function of time .
Dorn-Wallenstein and colleagues analysed the variability of 76 supergiants in their search for stars that have the predicted properties of post-RSGs .
Their search revealed a group of five yellow supergiants that show rapid multiperiodic variability with periods of less than one day .
These @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than typical Cepheid variables ( stars that fluctuate periodically in brightness ) , fainter than out-bursting yellow “ hypergiants ” , and cooler than the coolest Alpha Cygni variables , which are another type of supergiant .
The five yellow supergiants are also concentrated on a region in an HR diagram not previously associated with pulsating stars .
As a result , Dorn-Wallenstein and colleagues say that the stars appear to belong to a class of never-before-seen supergiants , which they have called fast yellow pulsating supergiants ( FYPSs ) .
“ They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been a coincidence , ” says Massey .
“ All massive stars have some variability , but they made a convincing case that this is a unique set of objects.
” Tantalizingly for the red supergiant problem , the lowest estimated mass of the observed fast yellow pulsating supergiants is close to the highest mass of the red supergiant supernova progenitors .
Thus , rather than immediately dying in supernovae , it is plausible that the more massive RSGs evolve into FYPSs as part of their lifecycle .
Dorn-Wallenstein and colleagues leave it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evolutionary status of these FYPSs .
While these objects may indeed have evolved from RSGs , more theoretical and observational work needs to be done to tell whether or not these FYPSs are definitively the solution to the red supergiant problem .
The study is described in a preprint on arXiv that has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal .

Eye in the sky: the TESS spacecraft has been used to identify a new class of supergiant stars. (Courtesy: NASA)
A new class of stars called “fast yellow pulsating supergiants” has been identified by astronomers in the US and Switzerland. The discovery could solve the “red supergiant problem” of astrophysics, which refers to the lack of observations of Type IIP supernova progenitor stars with masses in the range of 16–30 solar masses.
Stars heavier than about 8 solar masses are thought to spent their final phase of life as red supergiants, before undergoing core collapse and exploding as supernovae. The mass of a Type IIP supernova progenitor can be determined by measuring the star’s brightness just before it collapses – which itself occurs before the star explodes. Although red supergiants have been observed in the 16–30 solar masses range, none so far have been identified as progenitors of Type IIP supernovae. This contradiction of the current theory of stellar evolution is known as the red supergiant problem.
It seems that only the lower-mass RSGs explode, which raises the question: what is the fate of the more massive RSGs? One possibility is that many RSGs evolve back to their previous yellow or blue stages of their lifecycle. Such post-RSGs would end their lives as something other than RSGs, thereby resolving the red supergiant problem.
Evolving to yellow and blue
Recently, a team of astronomers sought to observe such post-RSGs. Trevor Dorn-Wallenstein at the University of Washington and colleagues reasoned that stars called pulsating yellow supergiants might be candidates for post-RSGs. If an RSG were to lose enough mass, it would evolve towards yellow and blue on the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram and pulsate noticeably. The HR diagram plots stars’ luminosity against their effective temperature.
“The red supergiant problem has been around for years,” notes Philip Massey of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, who was not involved in this latest research. “One explanation is that these stars ‘turn around’ and return to the blue side of the HR diagram. Then the question becomes: how do you distinguish between a post-red supergiant star from a pre-red supergiant star? One way to do it would be to look for pulsations – only post-RSGs should display unusual pulsations. And that’s just what [Dorn-Wallenstein and colleagues] did.”
The team used data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which collects light curves of the brightest stars across 85% of the sky. TESS takes observations every two minutes and light curves are graphs that show the brightness of a star as a function of time. Dorn-Wallenstein and colleagues analysed the variability of 76 supergiants in their search for stars that have the predicted properties of post-RSGs.
New class of supergiants
Their search revealed a group of five yellow supergiants that show rapid multiperiodic variability with periods of less than one day. These stars are also more luminous and warmer than typical Cepheid variables (stars that fluctuate periodically in brightness), fainter than out-bursting yellow “hypergiants”, and cooler than the coolest Alpha Cygni variables, which are another type of supergiant. The five yellow supergiants are also concentrated on a region in an HR diagram not previously associated with pulsating stars. As a result, Dorn-Wallenstein and colleagues say that the stars appear to belong to a class of never-before-seen supergiants, which they have called fast yellow pulsating supergiants (FYPSs).
“They established that this variability could not have been a coincidence,” says Massey. “All massive stars have some variability, but they made a convincing case that this is a unique set of objects.”
Tantalizingly for the red supergiant problem, the lowest estimated mass of the observed fast yellow pulsating supergiants is close to the highest mass of the red supergiant supernova progenitors. Thus, rather than immediately dying in supernovae, it is plausible that the more massive RSGs evolve into FYPSs as part of their lifecycle.
Dorn-Wallenstein and colleagues leave it to future work to determine the exact evolutionary status of these FYPSs. While these objects may indeed have evolved from RSGs, more theoretical and observational work needs to be done to tell whether or not these FYPSs are definitively the solution to the red supergiant problem.
The study is described in a preprint on arXiv that has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.


physicsworld--2020-09-24--Machine learning and Doppler vibrometer monitor household appliances - Physics World

A way of monitoring household appliances by using machine learning to analyse vibrations on a wall or ceiling has been developed by researchers in the US .
Their system could be used to create centralized smart home systems without the need for individual sensors in each object .
What is more , the technology could help track energy use , identify electrical faults and even remind people to empty the dishwasher .
“ Recognizing home activities can help computers better understand human behaviours and needs , with the hope of developing a better human-machine interface , ” says team member @ @ @ @ @ @ @ University .
The system , dubbed VibroSense , comprises two core parts : a laser Doppler vibrometer and a deep learning model , which is a type of machine learning system .
The vibrometer detects tiny vibrations by measuring the distortion of a laser beam reflected from a surface .
For single-story houses , VibroSense ’ s laser is targeted at a central interior wall within the home , whereas in two-story residences , the researchers aim it at a ceiling .
The researchers ’ prototype device is cable of detecting vibration velocities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resolution of around 0.2 µm/s .
The deep learning model learns how to identify individual appliances based on their characteristic noises and distinct paths that these vibrations follow through the building .
Training the model involves using samples of individual vibration patterns for each target appliance .
It takes around 1-2 h , depending on the number of vibration sources being monitored .
In tests undertaken across five households over two days , the VibroSense prototype could identify the activities of 18 different common household objects with a 96 % accuracy rate – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different rooms and floors .
This included picking out the signals generated by an electric kettle , a range hood , a microwave , a washing machine , an exhaust fan and even a dripping tap .
In addition , the device was capable of distinguishing between different stages of individual appliance use with an average accuracy of more than 97 % .
“ Since our system can detect both the occurrence of an indoor event , as well as the time of an event , it could be used to estimate electricity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advice for homeowners , ” says Zhang .
In addition , VibroSense may even be able to help homeowners detect electrical faults before they become critical .
“ The theory is that if there is any abnormal condition to certain appliance , their vibration pattern would change , which VibroSense probably can pick up and detect with appropriate training , ” Zhang explains .
In the future , Zhang believes that it may be possible to create a more advanced version of the machine learning system that uses vibration data for assorted appliances @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a home without needing additional training .
The concept is not without some inherent issues , however – specifically as regards to the privacy implications of the device being able to “ spy ” on the activities going on in neighbouring flats , should it be used within an apartment complex .
For this reason , the researchers say , the design is perhaps best suited for implementation within detached dwellings .
Commercial development of VibroSense , Zhang commented , “ would definitely require collaboration between researches , industry practitioners and government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the right purposes.
” Michael Connelly , an engineer at Ireland ’ s University of Limerick comments , “ The VibroSense technology has the potential to greatly enhance the understanding of the complex home environment and find applications in other areas of vibration measurement ” .
However , Connelly , who was not involved in the development of VibroSense adds , “ laser vibrometers are expensive thereby it will be challenging to commercially exploit the VibroSense system , particularly as the deployment of the Internet of Things in the home increases.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are aware of .
According to Zhang , the current version of VibroSense would cost around $ 1000– $ 2000 .
However , he adds that similar results may be possible using cheaper sensors such as accelerometers or geophones .
With their initial study complete , the researchers are now moving to explore the potential of using similar , minimally intrusive sensing devices to monitor human activities within broader settings – with the goal of using the data gathered to both enhance human–computer interactions and also to explore potential diagnostic medical applications .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive , Mobile , Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies .

Good vibrations: would you like to know what your kettle is doing right now? (Courtesy: Hamish Johnston)
A way of monitoring household appliances by using machine learning to analyse vibrations on a wall or ceiling has been developed by researchers in the US. Their system could be used to create centralized smart home systems without the need for individual sensors in each object. What is more, the technology could help track energy use, identify electrical faults and even remind people to empty the dishwasher.
“Recognizing home activities can help computers better understand human behaviours and needs, with the hope of developing a better human-machine interface,” says team member and information scientist Cheng Zhang of Cornell University.
The system, dubbed VibroSense, comprises two core parts: a laser Doppler vibrometer and a deep learning model, which is a type of machine learning system.
Wall or ceiling
The vibrometer detects tiny vibrations by measuring the distortion of a laser beam reflected from a surface. For single-story houses, VibroSense’s laser is targeted at a central interior wall within the home, whereas in two-story residences, the researchers aim it at a ceiling. The researchers’ prototype device is cable of detecting vibration velocities of up to 1.25 m/s with a resolution of around 0.2 µm/s.
The deep learning model learns how to identify individual appliances based on their characteristic noises and distinct paths that these vibrations follow through the building. Training the model involves using samples of individual vibration patterns for each target appliance. It takes around 1-2 h, depending on the number of vibration sources being monitored.
In tests undertaken across five households over two days, the VibroSense prototype could identify the activities of 18 different common household objects with a 96% accuracy rate – even when the appliances were spread across different rooms and floors. This included picking out the signals generated by an electric kettle, a range hood, a microwave, a washing machine, an exhaust fan and even a dripping tap. In addition, the device was capable of distinguishing between different stages of individual appliance use with an average accuracy of more than 97%.
Energy-saving advice
“Since our system can detect both the occurrence of an indoor event, as well as the time of an event, it could be used to estimate electricity and water-usage rates, and provide energy-saving advice for homeowners,” says Zhang.
In addition, VibroSense may even be able to help homeowners detect electrical faults before they become critical. “The theory is that if there is any abnormal condition to certain appliance, their vibration pattern would change, which VibroSense probably can pick up and detect with appropriate training,” Zhang explains.
In the future, Zhang believes that it may be possible to create a more advanced version of the machine learning system that uses vibration data for assorted appliances to accommodate the addition of new appliances to a home without needing additional training.
Privacy issues
The concept is not without some inherent issues, however – specifically as regards to the privacy implications of the device being able to “spy” on the activities going on in neighbouring flats, should it be used within an apartment complex. For this reason, the researchers say, the design is perhaps best suited for implementation within detached dwellings.
Commercial development of VibroSense, Zhang commented, “would definitely require collaboration between researches, industry practitioners and government – to make sure this was used for the right purposes.”
Michael Connelly, an engineer at Ireland’s University of Limerick comments, “The VibroSense technology has the potential to greatly enhance the understanding of the complex home environment and find applications in other areas of vibration measurement”. However, Connelly, who was not involved in the development of VibroSense adds, “laser vibrometers are expensive thereby it will be challenging to commercially exploit the VibroSense system, particularly as the deployment of the Internet of Things in the home increases.”
This is an issue that the researchers are aware of. According to Zhang, the current version of VibroSense would cost around $1000–$2000. However, he adds that similar results may be possible using cheaper sensors such as accelerometers or geophones.
With their initial study complete, the researchers are now moving to explore the potential of using similar, minimally intrusive sensing devices to monitor human activities within broader settings – with the goal of using the data gathered to both enhance human–computer interactions and also to explore potential diagnostic medical applications.
The research is described in the Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.


physicsworld--2020-09-24--The promises and pitfalls of peer review - Physics World

This week ’ s podcast focuses on Peer Review Week , an annual event honouring the vital role that peer @ @ @ @ @ quality of published scientific papers .
But while peer review is important , it ’ @ @ @ @ @ The quality of reviews is not always up to scratch – as the darkly comic @ @ @ @ @ demonstrates .
The pool of peer reviewers is nowhere near as diverse as the scientific @ @ @ @ @ many helpful , conscientious reviewers aren ’ t getting the rewards and recognition they deserve @ @ @ @ @ about these challenges ( and strategies for addressing them ) are Kim Eggleton , the @ @ @ @ @ at IOP Publishing ( which publishes Physics World ) , and Bahar Mehmani , who @ @ @ @ @ the scientific publishing giant Elsevier .
Kim and Bahar also discuss how the coronavirus pandemic @ @ @ @ @ With so much at stake for public health , the need for published scientific research @ @ @ @ @ robust and transparent as possible has never been greater .

This week’s podcast focuses on Peer Review Week, an annual event honouring the vital role that peer review plays in maintaining the quality of published scientific papers. But while peer review is important, it’s certainly not perfect. The quality of reviews is not always up to scratch – as the darkly comic website Shit My Reviewers Say demonstrates. The pool of peer reviewers is nowhere near as diverse as the scientific community itself. And the many helpful, conscientious reviewers aren’t getting the rewards and recognition they deserve.
Joining us to talk about these challenges (and strategies for addressing them) are Kim Eggleton, the Research Integrity and Inclusion Manager at IOP Publishing (which publishes Physics World), and Bahar Mehmani, who is Reviewer Experience Lead at the scientific publishing giant Elsevier. Kim and Bahar also discuss how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting peer review. With so much at stake for public health, the need for published scientific research to be as accurate, robust and transparent as possible has never been greater.


physicsworld--2020-09-24--Dog-like robot measures patients’ vital signs remotely - Physics World

A team of US-based researchers has created an innovative robotic platform that can remotely measure hospital patients ’ vital signs – and could help to significantly reduce the infection risk faced by healthcare workers assessing people with symptoms of COVID-19 .
The platform consists of four cameras attached to a dog-like robot developed by Boston Dynamics .
The robots , which are operated via a remote handheld device , can also be equipped with a tablet that allows doctors to ask patients about their symptoms without the need to be in the same room .
The results of the research @ @ @ @ @ @ @ TechRxiv , but have not yet been peer-reviewed by scientific or medical experts .
The paper describes how researchers based at Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) , Boston Dynamics and Brigham and Women ’ s Hospital used the robotic platform to measure vital signs – including skin temperature , breathing rate , pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation – in healthy volunteers , from a distance of two metres .
The team is now making plans to test the robot ’ s efficacy in patients with COVID-19 symptoms .
As Hen-Wei @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the lead authors , explains , the measurement of vital signs is an “ essential aspect of the initial patient clinical evaluation ” .
This is particularly true in the case of COVID-19 , which is often associated with significant changes in vital signs , including fever , which can be detected via elevated skin temperature , and shortness of breath , which can be detected through measurement of the respiratory rate , as well as an increase in heart rate and a decrease in blood oxygen saturation .
“ Identifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to triage patients and determine who needs the most urgent care , ” says Huang .
“ However , current standard procedures require healthcare workers to put sensors and devices on patients , thus increasing the risk of the workers being infected with COVID-19.
” Using the robotic platform to measure the patient ’ s vital signs can mitigate the risk of spreading infection and reduce the consumption of personal protective equipment .
Moreover , an agile mobile robot allows measurements to be taken in a dynamic indoor environment , such as an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ view , one key advantage of using the robotic platform in a clinical environment is that the camera setup enables simultaneous monitoring of four vital signs that are highly relevant to COVID symptoms .
“ As the setup is mobile and enabled with artificial intelligence , the robot would dominate the measurement procedures instead of asking patients to adapt to it .
Moreover , the agile platform could follow and track patients ’ movements , and thus give much freedom to patients during the measurement , ” he explains .
Following an initial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Huang and his team are now amplifying efforts to evaluate patients presenting with symptoms and signs of concern for COVID-19 .
“ Our next steps include development of a fully autonomous robotic system that can handle the vital signs monitoring by itself without intervention from the clinical staff , ” he says .
“ In addition , we aim to further reduce the cost to maximize the cost-effectiveness of the system and its reach globally .
”

Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital hope to reduce the risk to healthcare workers posed by COVID-19 by using robots to remotely measure patients’ vital signs. (Courtesy: the researchers, edited by MIT News)
A team of US-based researchers has created an innovative robotic platform that can remotely measure hospital patients’ vital signs – and could help to significantly reduce the infection risk faced by healthcare workers assessing people with symptoms of COVID-19.
The platform consists of four cameras attached to a dog-like robot developed by Boston Dynamics. The robots, which are operated via a remote handheld device, can also be equipped with a tablet that allows doctors to ask patients about their symptoms without the need to be in the same room.
The results of the research have been published on the preprint server TechRxiv, but have not yet been peer-reviewed by scientific or medical experts. The paper describes how researchers based at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston Dynamics and Brigham and Women’s Hospital used the robotic platform to measure vital signs – including skin temperature, breathing rate, pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation – in healthy volunteers, from a distance of two metres. The team is now making plans to test the robot’s efficacy in patients with COVID-19 symptoms.
Vital signs
As Hen-Wei Huang, post-doctoral researcher at MIT and one of the lead authors, explains, the measurement of vital signs is an “essential aspect of the initial patient clinical evaluation”. This is particularly true in the case of COVID-19, which is often associated with significant changes in vital signs, including fever, which can be detected via elevated skin temperature, and shortness of breath, which can be detected through measurement of the respiratory rate, as well as an increase in heart rate and a decrease in blood oxygen saturation.
“Identifying abnormal vital signs like these helps clinicians to triage patients and determine who needs the most urgent care,” says Huang. “However, current standard procedures require healthcare workers to put sensors and devices on patients, thus increasing the risk of the workers being infected with COVID-19.”
Using the robotic platform to measure the patient’s vital signs can mitigate the risk of spreading infection and reduce the consumption of personal protective equipment. Moreover, an agile mobile robot allows measurements to be taken in a dynamic indoor environment, such as an emergency department.
Next steps
In Huang’s view, one key advantage of using the robotic platform in a clinical environment is that the camera setup enables simultaneous monitoring of four vital signs that are highly relevant to COVID symptoms.
“As the setup is mobile and enabled with artificial intelligence, the robot would dominate the measurement procedures instead of asking patients to adapt to it. Moreover, the agile platform could follow and track patients’ movements, and thus give much freedom to patients during the measurement,” he explains.
Following an initial evaluation of the platform on healthy volunteers, Huang and his team are now amplifying efforts to evaluate patients presenting with symptoms and signs of concern for COVID-19.
“Our next steps include development of a fully autonomous robotic system that can handle the vital signs monitoring by itself without intervention from the clinical staff,” he says. “In addition, we aim to further reduce the cost to maximize the cost-effectiveness of the system and its reach globally.”


physicsworld--2020-09-24--Attosecond pulses track electron motion in liquid water - Physics World

Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have tracked the ultrafast movements of electrons in liquid water for the first time – an important step towards understanding the fine details of how chemical and biochemical reactions begin in liquid environments .
According to the classical Bohr model of the atom , an electron takes roughly 150 attoseconds ( 10-18s ) to orbit the proton in a hydrogen atom .
Measurements on a timescale of a few dozen attoseconds have been possible for several years now , notes team leader Hans Jakob Wörner of ETH ’ s Laboratory of Physical Chemistry , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ femtoseconds ( 10-15 s ) it is already possible to observe certain subatomic-scale processes – up to and including the breaking of chemical bonds .
“ Electron movements are the key events in chemical reactions , ” he says .
“ That ’ s why it ’ s so important to measure them on a high-resolution time scale.
” Wörner ’ s team were among the first to detect electron movements at the attosecond scale .
However , because the wavelength of their attosecond pulses is in the extreme ultraviolet ( XUV ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ air , they had to carry out their measurements in a vacuum chamber .
This restriction meant that they were only able to perform attosecond measurements on molecules in the gaseous state .
The researchers have now developed a novel measuring scheme that relies on comparing photoemissions ( that is , emissions of electrons prompted by light striking a material ) from liquid water with those of water vapour .
In their experiment , they inject a microscopic jet of liquid water into their vacuum chamber through a quartz nozzle with an inner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jet flows smoothly ( laminar flow ) for a few millimetres before breaking up into droplets , which then freeze upon contact with a liquid-nitrogen cold trap .
“ The laminar-flow region of the microjet allows us to study liquid water in a quasi-equilibrium state , very close to room temperature , ” Wörner explains .
To make their attosecond measurements , the team focus an XUV train of attosecond pulses ( obtained from a 30-femtosecond near-IR laser pulse in an argon gas cell ) onto the evaporating water .
In addition to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ focus a strongly attenuated replica of the IR pulse onto the liquid microjet .
This set-up allows them to detect electrons photoemitted from the liquid and gas phases at the same time .
The ETH Zurich researchers observed that photoelectrons from liquid water molecules are emitted 50-70 attoseconds after those emitted from gaseous water molecules .
This time difference stems from the fact that the molecules in liquid form are surrounded by other water molecules , Wörner explains .
This affects the molecules ’ electronic structure , producing a measurable time delay .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in liquids is an important step forward , since most chemical reactions – especially those that are biochemically interesting – take place in liquids , Wörner notes .
Reactions such as photosynthesis in plants and the biochemical processes on our retina that allow us to see are also triggered by light , just like photoemission in water – which is also the dominant source of DNA damage due to X-rays or other ionizing radiation .
“ With the help of attosecond measurements , scientists should gain new insights into the most elementary steps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he says .
The research is detailed in Science .

The scientists inject water from above into the analysis chamber, where it forms a short microjet that meets a laser beam. Credit: ETH Zurich / Inga Jordan
Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have tracked the ultrafast movements of electrons in liquid water for the first time – an important step towards understanding the fine details of how chemical and biochemical reactions begin in liquid environments.
According to the classical Bohr model of the atom, an electron takes roughly 150 attoseconds (10-18s) to orbit the proton in a hydrogen atom. Measurements on a timescale of a few dozen attoseconds have been possible for several years now, notes team leader Hans Jakob Wörner of ETH’s Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, and even at lower resolutions of 10 femtoseconds (10-15 s) it is already possible to observe certain subatomic-scale processes – up to and including the breaking of chemical bonds. “Electron movements are the key events in chemical reactions,” he says. “That’s why it’s so important to measure them on a high-resolution time scale.”
Wörner’s team were among the first to detect electron movements at the attosecond scale. However, because the wavelength of their attosecond pulses is in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) range, which is easily absorbed by air, they had to carry out their measurements in a vacuum chamber. This restriction meant that they were only able to perform attosecond measurements on molecules in the gaseous state.
Novel measuring scheme
The researchers have now developed a novel measuring scheme that relies on comparing photoemissions (that is, emissions of electrons prompted by light striking a material) from liquid water with those of water vapour. In their experiment, they inject a microscopic jet of liquid water into their vacuum chamber through a quartz nozzle with an inner diameter of roughly 25 mm. This jet flows smoothly (laminar flow) for a few millimetres before breaking up into droplets, which then freeze upon contact with a liquid-nitrogen cold trap. “The laminar-flow region of the microjet allows us to study liquid water in a quasi-equilibrium state, very close to room temperature,” Wörner explains.
To make their attosecond measurements, the team focus an XUV train of attosecond pulses (obtained from a 30-femtosecond near-IR laser pulse in an argon gas cell) onto the evaporating water. In addition to this XUV pulse train, they also focus a strongly attenuated replica of the IR pulse onto the liquid microjet. This set-up allows them to detect electrons photoemitted from the liquid and gas phases at the same time.
The ETH Zurich researchers observed that photoelectrons from liquid water molecules are emitted 50-70 attoseconds after those emitted from gaseous water molecules. This time difference stems from the fact that the molecules in liquid form are surrounded by other water molecules, Wörner explains. This affects the molecules’ electronic structure, producing a measurable time delay.
An important step forward
Going from measurements in gases to measurements in liquids is an important step forward, since most chemical reactions – especially those that are biochemically interesting – take place in liquids, Wörner notes. Reactions such as photosynthesis in plants and the biochemical processes on our retina that allow us to see are also triggered by light, just like photoemission in water – which is also the dominant source of DNA damage due to X-rays or other ionizing radiation. “With the help of attosecond measurements, scientists should gain new insights into the most elementary steps of these processes in the coming years,” he says.
The research is detailed in Science.


physicsworld--2020-09-24--Martian buildings could be made of chitin-based material - Physics World

Early settlers on Mars could build their homes using a material that includes chitin , which is a a fibrous substance made by a wide variety of living organisms from fish to fungi .
The versatile new material was developed by Javier Fernandez and colleagues at Singapore University of Technology and Design .
They used it to create objects ranging from cartoon figures and basic tools , to scale models of sturdy Martian shelters .
Manned missions to Mars have been discussed for decades , but NASA has now expressed hopes that a long-term settlement on the Red Planet could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Among the immense challenges that colonizers will face is the scarcity of basic resources on the Martian surface .
This is also becoming an issue here on Earth , where certain resources are being rapidly consumed and there is a movement towards sustainable and circular manufacturing processes .
One promising solution is to create materials using chitin — an abundant biological polymer that is made by a wide range of living things .
While it is highly unlikely that chitin-producing organisms currently live on Mars , they could easily be part of an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fernandez ’ s team created their new material by extracting a form of chitin from shrimp exoskeletons , through treatment with sodium hydroxide .
This chemical would be easily obtainable on Mars through the simple chemical process of electrolytic hydrolysis .
The researchers then dissolved the chitin in a low concentration of acetic acid – a common product of fermentation , which would be crucial to the food supply on an early Martian settlement .
Finally , they mixed the chitin solution with a powdered material simulating Martian soil , forming a thick @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the process is water – which can be readily found in Mars ’ subsurface ice .
After fine-tuning the ratios of these ingredients to optimize the structural properties of their material , Fernandez ’ s team demonstrated a wide variety of manufacturing methods .
These included casting techniques for producing cartoon figures and basic tools , including a functional wrench strong enough to tighten a hexagonal bolt .
The team also used the material as a mortar to repair holes .
Finally , they exploited the sediment ’ s self-adhesive properties to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a proposed Mars habitat called MARSHA .
Fernandez and colleagues have shown that their chitinous material not only requires minimal energy to produce ; its ingredients are also readily available on Mars , and do not compete with food production .
These advantages avoid the need for complex polymer synthesis and the shipping of expensive equipment – enabling the earliest Martian settlements to operate independently from Earth ’ s resources .
With some adaptation , these techniques could inspire new routes towards a circular , sustainable economy on Earth – which would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ecosystems .
The new material is described in PLOS One .

Chitinous Martian: two objects made using a chitin-based material that could be made on Mars. (Courtesy: Javier G Fernandez/CC-BY)
Early settlers on Mars could build their homes using a material that includes chitin, which is a a fibrous substance made by a wide variety of living organisms from fish to fungi. The versatile new material was developed by Javier Fernandez and colleagues at Singapore University of Technology and Design. They used it to create objects ranging from cartoon figures and basic tools, to scale models of sturdy Martian shelters.
Crewed missions to Mars have been discussed for decades, but NASA has now expressed hopes that a long-term settlement on the Red Planet could be achieved by the late 2030s. Among the immense challenges that colonizers will face is the scarcity of basic resources on the Martian surface. This is also becoming an issue here on Earth, where certain resources are being rapidly consumed and there is a movement towards sustainable and circular manufacturing processes.
One promising solution is to create materials using chitin – an abundant biological polymer that is made by a wide range of living things. While it is highly unlikely that chitin-producing organisms currently live on Mars, they could easily be part of an artificial ecosystem created on the planet.
Obtainable on Mars
Fernandez’s team created their new material by extracting a form of chitin from shrimp exoskeletons, through treatment with sodium hydroxide. This chemical would be easily obtainable on Mars through the simple chemical process of electrolytic hydrolysis.
The researchers then dissolved the chitin in a low concentration of acetic acid – a common product of fermentation, which would be crucial to the food supply on an early Martian settlement. Finally, they mixed the chitin solution with a powdered material simulating Martian soil, forming a thick sediment. The only other ingredient necessary for the process is water – which can be readily found in Mars’ subsurface ice.
After fine-tuning the ratios of these ingredients to optimize the structural properties of their material, Fernandez’s team demonstrated a wide variety of manufacturing methods. These included casting techniques for producing cartoon figures and basic tools, including a functional wrench strong enough to tighten a hexagonal bolt. The team also used the material as a mortar to repair holes. Finally, they exploited the sediment’s self-adhesive properties to 3D print a 5 m scale model of a proposed Mars habitat called MARSHA.
Fernandez and colleagues have shown that their chitinous material not only requires minimal energy to produce; its ingredients are also readily available on Mars, and do not compete with food production. These advantages avoid the need for complex polymer synthesis and the shipping of expensive equipment – enabling the earliest Martian settlements to operate independently from Earth’s resources. With some adaptation, these techniques could inspire new routes towards a circular, sustainable economy on Earth – which would operate without unleashing further damage on natural ecosystems.
The new material is described in PLOS One.


physicsworld--2020-09-25--Ultrasound signals are converted directly to visible images by new device - Physics World

The first ultrasound imaging device that converts acoustic signals directly into light has been created by Hyeonggeun Yu and colleagues at North Carolina State University in the US .
The device was fabricated by depositing an organic LED onto a piezoelectric crystal and it can produce real-time images without the need for signal processing .
This approach could significantly reduce the costs of advanced ultrasound imaging techniques , making them far more accessible in applications including engineering and medicine .
Ultrasound is an increasingly popular technique for imaging the interiors of objects – animate and inanimate .
It works by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a piezoelectric transducer , then using the same transducer to pick-up sound reflected from structures within the object .
The resulting voltages in the transducer are then converted into electrical signals , from which images can be reconstructed by a computer .
Since ultrasound achieves low cost , real-time imaging without the need for powerful magnets or ionizing radiation , it offers significant advantages over approaches such as magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray scans .
Recently , improvements to ultrasound technology have replaced single , moveable transducers with large arrays of over 10,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ higher resolutions and image production speeds .
However , these newer techniques involve far more sophisticated hardware , and require far more complex approaches to signal processing compared with previous approaches .
This significantly drives up the cost of ultrasound imaging , making it inaccessible to many groups that would benefit from the technology .
In their study Yu ’ s team found a way of avoiding signal processing by fabricating a layered organic LED ( OLED ) on top of a lead zirconate titanate ( PZT ) piezoelectric crystal .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ induced by ultrasonic waves are converted directly into light , which is displayed on a screen built into the transducer itself – eliminating the need for signal processing .
Yu and colleagues demonstrated this concept with an 8×8 array of p-OLED transducers immersed in water – each of which produced a 1×1 cm pixel in the final ultrasound image .
With a total thickness of just 120 nm , the organic LED screen had a high luminescence and low turn-on voltage , while demonstrating a high conversion efficiency between mechanical and optical energy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relatively simple improvements to their setup , they will be able to produce images with resolutions as high as 500×500 pixels .
They also believe they will soon be able to manufacture their p-OLED for just around $ 100 – a remarkable improvement on the price tags of previous transducer arrays , which could exceed $ 100,000 .
Ultimately , these improvements could make advanced ultrasound imaging accessible for those providing high-demand medical services such as foetus imaging , drug delivery , and early cancer detection .
Elsewhere , it could lead to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ monitor the structural health of buildings and infrastructure .
The new device is described in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces .

Sound into light: the new device converts ultrasound directly into light. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/FusionMS)
The first ultrasound imaging device that converts acoustic signals directly into light has been created by Hyeonggeun Yu and colleagues at North Carolina State University in the US. The device was fabricated by depositing an organic LED onto a piezoelectric crystal and it can produce real-time images without the need for signal processing. This approach could significantly reduce the costs of advanced ultrasound imaging techniques, making them far more accessible in applications including engineering and medicine.
Ultrasound is an increasingly popular technique for imaging the interiors of objects – animate and inanimate. It works by transmitting sound waves into an object using a piezoelectric transducer, then using the same transducer to pick up sound reflected from structures within the object. The resulting voltages in the transducer are then converted into electrical signals, from which images can be reconstructed by a computer. Since ultrasound achieves low-cost, real-time imaging without the need for powerful magnets or ionizing radiation, it offers significant advantages over approaches such as magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray scans.
Recently, improvements to ultrasound technology have replaced single, moveable transducers with large arrays of more than 10,000 devices, allowing for scans with far higher resolutions and image-production speeds. However, these newer techniques involve far more sophisticated hardware, and require far more complex approaches to signal processing compared with previous approaches. This significantly drives up the cost of ultrasound imaging, making it inaccessible to many groups that would benefit from the technology.
OLED on PZT
In their study, Yu’s team found a way of avoiding signal processing by fabricating a layered organic LED (OLED) on top of a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric crystal. In the resulting “p-OLED”, the voltages induced by ultrasonic waves are converted directly into light, which is displayed on a screen built into the transducer itself – eliminating the need for signal processing.
Yu and colleagues demonstrated this concept with an 8×8 array of p-OLED transducers immersed in water – each of which produced a 1×1 cm pixel in the final ultrasound image. With a total thickness of just 120 nm, the organic LED screen had a high luminescence and low turn-on voltage, while demonstrating a high conversion efficiency between mechanical and optical energy.
The team now hopes that through relatively simple improvements to their setup, they will be able to produce images with resolutions as high as 500×500 pixels. They also believe that they will soon be able to manufacture their p-OLED for just around $100 – a remarkable improvement on the price tags of previous transducer arrays, which could exceed $100,000. Ultimately, these improvements could make advanced ultrasound imaging accessible for those providing high-demand medical services such as foetus imaging, drug delivery, and early cancer detection. Elsewhere, it could lead to far more cost-effective ways for engineers to monitor the structural health of buildings and infrastructure.
The new device is described in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.


physicsworld--2020-09-25--Fractionated heating could improve cancer therapy with thermosensitive drugs - Physics World

Improving the delivery of chemotherapy drugs to solid tumours while minimizing harmful side effects is key to optimizing cancer treatments .
One promising approach lies in the use of thermosensitive liposomes ( TSLs ) that release encapsulated drugs upon heating , such as doxorubicin-loaded TSL ( TSL-Dox ) , for example .
TSL-Dox has shown encouraging outcomes in some patients , but its widespread clinical adoption is hindered by a lack of effective temperature control .
MRI-guided focused ultrasound ( MRgFUS ) could provide such control , enabling non-invasive heating of tissues to the hyperthermia regime of 41–43°C .
Previous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that raising tissue temperatures for tens of minutes to hours led to drug release and anti-tumour effects .
But respiratory motion and cooling by blood make it difficult to maintain hyperthermia effectively .
Instead , researchers in Canada propose a novel new approach : using MRgFUS to create fractionated ultrashort thermal exposures that release the encapsulated drug .
“ It is very difficult to induce uniform temperature elevation and maintain it over long periods of time in a clinical setting , and even more difficult in an organ that moves with breathing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lead author Kullervo Hynynen from Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto .
“ Our aim was to use short ultrasound exposures that are short enough to be delivered during a patient breath-hold , thus eliminating the motion problem.
” Reducing each burst of heating to just 30 s also means that the temperature elevation is not highly dependent on the tissue ’ s blood perfusion rate , which is unknown and heterogenous throughout the tumour .
As such , it should allow uniform thermal exposure over the entire tumour volume .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ exposures can release doxorubicin from TSL-Dox , the researchers first tested the approach using a dorsal skinfold chamber on a mouse with implanted tumour cells .
After injecting TSL-Dox , they exposed the tumours to ten 30 s FUS thermal exposures , using thermocouple-based temperature-based feedback to heat the tissue to 41° , 42° , 43° or 45°C .
The experiment showed that the ultrashort thermal exposures could effectively release the doxorubicin and that the drug was subsequently taken up by tumour cells .
Heating to 42°C appeared to give the most consistent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tumours .
Thus the team chose this temperature to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of fractionated ultrashort MRgFUS heating with TSL-Dox in rabbit thigh tumours .
For the studies on rabbits , the researchers employed a custom MRI-compatible FUS system to deliver short-duration heating , with MR thermometry providing real-time temperature feedback during the treatment .
They used MRI to identify the tumours and define discrete regions-of-interest ( ROIs ) to encompass the tumour .
After administering either TSL-Dox or a control dextrose , each ROI was heated 10 times , to 42°C for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a single-focus transducer translated through a series of discrete locations to achieve tumour coverage .
Examining drug delivery to excised bilateral tumours ( one heated , one not heated ) demonstrated that the level of doxorubicin fluorescence was markedly increased in the heated versus the unheated tumour sections – indicating the release of drug , which does not fluoresce when in liposomal form .
The researchers also evaluated the anti-tumour efficacy of the treatment .
They saw a significant improvement in survival for rabbits receiving MRgFUS plus TSL-Dox compared with animals receiving MRgFUS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rabbits treated with MRgFUS plus TSL-Dox , three survived to 120 days following treatment , four showed complete tumour destruction and only one reached the tumour size-related endpoint .
Follow-up MR images showed a marked decrease in tumour size in rabbits treated with MRgFUS plus TSL-Dox .
Conversely , all 11 rabbits that received either MRgFUS or TSL-Dox alone showed tumour growth , and all reached the tumour size-related endpoint within 28 days .
One week after treatment , tumours in the group that received MRgFUS alone were significantly larger than in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks after treatment , rabbits in both the MRgFUS alone and the TSL-Dox alone groups had significantly larger tumours than those treated with MRgFUS plus TSL-Dox .
The researchers conclude that these results have considerable implications for the widespread clinical adoption of thermosensitive drugs in oncology .
Hynynen tells Physics World that the team is now working on translating the method for clinical testing .
The findings are published in Science Advances .

Thermosensitive liposomes release encapsulated drugs when heated with focused ultrasound. (Courtesy: Kullervo Hynynen)
Improving the delivery of chemotherapy drugs to solid tumours while minimizing harmful side effects is key to optimizing cancer treatments. One promising approach lies in the use of thermosensitive liposomes (TSLs) that release encapsulated drugs upon heating, such as doxorubicin-loaded TSL (TSL-Dox), for example. TSL-Dox has shown encouraging outcomes in some patients, but its widespread clinical adoption is hindered by a lack of effective temperature control.
MRI-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) could provide such control, enabling non-invasive heating of tissues to the hyperthermia regime of 41–43 °C. Previous preclinical studies of MRgFUS with TSL-Dox showed that raising tissue temperatures for tens of minutes to hours led to drug release and anti-tumour effects. But respiratory motion and cooling by blood make it difficult to maintain hyperthermia effectively. Instead, researchers in Canada propose a novel new approach: using MRgFUS to create fractionated ultrashort thermal exposures that release the encapsulated drug.
“It is very difficult to induce uniform temperature elevation and maintain it over long periods of time in a clinical setting, and even more difficult in an organ that moves with breathing, such as the liver,” explains lead author Kullervo Hynynen from Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto. “Our aim was to use short ultrasound exposures that are short enough to be delivered during a patient breath-hold, thus eliminating the motion problem.”
Reducing each burst of heating to just 30 s also means that the temperature elevation is not highly dependent on the tissue’s blood perfusion rate, which is unknown and heterogenous throughout the tumour. As such, it should allow uniform thermal exposure over the entire tumour volume.
In vivo assessments
To determine whether the proposed ultrashort FUS exposures can release doxorubicin from TSL-Dox, the researchers first tested the approach using a dorsal skinfold chamber on a mouse with implanted tumour cells. After injecting TSL-Dox, they exposed the tumours to ten 30 s FUS thermal exposures, using thermocouple-based temperature-based feedback to heat the tissue to 41°, 42°, 43° or 45°C.
The experiment showed that the ultrashort thermal exposures could effectively release the doxorubicin and that the drug was subsequently taken up by tumour cells. Heating to 42 °C appeared to give the most consistent increases in drug delivery to the mouse tumours. Thus the team chose this temperature to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of fractionated ultrashort MRgFUS heating with TSL-Dox in rabbit thigh tumours.
For the studies on rabbits, the researchers employed a custom MRI-compatible FUS system to deliver short-duration heating, with MR thermometry providing real-time temperature feedback during the treatment. They used MRI to identify the tumours and define discrete regions-of-interest (ROIs) to encompass the tumour. After administering either TSL-Dox or a control dextrose, each ROI was heated 10 times, to 42 °C for 30 s. The FUS was delivered via a single-focus transducer translated through a series of discrete locations to achieve tumour coverage.
Temperature profiles in one of the ROIs in the rabbit thigh tumour, during 10 FUS thermal exposures. (Courtesy: Kullervo Hynynen)
Examining drug delivery to excised bilateral tumours (one heated, one not heated) demonstrated that the level of doxorubicin fluorescence was markedly increased in the heated versus the unheated tumour sections – indicating the release of drug, which does not fluoresce when in liposomal form.
The researchers also evaluated the anti-tumour efficacy of the treatment. They saw a significant improvement in survival for rabbits receiving MRgFUS plus TSL-Dox compared with animals receiving MRgFUS alone or TSL-Dox alone. Of six rabbits treated with MRgFUS plus TSL-Dox, three survived to 120 days following treatment, four showed complete tumour destruction and only one reached the tumour size-related endpoint.
Follow-up MR images showed a marked decrease in tumour size in rabbits treated with MRgFUS plus TSL-Dox. Conversely, all 11 rabbits that received either MRgFUS or TSL-Dox alone showed tumour growth, and all reached the tumour size-related endpoint within 28 days.
One week after treatment, tumours in the group that received MRgFUS alone were significantly larger than in the group receiving MRgFUS plus TSL-Dox. Two weeks after treatment, rabbits in both the MRgFUS alone and the TSL-Dox alone groups had significantly larger tumours than those treated with MRgFUS plus TSL-Dox.
The researchers conclude that these results have considerable implications for the widespread clinical adoption of thermosensitive drugs in oncology. Hynynen tells Physics World that the team is now working on translating the method for clinical testing.
The findings are published in Science Advances.


physicsworld--2020-09-24--History and fundamentals of tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) - Physics World

Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy ( TERS ) provides the vibrational information of a sample with nanometric resolution .
Obtaining physico-chemical information with such resolution opens up possibilities to characterize materials at unprecedented levels , which allows research findings unsuspected until recently .
This webinar introduces the fundamentals of TERS through the history of near-field spectroscopic optics .
From the great idea of John Lighton Synge more than 90 years ago to the technical progress of scanning probe microscopy , the history of near-field optics crosses the emerging field of plasmonics and the discovery of the amplification of the Raman signal by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in collaboration with the HORIBA Scientific teams .
Marc Chaigneau received his PhD in solid-state physics from the University of Nantes in 2007 .
He joined the PICM lab ( the Laboratory of Physics of Interfaces and Thin Films ) at Ecole Polytechnique as a postdoctoral associate in 2008 and was appointed tenured researcher in 2010 .
His research activities were concentrated on the instrumental development of Tip-Enhanced Raman spectroscopy ( TERS ) and stimulated TERS , as well as its application in strain measurements in semiconductors , nano-objects ( CNTs , graphene @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the nanoscale .
Marc is the author of three patents , one book chapter and more than 45 articles in peer-reviewed journals .
He received the ASTRE ( Actions of Support for Technology and Research in Essonne ) Prize in 2013 .
He joined HORIBA Scientific in 2015 to oversee R & D , applications and worldwide marketing of Raman spectroscopy products coupled with Scanning Probe Microscopy ( SPM ) .
He received the IP Award from the HORIBA group for innovative intellectual property in 2016 .

Available to watch now, Horiba Scientific explores the fundamentals of TERS through the history of near-field spectroscopic optics
Want to learn more on this subject? Watch now
TERS gives the vibrational information of a sample with nanometric resolution. Obtaining physico-chemical information with such resolution opens up possibilities to characterize materials at unprecedented levels, which allows research findings unsuspected until recently.
This webinar introduces the fundamentals of TERS through the history of near-field spectroscopic optics. From the great idea of Synge more than 90 years ago to the technical progress of scanning probe microscopy, the history of near-field optics crosses the emerging plasmonics field and the discovery of the amplification of the Raman signal by Richard Van Duyne.
During this webinar, Marc Chaigneau will also briefly introduce this nanospectroscopic technique for 2D materials and other semiconductors, but also present the current applications of this for biological samples such as viruses and DNA.
Want to learn more on this subject? Watch now
Marc Chaigneau received his PhD in solid-state physics from the University of Nantes in 2007. He joined the Laboratory of Physics of Interfaces and Thin Films (PICM) at Ecole Polytechnique in 2008 and was appointed tenured researcher in 2010. His research activities were concentrated on the development and applications of Tip-Enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS).
Marc is the author of three patents, one book chapter and more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
He joined HORIBA France in 2015 to oversee global R&D, applications and marketing of Raman spectroscopy products coupled with Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM). He received the IP Award from the HORIBA group for innovative intellectual property in 2016.


physicsworld--2020-09-25--Watch a wobbling black-hole shadow, ‘π planet’ has 3.14 day orbit, retracting racist and sexist pape

Watch a wobbling black-hole shadow, ‘π planet’ has 3.14 day orbit, retracting racist and sexist papers - Physics World

“ The wobbling shadow of the M87* black hole ” is a video made by astronomers working on the Event Horizon Telescope ( EHT ) , which in 2019 found the first direct visual evidence of a black hole and its “ shadow ” .
The video above is an animation of three years in the life of the black hole M87* as its shadow wobbles .
It shows extremely hot and turbulent gas swirling around the event horizon of the black hole before plunging into the abyss .
The animation is done in the wavelength of radio waves that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end of the video the image is blurred to simulate the limited resolution of the EHT .
One of the most remarkable things about the plethora of known exoplanets is that many of them orbit extremely close to their stars while travelling at extremely high speeds .
K2-315b is no exception , moving at a blistering 81 km/s in a tight orbit around a cool star that is about one fifth the size of the Sun .
The exoplanet itself appears to be about the same size as Earth , but is expected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 180 °C .
That is about the right temperature for baking a pie .
But that is not why K2-315b has been dubbed the “ π planet ” – it takes just 3.14 Earth days to orbit its star .
K2-315b was studied by Prajwal Niraula and colleagues using the NASA Kepler Space Telescope ’ s K2 mission and the SPECULOOS network of ground-based telescopes .
They described their observations in The Astronomical Journal .
Science is a human endeavour , so it is not surprising that the scientific literature can sometimes reflect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ papers were written .
In “ Science journals are purging racist , sexist work .
Finally ” , Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky of Retraction Watch applaud the removal of papers published less than a decade ago “ that have been called out for both their content and their lack of scientific rigour ” .
They also call for the more aggressive retraction of papers that although not based on repugnant ideas , are nonetheless wrong and pose threats to the credibility of the scientific literature .

“The wobbling shadow of the M87* black hole” is a video made by astronomers working on the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which in 2019 found the first direct visual evidence of a black hole and its “shadow”. The video above is an animation of three years in the life of the black hole M87* as its shadow wobbles. It shows extremely hot and turbulent gas swirling around the event horizon of the black hole before plunging into the abyss.
The animation is done in the wavelength of radio waves that EHT is sensitive to and towards the end of the video the image is blurred to simulate the limited resolution of the EHT.
Baking a pie
One of the most remarkable things about the plethora of known exoplanets is that many of them orbit extremely close to their stars while travelling at extremely high speeds. K2-315b is no exception, moving at a blistering 81 km/s in a tight orbit around a cool star that is about one fifth the size of the Sun. The exoplanet itself appears to be about the same size as Earth, but is expected to have a surface temperature of about 180 °C. That is about the right temperature for baking a pie. But that is not why K2-315b has been dubbed the “π planet” – it takes just 3.14 Earth days to orbit its star.
K2-315b was studied by Prajwal Niraula and colleagues using the NASA Kepler Space Telescope’s K2 mission and the SPECULOOS network of ground-based telescopes. They described their observations in The Astronomical Journal.
Science is a human endeavour, so it is not surprising that the scientific literature can sometimes reflect social attitudes that were prevalent when the papers were written. In “Science journals are purging racist, sexist work. Finally”, Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky of Retraction Watch applaud the removal of papers published less than a decade ago “that have been called out for both their content and their lack of scientific rigour”. They also call for the more aggressive retraction of papers that although not based on repugnant ideas, are nonetheless wrong and pose threats to the credibility of the scientific literature.


physicsworld--2020-09-28--Metallic nanoribbons fill missing link for all-carbon devices - Physics World

Pushing the limits of silicon electronics to make smaller , faster and more efficient devices is getting harder .
One possible way forward is to take advantage of the many phenomenal properties of nanocarbon structures that have been discovered over the past 40 years .
However , amongst this suite of carbon nanomaterials there has been a conspicuous lack of wire-like materials with metallic properties that can be reliably customized and produced .
This poses a challenge because connecting nanocarbon semiconductor components with the same old copper or silver wires can take the shine off their appeal .
While carbon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with relative ease , the snag is that a heap of nanotubes with semiconducting properties are inevitably produced at the same time .
Unfortunately , separating metallic nanotubes from semiconductor nanotubes en masse remains something of a dark art .
Another option is graphene ; with the unprecedented mobility of its π-electrons , doping can push graphene ’ s conductivity well above copper .
But if graphene is cut into strips called graphene nanoribbons ( GNRs ) to make wires for interconnects , the material ’ s delocalized electrons become confined by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a bandgap that makes the material a semiconductor or even an insulator .
Now , researchers in the US have shown how to produce graphene nanoribbons with robust metallic properties to order , providing the missing link for all-carbon electronic devices .
The work was led by Daniel Rizzo , Gregory Veber and Jingwei Jiang , who are researchers in the labs of Michael Crommie , Felix Fischer and Steven Louie at the University of California , Berkeley .
“ The search for metallic GNRs has been a long-standing question in this field @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Not only is demand high for metallic GNRs , but for quite a while now people have known what is needed to make them .
Somehow , nanoribbons must be decorated with features that have an electronic state right in the middle of the bandgap – a so-called zero-mode state .
Then , it must be ensured these zero-mode states are effectively equidistant from each other so that electrons can hop with equal ease between these states along the length of the nanoribbon .
“ That idea is actually a century old , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that pioneers right at the beginning of quantum mechanics were contemplating similar ideas .
The catch , as Louie points out , is that this is very hard to do in practice .
Just getting the zero-mode state at all is far from trivial , not only to design in the first place but then to synthesize .
What often happens is that the states end up paired so that electrons can hop about within each pair much more easily than they can hop to the adjacent pair , making the material a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blocks are made evenly spaced , there is typically no zero mode .
Despite these challenges , the possibility of producing metallic GNRs retains its allure because of the atomically tailored features of GNRs that can be reliably and selectively produced when stitching GNRs together from specific precursor molecules .
This is something that is simply not possible for carbon nanotubes .
The hunt was on not just for the right precursors but also the reaction conditions to make them assemble into nanoribbons with equidistant zero mode states .
“ You can ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of tweezers to guide their assembly , ” says chemist Fischer .
“ Once you put the molecular precursors on the surface and provide the energy they need to form a nanoribbon all you can do is cross your fingers and hope that all the planning and design that went into the structure of the precursor pays off and channels the self-assembly to the one desired GNR.
” The whole scenario may sound like a parent hopelessly trying to nudge their wayward offspring back onto the straight and narrow , but in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in materials physics , precursor design and synthetic chemistry paid off .
The researchers used a precursor made of linked strips of aromatic rings , which stitch into the graphene nanoribbon backbone , and a methyl group that adds an extra carbon atom along the edge .
They then stitched them together head-to-tail on a gold surface to produce nanoribbons where the extra carbon atom resulted in a tiny promontory alongside a sheltered cove of atoms , thus producing equally spaced zero mode states stemming from alternating sides of the nanoribbon .
Sure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nanoribbons revealed the much hoped for metallic behaviour due to hopping between the zero mode states .
But that is where the plot thickens .
When the researchers further explored the properties of their system with ab initio calculations , they realised the underlying gold surface was inducing doping and surface fields that were actually helping to hold together the extremely narrow bandwidth of metallic behaviour in their GNR .
Take the gold surface away and a bandgap would open up again .
To get around this , one must remember that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ graphene can also be described by two superposed overlapping triangular lattices .
This symmetry affects the electron behaviour because mobility along the metallic zero-mode states is confined to one sublattice as opposed to hopping also between two sublattices .
However , hopping along just one sublattice is harder because an electron must hop to its second nearest neighbour , and so has further to go .
The problem was easy to fix in theory , as Louie points out , because it involves breaking the symmetry of the sublattices .
Achieving this in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fortunately the researchers were able to exploit the tiny cove structures on the edges .
Using further chemical reactions to join the carbons on either side of the mouth of these coves they formed five-membered carbon rings , thus directly connecting two sites from one sublattice ( something not allowed in regular graphene ) .
This broke the symmetry , increasing the metallicity by a factor of twenty .
“ We got lucky with our design , ” says Fischer .
“ The fix was built-in essentially.
” Having demonstrated a procedure for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ metallic mode , Crommie is confident that with “ all the tricks of organic chemistry , ” the process could be improved to make these materials widely available .
Possible next steps include creating electronic devices with the nanoribbons to evaluate their performance directly , and exploring their behaviour on different surfaces and in heterostructures .
The research is described in Science .

Graphene nanoribbon Scanning tunnelling microscope image of a wide-band metallic graphene nanoribbon (GNR). Each cluster of protrusions corresponds to a singly occupied electron orbital. The formation of a pentagonal ring near each cluster leads to a twentyfold increase in the conductivity of metallic GNRs. The GNR backbone has a width of 1.6 nm. (Courtesy: UC Berkeley/Daniel Rizzo)
Pushing the limits of silicon electronics to make smaller, faster and more efficient devices is getting harder. One possible way forward is to take advantage of the many phenomenal properties of nanocarbon structures that have been discovered over the past 40 years. However, amongst this suite of carbon nanomaterials there has been a conspicuous lack of wire-like materials with metallic properties that can be reliably customized and produced. This poses a challenge because connecting nanocarbon semiconductor components with the same old copper or silver wires can take the shine off their appeal.
While carbon nanotubes with metallic properties can be made with relative ease, the snag is that a heap of nanotubes with semiconducting properties are inevitably produced at the same time. Unfortunately, separating metallic nanotubes from semiconductor nanotubes en masse remains something of a dark art. Another option is graphene; with the unprecedented mobility of its π-electrons, doping can push graphene’s conductivity well above copper. But if graphene is cut into strips called graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) to make wires for interconnects, the material’s delocalized electrons become confined by the width of the nanoribbon. This opens a bandgap that makes the material a semiconductor or even an insulator.
Now, researchers in the US have shown how to produce graphene nanoribbons with robust metallic properties to order, providing the missing link for all-carbon electronic devices. The work was led by Daniel Rizzo, Gregory Veber and Jingwei Jiang, who are researchers in the labs of Michael Crommie, Felix Fischer and Steven Louie at the University of California, Berkeley.
Synthesis of theory and experiment
“The search for metallic GNRs has been a long-standing question in this field,” says experimental physicist Crommie. Not only is demand high for metallic GNRs, but for quite a while now people have known what is needed to make them. Somehow, nanoribbons must be decorated with features that have an electronic state right in the middle of the bandgap – a so-called zero-mode state. Then, it must be ensured these zero-mode states are effectively equidistant from each other so that electrons can hop with equal ease between these states along the length of the nanoribbon.
“That idea is actually a century old,” says theoretical physicist Louie, adding that pioneers right at the beginning of quantum mechanics were contemplating similar ideas. The catch, as Louie points out, is that this is very hard to do in practice. Just getting the zero-mode state at all is far from trivial, not only to design in the first place but then to synthesize. What often happens is that the states end up paired so that electrons can hop about within each pair much more easily than they can hop to the adjacent pair, making the material a semiconductor. Conversely, when the building blocks are made evenly spaced, there is typically no zero mode.
Despite these challenges, the possibility of producing metallic GNRs retains its allure because of the atomically tailored features of GNRs that can be reliably and selectively produced when stitching GNRs together from specific precursor molecules. This is something that is simply not possible for carbon nanotubes. The hunt was on not just for the right precursors but also the reaction conditions to make them assemble into nanoribbons with equidistant zero mode states.
“Cross your fingers”
“You can’t go in there with a pair of tweezers to guide their assembly,” says chemist Fischer. “Once you put the molecular precursors on the surface and provide the energy they need to form a nanoribbon all you can do is cross your fingers and hope that all the planning and design that went into the structure of the precursor pays off and channels the self-assembly to the one desired GNR.”
The whole scenario may sound like a parent hopelessly trying to nudge their wayward offspring back onto the straight and narrow, but in this case the group’s collective expertise in materials physics, precursor design and synthetic chemistry paid off. The researchers used a precursor made of linked strips of aromatic rings, which stitch into the graphene nanoribbon backbone, and a methyl group that adds an extra carbon atom along the edge. They then stitched them together head-to-tail on a gold surface to produce nanoribbons where the extra carbon atom resulted in a tiny promontory alongside a sheltered cove of atoms, thus producing equally spaced zero mode states stemming from alternating sides of the nanoribbon. Sure enough, scanning tunnelling spectroscopy maps of the nanoribbons revealed the much hoped for metallic behaviour due to hopping between the zero mode states.
The inbuilt fix
But that is where the plot thickens. When the researchers further explored the properties of their system with ab initio calculations, they realised the underlying gold surface was inducing doping and surface fields that were actually helping to hold together the extremely narrow bandwidth of metallic behaviour in their GNR. Take the gold surface away and a bandgap would open up again.
To get around this, one must remember that the honeycomb structure of carbon atoms in graphene can also be described by two superposed overlapping triangular lattices. This symmetry affects the electron behaviour because mobility along the metallic zero-mode states is confined to one sublattice as opposed to hopping also between two sublattices. However, hopping along just one sublattice is harder because an electron must hop to its second nearest neighbour, and so has further to go.
The problem was easy to fix in theory, as Louie points out, because it involves breaking the symmetry of the sublattices. Achieving this in practice is quite another matter, but fortunately the researchers were able to exploit the tiny cove structures on the edges. Using further chemical reactions to join the carbons on either side of the mouth of these coves they formed five-membered carbon rings, thus directly connecting two sites from one sublattice (something not allowed in regular graphene). This broke the symmetry, increasing the metallicity by a factor of twenty. “We got lucky with our design,” says Fischer. “The fix was built-in essentially.”
Having demonstrated a procedure for producing graphene nanoribbons with a robust broad metallic mode, Crommie is confident that with “all the tricks of organic chemistry,” the process could be improved to make these materials widely available. Possible next steps include creating electronic devices with the nanoribbons to evaluate their performance directly, and exploring their behaviour on different surfaces and in heterostructures.
The research is described in Science.


physicsworld--2020-09-29--Everyday dyes paint cells for early cancer detection - Physics World

Sometimes , the answers to difficult questions are within plain sight .
That is what researchers at the University of Southern California realised as they looked for new ways to find and see cancer cells inside the human body and discovered that the dyes they could use are all around us every day .
Early detection of cancerous cells gives patients the best chance of successful treatment and survival .
However , finding those cells can be challenging .
In their latest research , reported in Biomaterials Science , Cristina Zavaleta and her team found that they could use common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and tattoo ink , combined with nanoparticles to essentially paint cancer cells – making them easy to spot when compared with normal cells .
Finding cancer cells without imaging agents is a difficult job .
“ For instance , if the problem is colon cancer , this is detected via endoscopy , ” Zavaleta explains .
“ But an endoscope is literally just a flashlight on the end of a stick , so it will only give information about the structure of the colon – you can see a polyp and know you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with imaging agents that can specifically paint the cancerous cells , medical professionals have a much easier job .
“ If we could provide imaging tools to help doctors see whether that particular polyp is cancerous or just benign , maybe they don ’ t even need to take it , ” says Zavaleta .
Inspiration for this work came from an unusual source : Zavaleta ’ s imagination was sparked in an animation class with Pixar artists .
“ I was thinking about how these really high-pigment paints were bright in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she says .
This led to a trip to a tattoo artist and the realization that these everyday inks could have exciting properties for medical imaging .
The researchers created optical imaging agents using liposomal nanoparticles .
These nanoparticles are tiny spheres made of a membrane of lipid , or fat , molecules – the same kind of structures that form the boundaries of human cells – and the colourful dyes can be housed inside .
Using nanoparticles made of fats and dyes that are already FDA-approved and used in everyday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accelerating their clinical translation .
The researchers found that not only do nanoparticles containing these common dyes exhibit improved fluorescence signals compared with the clinical dyes , because more of the dye can be loaded into each nanoparticle , but that they are also significantly more visible inside tumours than in adjacent normal cells .
The researchers suggest that this is because the tumours have leakier blood vessels feeding them , letting in the nanoparticles , which can not enter into normal cells .
The new dyes also have unique spectral fingerprints , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It could even be possible to use multiple different dyes together to paint different types of cells in unique ways .
Whilst the initial findings in mice models are encouraging , there is still some way to go until this work might help patients in the clinic .
However , Zavaleta and her colleagues are hopeful that this study could provide a foundation towards better cancer detection in the future .

Tattoo inks not only allow for vivid designs, but their brightness and unique spectral fingerprint could be a useful tool to find cancer cells. (Courtesy: the Zavaleta Lab at USC; tattoo and design by Adam Sky)
Sometimes, the answers to difficult questions are within plain sight. That is what researchers at the University of Southern California realised as they looked for new ways to find and see cancer cells inside the human body and discovered that the dyes they could use are all around us every day.
Early detection of cancerous cells gives patients the best chance of successful treatment and survival. However, finding those cells can be challenging. In their latest research, reported in Biomaterials Science, Cristina Zavaleta and her team found that they could use common dyes and pigments, like food colouring and tattoo ink, combined with nanoparticles to essentially paint cancer cells – making them easy to spot when compared with normal cells.
Paint by cell type
Finding cancer cells without imaging agents is a difficult job. “For instance, if the problem is colon cancer, this is detected via endoscopy,” Zavaleta explains. “But an endoscope is literally just a flashlight on the end of a stick, so it will only give information about the structure of the colon – you can see a polyp and know you need to take a biopsy.”
But with imaging agents that can specifically paint the cancerous cells, medical professionals have a much easier job. “If we could provide imaging tools to help doctors see whether that particular polyp is cancerous or just benign, maybe they don’t even need to take it,” says Zavaleta.
Inspiration for this work came from an unusual source: Zavaleta’s imagination was sparked in an animation class with Pixar artists. “I was thinking about how these really high-pigment paints were bright in a way I hadn’t seen before,” she says. This led to a trip to a tattoo artist and the realization that these everyday inks could have exciting properties for medical imaging.
Putting the pieces together
The researchers created optical imaging agents using liposomal nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are tiny spheres made of a membrane of lipid, or fat, molecules – the same kind of structures that form the boundaries of human cells – and the colourful dyes can be housed inside. Using nanoparticles made of fats and dyes that are already FDA-approved and used in everyday life is a clever approach for potentially accelerating their clinical translation.
The researchers found that not only do nanoparticles containing these common dyes exhibit improved fluorescence signals compared with the clinical dyes, because more of the dye can be loaded into each nanoparticle, but that they are also significantly more visible inside tumours than in adjacent normal cells. The researchers suggest that this is because the tumours have leakier blood vessels feeding them, letting in the nanoparticles, which cannot enter into normal cells.
The new dyes also have unique spectral fingerprints, which could aid in their specific detection. It could even be possible to use multiple different dyes together to paint different types of cells in unique ways.
Whilst the initial findings in mice models are encouraging, there is still some way to go until this work might help patients in the clinic. However, Zavaleta and her colleagues are hopeful that this study could provide a foundation towards better cancer detection in the future.