A new imaging technique based on light and sound produces images doctors can use to distinguish cancerous breast tissue (below the dotted blue line) from normal tissue more quickly than is currently possible. Pathologists routinely inspect surgical specimens to make sure all cancerous tissue has been removed. The new technique (right) produces images as detailed and accurate as traditional methods (left), but in far less time. The researchers are working to make the technique fast enough to be used during a surgery, so patients don’t have to return for a second surgery. (Image: Terence T.W. Wong)

Of the quarter-million women diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the US, about 180,000 undergo surgery to remove the cancerous tissue while preserving as much healthy breast tissue as possi...

This is an artistic view of the decay of a quantum-mechanical monopole into a Dirac monopole.
Credit: Image by Heikka Valja

1st experimental observations of the dynamics of isolated monopoles in quantum matter have been made by scientists at Amherst College (USA) and Aalto University (Finland). The new study provided a surprise: the quantum monopole decays into another analogue of the magnetic monopole. Understanding monopole dynamics may help in the future to build even closer analogues of the magnetic monopoles. Unlike usual magnets, magnetic monopoles are elementary particles that have only a south or a north magnetic pole, but not both. They have been theoretically predicted to exist, but no convincing experimental observations have been reported...

Akihiro Nomura, Kimihiko Ito, Yoshimi Kubo. CNT Sheet Air Electrode for the Development of Ultra-High Cell Capacity in Lithium-Air Batteries. Scientific Reports, 2017; 7: 45596 DOI: 10.1038/srep45596

A NIMS team led by Yoshimi Kubo and Akihiro Nomura, team leader and researcher, respectively, Lithium Air Battery Specially Promoted Research Team, C4GR-GREEN, developed lithium-air batteries with very high electric storage capacity 15X greater than the capacity of conventional lithium-ion batteries using carbon nanotubes (CNT) as an air electrode material. Demand for rechargeable batteries is expected to increase rapidly as electric vehicle power sources and joint sources of household electricity with solar cells.

The current lithium-ion batteries have advantages of being compact, producing h...

Geochemist duo offer new explanation for dearth of xenon in Earth’s atmosphere Credit: University of Manchester

Scientists have revealed that some of Earth’s atmosphere may have been brought to the planet by comets billions of years ago. The mystery of how the Earth’s atmosphere was formed has long baffled scientists. Some researchers think comets might have originally brought some of the water, organic and atmospheric molecules to Earth that now make up its life. Now a new study from The University of Manchester, UK, Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG) and Université de Lorraine (Nancy, France), has found evidence to back up the theory.

The scientists have been analysing tiny samples of ancient air trapped in water bubbles found in quartz, which dates back >3 b...