Artist’s conception of the Spiderweb. In this image, the protogalaxies are shown in white and pink, and the blue indicates the location of the carbon monoxide gas in which the protogalaxies are immersed. CREDIT: ESO/M. Kornmesser. This figure is licensed under CC BY 4.0 International License.

Astronomers studying a cluster of still-forming protogalaxies seen as they were more than 10 billion years ago have found that a giant galaxy in the center of the cluster is forming from a surprisingly-dense soup of molecular gas. “This is different from what we see in the nearby Universe, where galaxies in clusters grow by cannibalizing other galaxies...

This diagram describes how the device Dr. Hood helped to develop is implanted into a cancerous tumor. Credit: Lyle Hood/UTSA

Medicine diffusion capsule could locally treat multiple ailments and diseases over several weeks. This new device that could revolutionize the delivery of medicine. “The problem with most drug-delivery systems is that you have a specific minimum dosage of medicine that you need to take for it to be effective,” Hood said. “There’s also a limit to how much of the drug can be present in your system so that it doesn’t make you sick.”

As a result of these limitations, a person who needs frequent doses of a specific medicine is required to take a pill every day or visit a doctor for injections. Hood’s creation negates the need for either of these approaches...

The highly sensitive magnetic field sensor. (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Peter Rüegg)

Researchers have succeeded in measuring tiny changes in strong magnetic fields with unprecedented precision. In their experiments, the scientists magnetised a water droplet inside an MRI scanner, a device that is used for medical imaging. They were able to detect even the tiniest variations of the magnetic field strength within the droplet. These changes were up to a trillion times smaller than the 7 tesla field strength of the MRI scanner used in the experiment.

“Until now, it was possible only to measure such small variations in weak magnetic fields,” says Klaas Prüssmann, Professor of Bioimaging at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich...

This is an illustration of proton hopping during catalytic reaction. Credit: Waseda University

Simpler process and higher efficiency creates great expectations for consumer market. Waseda University researchers have developed a new method for producing hydrogen, which is fast, irreversible, and takes place at much lower temperature using less energy. This innovation will improve fuel cell systems for automobiles and homes. Hydrogen has normally been extracted from methane and steam using a nickel catalyst at temperatures of over 700°C. However, the high temperature creates major challenges for widespread use.

The group led by Professor Yasushi Sekine, Waseda developed a method which allows hydrogen extraction at temperatures as low as 150~200°C...