# Summary Researchers have developed NIR-II (near-infrared region II) conjugated polymers as innovative therapeutic agents for tumor sonodynamic therapy. This approach represents a significant advancement in cancer treatment by combining two emerging technologies: near-infrared photoacoustic imaging and ultrasound-activated therapy. NIR-II conjugated polymers possess unique optical and acoustic properties that enable them to accumulate in tumor tissues and generate reactive oxygen species when exposed to ultrasound, effectively destroying cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy surrounding tissue. The polymers' extended near-infrared absorption allows for deeper tissue penetration compared to traditional visible-light therapies, improving treatment efficacy. This research matters because sonodynamic therapy offers a non-invasive alternative to conventional cancer treatments with potentially fewer side effects. The development of these specialized polymers enhances treatment precision and therapeutic outcomes, opening new possibilities for personalized cancer care and potentially addressing limitations of existing chemotherapy and radiation approaches in oncology.

Three-dimensional bioprinting represents a transformative approach to treating musculoskeletal injuries affecting tendons and ligaments, which currently present significant clinical challenges due to slow healing rates and complex multilayered tissue architecture. Traditional repair methods such as autografts and allografts suffer from donor site morbidity, limited availability, and potential immunological rejection. The emerging 3D bioprinting technology enables the creation of patient-specific grafts that accurately replicate the anatomical and physiological characteristics of injured sites. Researchers are developing advanced bioinks combining decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) and synthetic polymers to engineer constructs that promote regenerative rather than merely reparative healing. However, significant challenges remain, including replicating the mechanical anisotropy of natural tissues, ensuring seamless integration at the tendon-bone interface (enthesis), and navigating complex regulatory pathways toward clinical implementation. Given that approximately 200,000 anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries occur annually in the United States alone, developing effective repair strategies is critical. This comprehensive review examines bioink development, multiscale scaffold design, biomechanical considerations, and translational challenges while providing a roadmap for advancing laboratory prototypes into clinically viable next-generation implants that will enhance musculoskeletal care standards.

The proliferation of AI-powered surveillance cameras has sparked significant public concern over facial recognition, license plate readers, and data privacy. In response, a creative resistance movement is emerging through adversarial fashion and technological countermeasures. Cybersecurity expert Bill Swearingen developed a Python-based fuzzer in 2025 that targets YOLO, a popular object detection framework, generating adversarial patterns tested against eleven different computer vision models. These colorful geometric designs successfully reduce detection confidence scores across facial recognition, face recognition, and people detection systems. Companies like Cap_able and Urban Privacy are commercializing this technology, producing garments with patented jacquard-knit patterns that interfere with convolutional neural networks, potentially causing systems to misclassify wearers as animals or objects. Cap_able founder Rachele Didero emphasizes using these visible, tangible items to address the intangible threat of surveillance. Additionally, the DeFlock project maps automated license plate readers while others present alternatives like the noRecognition initiative at DEF CON. These efforts reflect growing recognition that privacy constitutes a fundamental human right requiring active protection against increasingly invasive surveillance infrastructure.

Four-dimensional printing represents an emerging frontier in additive manufacturing by integrating smart materials with traditional 3D printing technologies to create structures that can dynamically transform over time in response to environmental stimuli. This review, published in August 2026 in the Bulletin of Materials Science, examines the convergence of smart materials, advanced manufacturing processes, and industrial applications driving this innovation. The article synthesizes current research on stimulus-responsive polymers, shape-memory alloys, and hydrogels used in 4D printing, alongside manufacturing techniques enabling precise material deposition and programmable geometry changes. Key applications span aerospace, biomedics, and consumer electronics, where adaptive structures offer significant advantages. The significance of 4D printing lies in its potential to revolutionize product design by enabling self-assembly, autonomous repair, and environmental responsiveness without mechanical actuation. This technology promises substantial cost reductions in manufacturing complex adaptive systems while addressing sustainability concerns through reduced waste and extended product lifecycles, positioning it as a transformative force in next-generation manufacturing.

Three-dimensional bioprinting has emerged as a transformative technology in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with significant advances in recent years. This comprehensive review examines the critical interface between bioprinting deposition mechanisms—including inkjet, laser-assisted, vat-polymerization, and extrusion-based systems—and bioink chemistry. The analysis reveals fundamental trade-offs inherent to the field: resolution versus construct size, printability versus biological functionality, and scalability versus cell viability. Natural, synthetic, and hybrid bioinks are evaluated for their physicochemical properties and capacity to direct cell fate in neural, vascular, and musculoskeletal applications. Key translational barriers are identified, including immunogenicity, foreign body responses, batch-to-batch variability, and the absence of standardized Good Manufacturing Practice–compliant workflows. To advance clinical translation, the review prioritizes stimuli-responsive bioinks, real-time monitoring integration, artificial intelligence–assisted design optimization, and multi-material bioprinting capabilities. These developments are essential for transforming laboratory innovations into reproducible, clinically viable tissue constructs suitable for therapeutic applications.

Microbial contamination and antimicrobial resistance pose escalating threats to global health, food safety, and clinical settings. Researchers at Monash University have conducted a comprehensive review examining antimicrobial materials designed to combat resistant microorganisms. The study focuses on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which function as the immune system's first defense by binding to and disrupting bacterial cell membranes. The researchers explored polymer-based antimicrobial materials that either mimic the cationic properties of AMPs or have AMPs grafted onto polymer templates, with these materials operating through membrane disruption mechanisms. Given that antibiotic resistance is increasing at alarming rates and at least nineteen alternative agents are currently in development pipelines, antimicrobial materials represent a promising avenue for managing contamination in healthcare, agricultural, and veterinary environments. This review synthesizes existing knowledge on molecular mechanisms of action, providing a timely assessment of how these innovative materials can effectively address the growing challenge of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections and support global health security.

The development of 4D materials has expanded adaptive manufacturing; however, most systems are limited to passive shape changes and lack interactive sensory functions. Here, we present an olfactory-responsive 4D material with integrated antimicrobial activity. The material exhibits shape-memory behaviour under external stimuli and releases aromatic compounds upon heating, enabling multisensory interaction. A photocurable resin was formulated using carvone, a naturally derived monoterpene from spearmint, as a nonreactive diluent, together with diurethane dimethacrylate (DUDMA) and phenylbis(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl)phosphine oxide (BAPO). Containing up to 25% renewable content, the formulation provides a sustainable alternative to conventional petroleum-based systems.

Business crowdfunding enables entrepreneurs to raise capital from numerous individual backers through online platforms, with each contributor providing modest amounts during time-limited campaigns. This approach offers an alternative to traditional financing, venture capital, and angel investors, allowing founders to retain greater control. The modern crowdfunding landscape emerged with Kickstarter and Indiegogo launching in 2008-2009, pioneering rewards-based models where backers receive perks like early product access. The 2012 JOBS Act legalized equity-based crowdfunding, enabling businesses to sell ownership stakes to everyday investors, with the SEC's Regulation Crowdfunding framework taking effect in 2016. Campaigns typically run 30 to 60 days and involve four funding models: rewards-based, equity-based, donation-based, and debt-based financing. Platforms employ either all-or-nothing or flexible funding structures, with typical fees comprising approximately five percent platform fees and three percent payment processing charges. Understanding these mechanisms and associated costs is essential for business owners evaluating crowdfunding as a capital-raising strategy in the evolving 2026 marketplace.

Exosomes and liposomes represent two distinct approaches to drug delivery, each occupying different positions in therapeutic development. While structurally similar—both spherical, lipid bilayer-enclosed nanoparticles carrying aqueous payloads—they differ fundamentally in their nature. Liposomes are a fifty-year-old, clinically approved technology assembled from defined components like hydrogenated soy phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol, and PEGylated lipids, offering complete compositional control and reproducibility. Exosomes, conversely, are naturally secreted extracellular vesicles produced through endosomal budding, inheriting their composition from parent cell biology with enriched cholesterol, sphingomyelin, phosphatidylserine, and surface proteins like tetraspanins. The critical distinction lies in their design philosophy: liposomes are engineered systems requiring deliberate addition of desirable properties, while exosomes are biomimetic platforms arriving with inherent biological characteristics. Selecting between them depends on specific therapeutic requirements across multiple criteria including cargo loading, targeting capabilities, immune handling, manufacturability, analytical control, and regulatory precedent, rather than determining which is intrinsically superior.

3D hydrogels extend exosome retention and enable sustained local release. Programmable 3D DNA nanostructures capture exosomes and amplify signals. This review unifies hydrogel delivery and 3D DNA detection strategies. Translation requires scalable manufacturing, biosafety, and clinical validation.

Researchers from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and the Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Institute have developed FAPAD, a federated learning framework for privacy-preserving anomaly detection in multivariate time-series data. Published in the journal Cybersecurity, the framework addresses a critical challenge in modern connected systems: detecting anomalies in sensitive data streams from medical devices, industrial sensors, and smart city infrastructure without exposing raw information to centralized cloud servers. Traditional anomaly detection requires transmitting sensitive data to central locations, creating privacy vulnerabilities that regulators and security professionals increasingly oppose. FAPAD coordinates edge devices, cloud servers, and machine learning models while implementing mathematical defenses against adversarial attacks. The research team, led by Kejun Zhang and Xinying Yu, emphasizes the stakes are particularly high in healthcare surveillance, where physiological anomalies could reveal specific diseases, and unauthorized access could enable discrimination or extortion. By enabling accurate anomaly detection while maintaining local data privacy, FAPAD offers a practical solution to this fundamental tension in modern connected systems monitoring.

The International Monetary Fund challenges the prevailing binary narrative that frames global technological innovation as a zero-sum competition exclusively between the United States and China. While discussions of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, biotechnology, and renewable energy typically focus on these two superpowers' rivalry for dominance, this framing obscures valuable alternative innovation models elsewhere. The analysis argues that reframing technology competition as a contest between different systems rather than different countries—similar to how the Cold War examined capitalism versus communism—offers deeper insights. The conventional distinction between market-oriented and state-led approaches misrepresents China's tech sector reality. Major Chinese companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are not primarily state creations but rather succeeded by adopting Silicon Valley's playbook, utilizing American-style venture capital, legal infrastructure, and stock option structures. This suggests the US-China tech competition represents different intensities of the same market-driven model rather than fundamentally opposing systems. Understanding this nuance and examining innovation approaches beyond these two countries can expand knowledge of technological progress possibilities and improve global innovation strategies.

Researchers have demonstrated that magnetic Weyl semimetals, a class of topological materials, can emit broadband circularly polarized thermal radiation across mid- and long-wave infrared wavelengths. Using numerical simulations, the study shows that planar slabs of these materials produce high-purity circularly polarized emission over significant portions of their emission solid angle, with the effect arising from the materials' strong infrared gyrotropy and nonreciprocity. The spectral bandwidth of circularly polarized thermal emission increases with greater momentum separation between Weyl nodes in the band structure. The researchers also employed the thermal discrete dipole approximation computational method to demonstrate that finite-size bodies of magnetic Weyl semimetals can emit spectrally broadband circularly polarized light, though over smaller emission angles than planar configurations. This discovery opens technological prospects for engineering thermal radiation and designing efficient circularly polarized light sources, with applications in infrared chiral spectroscopy and thermal imaging polarimetry under low-visibility conditions, addressing a gap in the relatively unexplored mid- and long-wave infrared range.

Cancer treatment faces significant limitations from systemic toxicity, poor tumor targeting, and drug resistance. Engineered exosomes—naturally occurring nanoparticles between 30 and 150 nanometers—have emerged as promising drug delivery vehicles due to their biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and ability to cross biological barriers including the blood-brain barrier. A comprehensive review examining 32 peer-reviewed studies from January 2015 to April 2026 analyzed recent advances in exosome engineering for targeted anticancer therapy. Researchers evaluated surface-engineering strategies such as PEGylation, RGD, and GE11 modification alongside drug-loading methods including electroporation, sonication, incubation, and extrusion. Engineered exosomes successfully delivered chemotherapeutics like doxorubicin and paclitaxel, as well as nucleic acids, CRISPR/Cas9 components, and natural compounds such as celastrol and curcumin. While preclinical studies demonstrated improved tumor specificity and therapeutic efficacy, significant challenges persist: low loading efficiency, batch-to-batch variability, and lack of standardized production protocols. Emerging solutions including microfluidics-based production, immunomodulatory engineering, and artificial intelligence-assisted ligand design offer potential pathways to clinical translation and may substantially improve cancer treatment outcomes.

Crowdfunding has emerged as a transformative alternative to traditional innovation financing. Limitations of conventional funding sources have led to increased interest in alternative financing mechanisms. Crowdfunding, leveraging online platforms, has democratized access to capital, enabling entrepreneurs to develop products and services that align with broader population needs. This paper surveys the literature, demonstrating how crowdfunding platforms have opened doors to capital for entrepreneurs who might otherwise have found it challenging to secure funding through established channels. While crowdfunding's impact on innovation is multifaceted and contingent on factors like innovation type, entrepreneur quality, and regulatory frameworks, its growth trajectory remains robust, solidifying its significance as a source of entrepreneurial finance.

There is growing recognition that responding to the socio-ecological crisis requires more than technological fixes. There is a need to shift away from palliative interventions, which remain limited to promoting incremental or unproven technological approaches, and to embrace more radical interventions that address the structural drivers of environmental degradation and social inequality. This has led to an interest in degrowth and post-growth economies as a way to catalyse transformational change. Degrowth (or post-growth) can be defined as aiming at an equitable downscaling of production and consumption that increases human well-being and enhances ecological conditions at the local and global level, in the short and long-term.

Biohydrogels have evolved substantially since their introduction as poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-based materials in 1960, progressing from simple wound dressings and contact lenses to a multi-billion-dollar market encompassing stimuli-responsive hybrid systems. This comprehensive review examines biohydrogel sources, physicochemical properties, and applications while addressing critical challenges including poor mechanical robustness, limited long-term stability, and production scalability. The analysis reveals that optimal biohydrogels require precise optimization of formulation parameters including polymer concentration, pH, temperature, and mechanical strength. Notably, synthetic hydrogels demonstrate superior mechanical strength, natural variants excel in swelling behavior and porosity, while hybrid formulations achieve the most balanced overall performance. Recent advances focus on incorporating bioactive agents, biosurfactants, chitosan, protein-based polymers, and nanoparticles into nanocomposites to create multifunctional systems. This integrated approach enables customizable physicochemical and biological properties for diverse applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering, positioning advanced biohydrogels as transformative biomaterials for next-generation therapeutic and diagnostic solutions.

Biofabrication has emerged as a transformative discipline in biomedical engineering, enabling the creation of three-dimensional tissue constructs that replicate native tissue architecture and function. Electrospinning, 3D printing, and advanced fabrication techniques—including melt electrowriting, near-field electrospinning, multi-material printing, and 4D shape-memory fabrication—now allow precise control over scaffold geometry, porosity, and mechanical properties. These technologies have been further enhanced by incorporating controlled release mechanisms for therapeutic agents such as drugs, growth factors, and biologics, enabling localized, sustained delivery at tissue repair sites. However, significant challenges remain in translating laboratory successes to clinical applications. Key bottlenecks include limited material libraries, reproducibility and standardization issues, scalable manufacturing, cell integration, and clinical validation. This Research Topic seeks multidisciplinary contributions integrating engineering, materials science, chemistry, and life sciences to address these barriers. The field now prioritizes developing robust, standardized, and scalable workflows that support medical device development and clinical translation, while simultaneously advancing scaffold architecture control, release functionality, and biological performance validation to facilitate real-world deployment.

Researchers at Penn State University have developed a groundbreaking approach to 3D-printed bone tissue regeneration by bioprinting genetically modified stem cell spheroids. The interdisciplinary team introduced different genetic sequences into commercially sourced undifferentiated stem cells to create cell clusters optimized for bone tissue regeneration following severe trauma or infections. The bioprinted spheroids demonstrate enhanced capability not only in supporting bone healing but also in facilitating successful blood vessel formation within generated tissue—a critical advancement, as vascularization has historically been a significant challenge in conventional bone tissue engineering. The team validated their findings through laboratory experiments and mouse models, with results published in Chemical Engineering Journal. By using genetic "switches" to guide cell differentiation, the researchers addressed a fundamental challenge in regenerative medicine: creating networks of functionally diverse cells from a single baseline. This innovation has broader applications beyond bone regeneration, including developing accurate biological models for testing experimental drugs. The work represents a significant step toward reconstructing complex cellular structures for regenerative medicine applications.

Inorganic nanocrystal gels combine the distinct properties of individual nanocrystals with tunable, network-dependent characteristics, offering promising applications in catalysis, optics, electrochromics, and energy storage. This review examines five primary assembly mechanisms: controlled destabilization, direct bridging, depletion interactions, coordination bonding, and dynamic covalent bonding. Each approach manipulates nanocrystal surface chemistry or introduces small molecules to mediate inter-nanocrystal attractions, with distinct advantages regarding gel stability, reversibility, and tunability. The porous networks created in these gels enable reversible and continuous control over nanocrystal neighbor interactions, enhancing collective properties and coupling effects. While assembly strategies for microscale colloids are established, applying these approaches to nanoscale systems remains an evolving field. Understanding how to tune effective interactions between nanocrystals and their equilibrium phase behavior is critical for designing gel assemblies with desired structures. By strategically weakening stabilizing surface ligand repulsions and introducing controlled inter-nanocrystal attractions, researchers can govern aggregation kinetics and create reconfigurable materials and fueled assemblies with novel functionality.