TIANJIN, July 7 (Xinhua) — A Chinese research team has developed a novel system to enable non-invasive and dynamic monitoring of blood sodium levels, which addresses critical needs in managing dehydration, kidney diseases and neuroendocrine disorders.
Findings of the study, conducted by Tianjin University, were recently published in the international journal Optica.
Terahertz radiation — positioned between microwave and mid-infrared bands — offers unique advantages for biomedical sensing: low energy usage, minimal tissue damage and high sensitivity to molecular changes. However, its strong absorption by water and limited penetration capabilities of biological tissues have hindered practical applications.
The team’s breakthrough terahertz optoacoustic systems overcome the two challenges by emitting terahertz waves at frequencies resonant with sodium ions but screening out water absorption signals, according to the paper.
This selectively excites sodium vibrations, generating ultrasound that are captured by transducers for analysis. The conversion to acoustic waves reduces scattering and attenuation, enabling deeper penetration through muscle and bone, as well as successful capture by ultrasound transducers.
Led by Tian Zhen, a professor at Tianjin University, the team achieved label-free, continuous sodium monitoring with validated accuracy in live mice and human volunteers. Their approach promises a painless alternative to needle-based tests, with potential for clinical adoption.
“The system holds promise beyond sodium monitoring,” said Li Jiao, a researcher on the team. “By leveraging terahertz characteristic absorption spectra, it could potentially detect other ions like potassium and calcium, as well as biomolecules such as sugars, proteins and enzymes — significantly expanding its clinical utility.” ■
Astroboffins have found the first evidence of a double-detonated Type Ia supernova, which could explain why we have enough bright points of reference in the skies to plot our place in the universe.
Data from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) on SNR 0509-67.5 – a supernova 160,000 light-years from Earth, caused when a white dwarf star hit critical mass and exploded – reveals that the elements created suggest something may have triggered the star to explode ahead of time.
Supernovae like these are very luminous and referred to as “standard candles” in astronomy. As fixed points, they are used to measure the expansion of the universe, but there are a lot more of them than current theories would predict, and new data could explain why.
“The explosions of white dwarfs play a crucial role in astronomy,” said Priyam Das, a PhD student at the University of New South Wales Canberra, Australia, who led the study on SNR 0509-67.5 published [PDF] in Nature Astronomy. “Yet, despite their importance, the long-standing puzzle of the exact mechanism triggering their explosion remains unsolved.”
Type Ia explosions are thought to be caused when two white dwarf stars orbit closely and one accretes mass from another and grows to about 1.4 times the mass of our Sun. This is the Chandrasekhar limit, named after Nobel Prize-winning physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, or the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. However, spectrographic data from the VLT shows signatures indicating the white dwarf could have detonated earlier due to an elemental collision.
If a white dwarf collects enough helium, the second most abundant element in the universe, this can form a shell around the star and ignite, compressing it and causing an early eruption before the Chandrasekhar limit is reached. That could explain why we have so many points of reference.
SNR 0509-67.5, a bright spot in the universe. Source: ESO
“The classical ‘textbook’ wisdom of how Type Ia supernovae explode is that material is accreted onto a white dwarf star composed of carbon and oxygen,” Professor Friedrich Röpke at the Center for Astronomy of Ruprecht-Karls University told The Register.
“It seems very difficult to grow a white dwarf star to the Chandrasekhar mass. Since these objects are very stable, a drastic event is needed for this. One scenario that was considered to be likely working is the double detonation, where the detonation in the helium shell surrounding the carbon-oxygen white dwarf star triggers the actual detonation of that star.”
The elements we’re made of were formed in exploding stars, and Type Ia supernovae typically eject large amounts of iron. But what the VLT saw was expanding shells of more complex elements such as calcium and sulfur, suggesting the double-detonation idea is correct.
“We are for the first time able to provide direct observational support for this (before only hypothetical) scenario,” Professor Röpke explained.
“We see two shells of heavy elements that are produced by two subsequent and spatially separated detonations. Calcium is one of these elements and it can be observed well with our methods. So, it is a tracer of the double detonation structure, but similar double shell structures are also expected in other heavy elements produced in the detonations.” ®
Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza continued for a second day on Monday, hours before a meeting in Washington between Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump.
Avi Dichter, an Israeli minister and member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said he expected Trump’s meeting with the Israeli prime minister would go beyond Gaza to include the possibility of normalising ties with Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia – an ambitious project that is central to the US president’s policy in the Middle East.
“I think it will first of all be focused on a term we have often used but now has real meaning; a new Middle East,” Dichter told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on Monday.
Trump has increased pressure for a deal in Gaza in recent weeks and raised the possibility that a ceasefire could be declared in a matter of hours or days.
Before departing for Washington on Sunday evening, Netanyahu said he was confident a deal could be achieved and that Israeli negotiators had been given clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire – but only with conditions that Israel has already agreed.
Sources in the prime minister’s entourage described the talks in Doha as positive, according to Israel’s military radio station and an Israeli official quoted by Reuters. Palestinian officials were more downbeat and said initial meetings on Sunday had ended inconclusively.
The current proposal envisages a phased release of about 28 hostages held by Hamas during an initial 60-day ceasefire, as well as the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza, a surge of humanitarian aid and discussions on a definitive end to the 21-month conflict.
In March, a previous ceasefire collapsed when Israel reneged on a promise to engage in negotiations that would have led to a second scheduled phase of the existing truce and possibly a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Hamas officials have now demanded strong guarantees that Israel will not launch a new offensive after the 60 days is over.
The militant Islamist organisation also wants the UN and other international organisations to control deliveries of humanitarian aid in Gaza, and bar the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive US and Israel-backed private organisation that started distributing aid in Gaza in May and has been mired in controversy.
A further point of dispute is Hamas’s demand for Israel’s military to pull back much further than proposed in negotiations. The Israeli military now holds about two-thirds of Gaza, including key strategic corridors as well as a swath of the southern part of the territory that has been razed flat and which Israel is reluctant to give up.
“Hamas are eager for a ceasefire, there is no doubt at all … but they have their red lines too. Here in Israel, we have had an experiment with the idea that more and more pressure on Hamas means they will [eventually] give up. Well, how much more pressure can you imagine?,” said Michael Milstein, a Hamas expert and the head of the Palestinian studies forum at Tel Aviv University.
But Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is under immense pressure, having suffered significant casualties in the conflict and the loss of much of its authority in the devastated territory. The organisation has also been undermined by the recent military success of Israel against Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militia and political movement that was a key ally, and against Iran, a major supporter overseas, in a short war in June that was brought to an end when the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities and then imposed a ceasefire.
“Hamas know they badly need a pause to regroup and take a breath … but they want to survive in the long run. That’s the only real goal … so they are not going to give up everything,” said one source close to Hamas familiar with the current negotiations.
This is why Hamas is refusing two key demands of Israel that are not included in the draft ceasefire proposal, giving up its weapons and sending its Gaza-based leadership into exile, the source said.
Hamas’s losses are contested. Israel has said it has killed more than 20,000 militants in Gaza, but offered no evidence to support the claim. There is little doubt that most of the senior leaders of the group in the territory at the beginning of the war are now dead.
Gaza’s ministry of health has counted more than 57,000 killed by the Israeli offensive there, mostly civilians. The UN and western governments consider the tally to be reliable.
The offensive has plunged Gaza into an acute humanitarian crisis, with much of the 2.3 million population threatened by famine, and reduced much of the territory to rubble.
‘I can’t find food’: despair in Gaza as children face malnutrition – video
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 12 people on Monday, including six in a clinic housing displaced Palestinians. “We were surprised by missiles and explosions inside the building,” Salman Qudum, a witness, told AFP.
In the south of the territory, Mahmoud Bassal, a civil defence spokesperson, said two people were killed and 20 others injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire near a distribution site run by the GHF.
Hundreds have been killed in recent weeks seeking food from the organisation’s distribution points, from UN convoys and from looted aid trucks.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reports of casualties. In a separate statement, it said it had struck “dozens of terrorists, weapons depots, observation posts, military buildings and other terror infrastructures” over the past 24 hours.
The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023 in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 250. Of the hostages, 50 remain in Gaza, of whom less than half are thought to be alive.
Some of Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners oppose any end to the fighting. But, with Israelis having become increasingly weary of the war and the military supporting a ceasefire so that remaining hostages can be returned, his government is expected to back a ceasefire.
Nvidia has officially launched the DLSS 4 plugin for Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, one of the most widely used software tools for game development and more.
In addition, Nvidia’s DLSS Super Resolution is now available for Unity 2021.2 beta versions.
RTX 50 Series Cards Gain Ground in Steam’s June 2025 Hardware Survey
Nvidia’s latest RTX 50 series GPUs have made their way into the latest Steam Hardware Survey. The June 2025 data shows steady growth for several models.
The RTX 5070 Ti saw a 0.27% increase in user share, followed by a 0.20% rise for the RTX 5060 Ti. Other RTX 50 series GPUs like the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 also recorded gains of 0.37% and 0.19%, respectively, compared to the previous three-month period.
Meanwhile, AMD’s latest 9000 series graphics cards have yet to appear in the survey.
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DJI’s Fly app, the essential companion for most consumer drones made by the tech giant, has received a quiet but important refresh. The latest version 1.17.4 is now rolling out globally.
While the current release log only mentions that “certain issues [were] fixed and overall app quality optimized,” recent Fly app updates have quietly introduced some pretty big perks, especially for DJI Flip users.
If you own a DJI Flip, you’ve probably already played around with Smart Snaps, the palm-controlled auto-shot modes that help you grab dynamic clips with no flying skills needed. But one of the biggest additions in recent Fly app and firmware updates is the Dolly Zoom feature — a cinematic camera trick that warps the background while keeping your subject centered.
Once reserved for big-budget films, Dolly Zoom was added to the Flip in late May through a firmware update. The Fly app also gives you smooth access to this effect directly from Smart Snaps, letting creators grab Hollywood-style shots on the go.
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Another helpful recent addition is the ability to manually update the Home Point during a flight when the One-Tap Return-to-Home pop-up appears. This gives DJI drone pilots more control, especially when launching from mobile setups like boats or moving vehicles. It’s a small detail, but it makes a big difference in real-world use.
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A vast network of stars, gas, and dust is strung among a duo of star clusters in this combined image from NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes. Open clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456 reside in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. This highly detailed 527 megapixel mosaic consists of 12 overlapping observations and includes both visible and infrared wavelengths. To view some of its incredible detail, download the 40.1 MB file and zoom in.
NASA, ESA, and C. Lindberg (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
A riotous expanse of gas, dust, and stars stake out the dazzling territory of a duo of star clusters in this combined image from NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes.
Open clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456 reside in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Open clusters consist of anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand young stars loosely bound together by gravity. These particular clusters are part of an extensive complex of star clusters and nebulae that are likely linked to one another. As clouds of gas collapse, stars are born. These young, hot stars expel intense stellar winds that shape the nebulae around them, carving out the clouds and triggering other collapses, which in turn give rise to more stars.
In these images, Hubble’s view captures the glowing, ionized gas as stellar radiation blows “bubbles” in the clouds of gas and dust (blue), while Webb’s infrared vision highlights the clumps and delicate filamentary structures of dust (red). In Hubble images, dust is often seen silhouetted against and blocking light, but in Webb’s view, the dust – warmed by starlight – shines with its own infrared glow. This mixture of gas and dust between the universe’s stars is known as the interstellar medium.
Hubble (ACS)
Webb (NIRCAM)
This Hubble image shows a duo of open clusters, NGC 460 and NGC 456. The nebulae’s glowing gas, ionized by the radiation of nearby stars, is distinct in Hubble’s view.
NASA, ESA, and C. Lindberg (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
In Webb’s infrared view of open clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456, dusty areas are visible as bright structures glowing red. Many background galaxies are visible, their infrared light passing through the region’s obscuring clouds of gas and dust.
NASA, ESA, and C. Lindberg (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
Hubble (ACS)Webb (NIRCAM)
This Hubble image shows a duo of open clusters, NGC 460 and NGC 456. The nebulae’s glowing gas, ionized by the radiation of nearby stars, is distinct in Hubble’s view.
NASA, ESA, and C. Lindberg (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
In Webb’s infrared view of open clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456, dusty areas are visible as bright structures glowing red. Many background galaxies are visible, their infrared light passing through the region’s obscuring clouds of gas and dust.
NASA, ESA, and C. Lindberg (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
Hubble and Webb view a duo of open star clusters
Image Details
Slide to switch between Hubble and Web images. Hubble’s view captures visible light and some infrared wavelengths, while Webb’s view is exclusively infrared. The nebulae’s glowing gas, ionized by the radiation of nearby stars, is distinct in Hubble’s view. Dusty areas that appear dark in the Hubble image are visible as bright structures in the Webb image, and more background galaxies are visible since infrared light from fainter and farther galaxies can pass through the obscuring clouds of gas and dust.
The nodules visible in these images are scenes of active star formation, with stars ranging from just one to 10 million years old. In contrast, our Sun is 4.5 billion years old. The region that holds these clusters, known as the N83-84-85 complex, is home to multiple, rare O-type stars, hot and extremely massive stars that burn hydrogen like our Sun. Astronomers estimate there are only around 20,000 O-type stars among the approximately 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
Clouds of ionized gas dominate open cluster NGC 460 in the Hubble image (left), while tendrils of dust are on display in the Webb image (right). Together, the two images provide a more comprehensive look at the region.
NASA, ESA, and C. Lindberg (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
The Hubble image of NGC 456 (left) shows a puffy, bluish cloud of ionized gas, while the Webb image (right) displays the same cluster’s cavern-like outline of dust.
NASA, ESA, and C. Lindberg (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
The Small Magellanic Cloud is of great interest to researchers because it is less enriched in metals than the Milky Way. Astronomers call all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium – that is, with more than two protons in the atom’s nucleus – “metals.” This state mimics conditions in the early universe, so the Small Magellanic Cloud provides a relatively nearby laboratory to explore theories about star formation and the interstellar medium at early stages of cosmic history. With these observations of NGC 460 and NGC 456, researchers intend to study how gas flows in the region converge or divide; refine the collision history between the Small Magellanic Cloud and its fellow dwarf galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud; examine how bursts of star formation occur in such gravitational interactions between galaxies; and better understand the interstellar medium.
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In one sentence, what does the mission you’re working on aim to do?
Initially focusing on Jupiter’s interior, atmosphere and aurora, [Juno] has expanded during its extended mission to be a full system explorer capable of investigating the Galilean satellites, rings, inner moons, radiation belts, and boundaries of Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
What potential discoveries are at stake if Juno is defunded or cancelled?
Juno provides a unique opportunity to investigate previously unexplored regions of the Jovian system. Its next phase includes close flybys of the moons Thebe, Amalthea, Adrastea, and Metis. In addition to scientific exploration, Juno is providing critical new information directly relevant to national security by teaching us how space systems can survive and even reverse degradation from exposure to intense radiation.
How does Juno fit into NASA’s overall mission?
In addition to helping to lay a foundation for NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) missions enroute to Jupiter, Juno is providing the basis of understanding to compare the characteristics of Jupiter with the other giant planets in the Solar System: Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. This is vital for our understanding of Solar System formation and evolution, and for understanding planetary systems throughout the galaxy.
Why should this mission matter to people?
Continuing NASA’s Juno mission is a strategic investment in planetary science, offering continued insights into the Jupiter system and informing future exploration missions. The mission’s unique capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and alignment with strategic priorities make it an invaluable asset to the scientific community and the nation’s space exploration goals.
How many people are on your team?
There are about 200 people working on Juno, mostly part time.
