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A 40-year-old Chinese woman who had been almost completely blind for nearly 20 years regained her visual function after becoming the first person in China to receive a homegrown high-resolution retina-based visual brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in a clinical trial.
After more than two months of training, she is making steady progress in rehabilitation, learning to recognize letters, practice writing, and move around indoors with increasing confidence.
Sperm cells are breaking Newton’s third law of motion.
Human sperm can effortlessly navigate through dense, viscous fluids that ought to impede or halt their progress—seemingly violating Newton’s third law, which dictates that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction.
To unravel this paradox, a research team led by Kenta Ishimoto at Kyoto University examined the locomotion of sperm and the green alga Chlamydomonas. Both propel themselves using whip-like flagella. Under conventional physics, a flagellum’s motion should displace the surrounding fluid, which would then exert an equal counterforce, nullifying forward movement. Yet this cancellation does not occur.
The key lies in a phenomenon termed “odd elasticity.” This unusual property allows flagella to bend and oscillate with minimal fluid resistance, generating forces that deviate from standard reciprocal rules. Rather than equilibrating, these forces produce net directional propulsion.
This behavior is classified as non-reciprocal motion, which disrupts the symmetry underpinning Newton’s third law. Such dynamics emerge in far-from-equilibrium systems—such as flocking birds or active living cells—that continuously inject energy into their surroundings.
To quantify these internal mechanics, the team introduced a novel parameter: the “odd elastic modulus.”
These insights hold promise for bioengineering, potentially informing the design of soft robotics, targeted drug-delivery microswimmers, and biomimetic materials that replicate biological motility in complex environments.
[Odd Elastohydrodynamics: Non-Reciprocal Living Material in a Viscous Fluid." PRX Life, 11 Oct 2023]
Kazakhstan welcomes home 150 Przewalski’s horses in landmark reintroduction.
In a major step toward ecological restoration, Kazakhstan has begun reintroducing 150 Przewalski’s horses—known locally as Takhi—back to their ancestral homeland in the Altyn Dala State Nature Reserve.
These horses represent the last truly wild horse species on Earth, genetically distinct from feral populations such as Mustangs. They vanished from the Kazakh steppes more than 200 years ago, but now they are making a historic return.
The horses are being airlifted from Hungary’s Hortobágy National Park and other European breeding centers aboard military transport planes. The multi-year effort, running through 2025 and 2026, seeks to establish a thriving, self-sustaining population across Kazakhstan’s expansive grasslands.
The project is the result of strong international collaboration between the Kazakh government, Prague Zoo, and several European conservation partners. To support long-term monitoring and adaptation, every horse has been fitted with a GPS collar, enabling scientists to track their movements and behavior in real time.
This initiative follows the successful recovery of the saiga antelope in the same region and forms part of a larger vision to restore the steppe ecosystem. By bringing back these iconic grazers, Kazakhstan is not only rescuing a species once extinct in the wild but also breathing new life into the biodiversity of its ancient landscapes for generations to come.
[Prague Zoo. Reintroduction of the Przewalski's Horse to Kazakhstan. Conservation Department Publications]
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