The use of virtual reality (VR) nature scenes has been found to relieve symptoms commonly experienced by individuals living with long-term pain, with those who felt more present during the experience showing the strongest effects. A recent study led by the University of Exeter discovered that immersive 360-degree nature films delivered via VR were almost twice as effective in reducing pain compared to 2D video images.

Long-term pain is notoriously difficult to treat and typically lasts for over three months. Researchers simulated this type of pain in healthy participants, finding that nature VR had an effect similar to that of painkillers, which endured for at least five minutes after the VR experience had ended.

Dr. Sam Hughes, Senior Lecturer in Pain Neuroscience at the University of Exeter, stated, “We’ve seen a growing body of evidence show that exposure to nature can help reduce short-term, everyday pain, but there has been less research into how this might work for people living with chronic or longer-term pain.” The study aimed to investigate the effect of prolonged exposure to a virtual reality nature scene on symptoms experienced during long-term pain sensitivity.

The study involved 29 healthy participants who were shown two types of nature scenes after experiencing electric shocks on their forearm, which simulated pain. On the first visit, they measured changes in pain over a 50-minute period following the electric shocks and showed how the healthy participants developed sensitivity to sharp pricking stimuli in the absence of any nature scenes.

On the second visit, they immersed the same participants in a 45-minute virtual reality 360-degree experience of Oregon’s waterfalls, specifically chosen to maximize therapeutic effects. The scene was compared to a 2D screen experience. Participants completed questionnaires on their experience of pain after watching the scenes and how present they felt in each experience.

On a separate visit, participants underwent MRI brain scans at the University of Exeter’s Mireille Gillings Neuroimaging Centre. Researchers administered a cold gel to illicit ongoing pain and then scanned participants to study how their brains responded.

The researchers found that the immersive VR experience significantly reduced the development and spread of feelings of pain sensitivity to pricking stimuli, and these pain-reducing effects were still present even at the end of the 45-minute experience. The more present the person felt during the VR experience, the stronger this pain-relieving effect was.

The fMRI brain scans also revealed that people with stronger connectivity in brain regions involved in modulating pain responses experienced less pain. The results suggest that nature scenes delivered using VR can help change how pain signals are transmitted in the brain and spinal cord during long-term pain conditions.

Dr. Sonia Medina, of the University of Exeter Medical School, stated, “We think VR has a particularly strong effect on reducing experience of pain because it’s so immersive. It really created that feeling of being present in nature – and we found the pain-reducing effect was greatest in people for whom that perception was strongest.” The study aims to lead to more research to investigate further how exposure to nature effects our pain responses, so we could one day see nature scenes incorporated into ways of reducing pain for people in settings like care homes or hospitals.

Scientists have long considered transistors to be one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. These tiny components are the backbone of modern electronics, allowing us to amplify or switch electrical signals. However, as electronics continue to shrink, it’s become increasingly difficult to scale down silicon-based transistors. It seemed like we had hit a wall.

A team of researchers from The University of Tokyo has come up with an innovative solution. They’ve developed a new transistor made from gallium-doped indium oxide (InGaOx), a material that can be structured as a crystalline oxide. This orderly structure is well-suited for electron mobility, making it an ideal candidate for replacing traditional silicon-based transistors.

The researchers wanted to enhance efficiency and scalability, so they designed their transistor with a “gate-all-around” structure. In this design, the gate (which turns the current on or off) surrounds the channel where the current flows. This wraps the gate entirely around the channel, improving efficiency and allowing for further miniaturization.

To create this new transistor, the team used atomic-layer deposition to coat the channel region with a thin film of InGaOx, one atomic layer at a time. They then heated the film to transform it into the crystalline structure needed for electron mobility.

The results are promising: their gate-all-around MOSFET achieves high mobility of 44.5 cm2/Vs and operates stably under applied stress for nearly three hours. In fact, this new transistor outperforms similar devices that have previously been reported.

This breakthrough has the potential to revolutionize electronics by providing more reliable and efficient components suited for applications with high computational demand, such as big data and artificial intelligence. These tiny transistors promise to help next-gen technology run smoothly, making a significant difference in our everyday lives.

The Power of Pixelation: Metasurface Technology Displays 36 High-Resolution Images on a Single Surface

In today’s world, technologies that harness the power of light are omnipresent – from smartphones and TVs to credit cards. Many of these innovations rely on holography, but conventional methods have long faced limitations, particularly in displaying multiple images on a single screen without compromising image quality. A groundbreaking breakthrough has recently been made by a research team at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), led by Professor Junsuk Rho.

The team’s pioneering metasurface technology can display an astonishing 36 high-resolution images on a surface thinner than a human hair. This achievement is a testament to the incredible advancements in nanostructure engineering. The researchers employed silicon nitride, a robust material with excellent optical transparency, to fabricate nanometer-scale pillars – known as meta-atoms – that enable precise control over light as it passes through.

One of the most striking aspects of this technology is its ability to project entirely different images depending on both the wavelength (color) and spin (polarization direction) of light. For example, left-circularly polarized red light might reveal an image of an apple, while right-circularly polarized red light could produce an image of a car. This technique allowed the researchers to encode 36 images at 20 nm intervals within the visible spectrum and 8 images spanning from the visible to the near-infrared region – all onto a single metasurface.

What sets this innovation apart is not only its simplified design and fabrication process but also its enhanced image quality. The team tackled previous issues of image crosstalk and background noise by incorporating a noise suppression algorithm, resulting in clearer images with minimal interference between channels.

“This is the first demonstration of multiplexing spin and wavelength information through a single phase-optimization process while achieving low noise and high image fidelity,” said Professor Rho. “Given its scalability and commercial viability, this technology holds strong potential for a wide range of optical applications, including high-capacity optical data storage, secure encryption systems, and multi-image display technologies.”

This research was supported by the POSCO Holdings N.EX.T Impact Program, as well as the Pioneer Program for Converging Technology of the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT.