“Surround sound for biological cells,” is how Luke Cox describes the ultrasound technology that Impulsonics has developed to solve the “unsticking problem” in biomedical science. Cox is co-founder and chief executive of UK-based Impulsonics, which spun-out of the University of Bristol in 2023.

He is also my guest in this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast. He explains why living cells tend to stick together and why this can be a barrier to scientific research and the development of new medical treatments.

The system uses an array of ultrasound transducers to focus sound so that it frees-up and manipulates cells in a way that does not alter their biological properties. This is unlike chemical unsticking processes, which can change cells and impact research results.

We also chat about Cox’s career arc from PhD student to chief executive and explore opportunities for physicists in the biomedical industry.

The following articles are mentioned in the podcast:

• “Materials probed by ultrasound…” podcast with Bruce Drinkwater
• “Portable imaging system targets eye diseases…” podcast with Siloton
• “Holographic acoustic tweezers could be used to create 3D displays” research done in Bruce Drinkwater’s lab

The post Ultrasound system solves the “unsticking problem” in biomedical research appeared first on Physics World.

An analysis of more than 5.2 million papers in 5000 different journals has revealed a dramatic rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in academic writing across all scientific disciplines, especially physics.

However, the analysis has revealed a big gap between the number of researchers who use AI and those who admit to doing so – even though most scientific journals have policies requiring the use of AI to be disclosed.

Carried out by data scientist Yi Bu from Peking University and colleagues, the analysis looks at papers that are listed in the OpenAlex dataset and were published between 2021 and 2025.

To assess the impact of editorial guidelines introduced in response to the growing use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, they examined journal AI-writing policies, looked at author disclosures and used AI to see if papers had been written with the help of technology.

The AI detection analysis reveals that the use of AI writing tools has increased dramatically across all scientific disciplines since 2023. It also finds that 70% of journals have adopted AI policies, which primarily require authors to disclose the use of AI-writing tools.

IOP Publishing, which publishes Physics World, for example, has a journals policy that supports authors who use AI in a “responsible and appropriate” manner. It encourages authors, however, to be “transparent about their use of any generative AI tools in either the research or the drafting of the manuscript”.

A new framework

But in the new study, a full-text analysis of 75 000 papers published since 2023, reveals that only 76 articles (about 0.1% of the total) explicitly disclosed the use of AI writing tools.

In addition, the study finds no significant difference in the use of AI between journals that have disclosure policies and those that do not, which suggests that disclosure requirements are being ignored – what the authors call a “transparency gap”.

The study also finds that researchers from non-English-speaking countries are more likely to rely on AI writing tools than native English speakers. Increases in the use of AI writing tools are found to be particularly rapid in journals with high levels of open-access publishing.

The authors now call for a re-evaluation of ethical frameworks to foster responsible AI integration in science. They state that prohibition or disclosure requirements are insufficient to regulate AI use, with their results showing that researchers are not complying with policies.

The authors argue that instead of “opposition and resistance”, “proactive engagement and institutional innovation” is needed “to ensure AI technology truly enhances the value of science”.

The post Scientists are failing to disclose their use of AI despite journal mandates, finds study appeared first on Physics World.