Laser Light in Biomaterials?

Rachel Berkowitz. “Peacock feathers can be lasers,” Science, July 2025.

With their impressive long tail feathers and eye-like markings, peacocks have a unique place in the animal kingdom. A recent study has revealed that these amazing birds have a secret: they can emit beams of laser light. According to this study published in Scientific Reports in July 2025, there are tiny reflective structures in these feathers which can amplify light into a laser beam.

Lasers form when the medium’s electrons emit photons and the light is further amplified into a coherent beam in a reflective cavity. Researchers say what they have found in peacock feathers is the “first example of a laser cavity” in the animal kingdom. Physicist Nathan Dawson from Florida Polytechnic University and his colleagues conducted their study on the ordered microstructures within the feathers which produce vivid colors as they reflect light at specific frequencies. Their goal was to see if these microstructures could also function as a laser cavity. To do that, they dyed and then energized the feathers with soft pulses of light.

What they found was not visible to the naked eye, but with lab instruments they detected beams of yellow-green laser light originating from the eye-like markings on the feathers at two distinct wavelengths. Surprisingly, the laser light emitted from differently colored parts of these markings appeared at the same wavelength. According to Dawson, the probability of this is “like rolling two 100-sided dice and always getting 74 from one die and 83 from the other.”

Further research that looks for laser light in biomaterials, according to Dawson, can have ramifications, for instance in medicine, and if put safely into the human body help us with biosensing, medical imaging, and therapeutics.

Reading Each Other’s Minds?

Daryl Austin. “Is ‘twin telepathy’ real? Here’s what scientists say.” National Geographic, August 2025

Twins, a 1988 comedy film, features Arnold Schwarzenegger (6’ 2”) and Danny DeVito (4’ 10”) as two unlikely fraternal twin brothers who were born as a result of a secret genetic experiment. Given their height and other apparent physical – and behavioral – differences, the unlikeliness is impossible to miss.

Many twins, however, especially monozygotic ones, are almost identical in physical appearance. These similarities have fueled myths suggesting a connection between twins that goes beyond shared DNA, physical traits, and mirrored behaviors. One such myth is whether twins can communicate through telepathy. Daryl Austin defines in National Geographic (August 2025) twin telepathy as “the belief that twins – especially identical (monozygotic) ones – can sense each other’s feelings, thoughts, or physical sensations across distance without using the five senses.”

Despite the murkiness in this matter among the scientific community, Austin notes that some recent studies have produced intriguing results. In one of four pairs in a 2013 study published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, “the non-stimulated twin showed a response that was considered above chance.” In another research in 2024 which involved 91 stimulus trials, 18 stimulation epochs were identified – this is “nearly double the 11 hits expected by chance.” Still, none of these findings qualify as “credible scientific evidence that twin telepathy exists.” The real focus, then, should be on what twins genuinely share: growing up in the same environment, experiences, routines, cultural influences, and genetic traits. According to Joanne Broder, twins are “more likely just demonstrating a communication bond, not reading each other’s minds.”

Password-Protected Brain Implant Decodes Internal Speech

Gemma Conroy. “A mind-reading brain implant that comes with password protection.” Nature, August 2025.

A new study on a brain-computer interface (BCI), or mind-reading device, shows meaningful improvements in accurately decoding internal speech, while safeguarding privacy through a novel password mechanism. The device was tested on four individuals with speech impairments caused by stroke or motor neuron disease. Electrodes placed on the motor cortex recorded neural activity as participants either attempted to speak or silently imagined words and sentences.

The study revealed that both types of speech arise from the same brain region, though signals linked to internal speech are weaker. AI models were then trained to recognize phonemes—the smallest units of speech—from these signals and construct words and sentences from a vocabulary of 125,000 words. The system decoded up to 74% of silently imagined sentences with accuracy comparable to existing BCIs that rely on attempted speech. It also detected spontaneous self-talk, such as silent counting, suggesting the system can capture more natural forms of inner dialogue.

To prevent unintentional decoding of private thoughts, researchers introduced a password trigger to control when decoding begins. When participants imagined the phrase “Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang,” the system recognized it with over 98% accuracy, preventing the unintended translation of private thoughts. This is an important step toward helping people with paralysis or speech loss communicate naturally through thought. The password mechanism helps with privacy protection for real-world use. Researchers aim to explore other brain regions beyond the motor cortex and hopefully improve speed and accuracy to broaden the system’s usefulness for different types of speech impairments.