New scientific method can now tell real Van Goghs from fakes

IOP Publishing

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A new study published in the peer reviewed journal Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties introduces a pioneering, non‑invasive technique that can distinguish authentic artworks from forgeries, offering museums, collectors and auction houses a major advantage in tackling art fraud.

The study, developed at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France introduces a method that analyses the microscopic “texture” of a painting by converting high-resolution images into 3D‑like maps allowing researchers to measure how rough or detailed the surface is using fractal dimensions. This measurement captures subtle patterns created by an artist’s brushwork – patterns so consistent that they act like a morphological signature unique to that artist.

Using works attributed to Vincent van Gogh, the researchers showed that the method can reliably distinguish between authentic paintings and known forgeries. In tests, the well‑documented fake The Plowmen was identified as a strong outlier, while the recently authenticated Sunset at Montmajour aligned closely with Van Gogh’s known works. The approach also successfully separated the stylistic signatures of Van Gogh and 17th‑century painter David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl, demonstrating its wider potential.

Art forgery is a growing problem, and traditional authentication relies on a combination of expert opinion, historical research, pigment analysis and digital techniques. These approaches are powerful but also resource‑intensive and sometimes inconclusive. This technology can strengthen authentication, especially when combined with complementary analyses such as the chemical examination of materials, while reducing financial risk and helping to safeguard cultural heritage

The urgency for better authentication tools has never been clearer. A recent investigation reported by The Guardian revealed that AI technology identified up to 40 counterfeit artworks, including pieces labelled as Monet and Renoir, being sold on major online marketplaces. In these cases, scientists provide analysis that helps experts make informed decisions. Using a range of different methods leads to more reliable conclusions, helping to detect fraud and protect cultural heritage.

Lead researcher of the study, Francois Berkmans, says: “Fractal analysis gives us a measurable fingerprint of an artist’s brushwork without needing to sample or disturb the painting. This approach won’t replace traditional expertise, but it significantly strengthens it. Our results show that our technique can clearly point out genuine artists and reliable detect known forgeries.”

 

ENDS

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Journal

Surface Topography Metrology and Properties

DOI

10.1088/2051-672X/ae7136 

Method of Research

Imaging analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Preserving Van Gogh's Painterly Heritage: Topographical and Fractal Insights in Authentication

Article Publication Date

11-Jun-2026

 

Diffusion in a heterogeneous medium – or how voting preferences can be described in terms of physics

The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences

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The milky pattern on the surface of the foamed coffee provides a delicious example of… anomalous diffusion in an inhomogeneous medium.

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Credit: Source: IFJ PAN

A drop of dye added to a glass of water undergoes ordinary diffusion. However, when placed on the surface of a foam, the dye spreads differently – diffusion becomes anomalous. An example of this is the pattern on the froth of a cup of cappuccino. Interestingly, the latest research suggests that diffusion equations in a heterogeneous environment can also describe social phenomena, such as election results or the behaviour of stock market traders.

 

 

The movement of particles in complex media – such as porous materials, gels or foams – bears more resemblance to a random journey through an irregular maze than to a leisurely stroll through a homogeneous space. The presence of local ‘traps’ alongside narrow passages or branches causes the transport of matter or energy to be significantly slowed down or accelerated. Such deviations from classical diffusion are referred to as anomalous diffusion. It is also observed in media with a non-uniform structure. An international team of physicists from Poland, Croatia, Macedonia and Hungary has undertaken a mathematical description of diffusion in such systems; the Polish side was represented by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow.

 

We usually speak of diffusion when certain physical entities (such as atoms, chemical molecules, dye particles, or even thermal energy) move from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration as a result of random interactions with their surroundings. A classic example of simple diffusion is the familiar process of a drop of dye spreading out in a glass of still water.

 

“In the simplest models, it is assumed that the diffusion coefficient – which determines how a particle moves – is the same at every point in space. My team addressed the problem of diffusion in a heterogeneous medium, where the diffusion coefficient varies spatially. An example of such a situation is a glass containing a mixture of liquids with density varying spatially. The problem of describing diffusion in such a medium boils down to solving a modified diffusion equation,” explains Prof. Katarzyna Gorska (IFJ PAN), the lead author of an article published in the interdisciplinary journal Chaos.

 

A similar phenomenon can be observed in nature in many contexts, including the way bacteria move, the transport of molecules across cell membranes, in heat propagation in heterogeneous materials, in the movement of charge carriers in semiconductors, or even in the transmission of information within a crowd, voter behaviour or the reactions of financial markets.

 

“The classical diffusion equation is widely used because of the mathematical ease with which its solutions can be applied. Despite its good agreement with reality, this equation has a non-physical feature: the diffusing particles propagate instantaneously. In our research, we modified the basic equations to obtain a finite particle propagation velocity. This leads to a hyperbolic equation, known as the telegraph equation, which describes phenomena occurring in transmission lines,” notes Prof. Andrzej Horzela (IFJ PAN).

 

The solutions obtained by the researchers for particles diffusing at a finite velocity turned out to be solutions to the Cattaneo-Vernotte equation, which resembles the telegraph equation but satisfies physical conditions suited to describing diffusion. These were then analysed for cases where the diffusion coefficient varies with position (for the sake of simplicity, the model was one-dimensional), and solutions were proposed for specific diffusion coefficient models.

 

The team of researchers noted that the resulting equations, describing physical anomalous diffusion in heterogeneous media, bear a striking mathematical resemblance to the equation used to model shifts in public opinion. The analogy relates to the so-called ‘voter with noise’ model, where it is assumed that voters generally adopt the opinions of their neighbours (i.e. follow the herd), but there are also voters capable of spontaneously changing their minds (this effect acts as noise). The observed similarity suggests that the mechanisms of anomalous diffusion in heterogeneous physical systems and the mechanisms of opinion propagation in social structures, at least under certain conditions, appear to be of a similar nature.

 

The analyses also suggest that the behaviour of financial markets moving towards or returning to equilibrium in situations where investors conceal their intentions may also exhibit the characteristics of anomalous diffusion in a heterogeneous environment.

 

On the Polish side, the research was funded by the National Science Centre, the National Agency for Academic Exchange, and a grant from the Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

 

 

The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ PAN) is currently one of the largest research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. A wide range of research carried out at IFJ PAN covers basic and applied studies, from particle physics and astrophysics, through hadron physics, high-, medium-, and low-energy nuclear physics, condensed matter physics (including materials engineering), to various applications of nuclear physics in interdisciplinary research, covering medical physics, dosimetry, radiation and environmental biology, environmental protection, and other related disciplines. The average yearly publication output of IFJ PAN includes over 600 scientific papers in high-impact international journals. Each year the Institute hosts about 20 international and national scientific conferences. One of the most important establishments of the Institute is the Bronowice Cyclotron Centre (CCB), which is an infrastructure unique in Central Europe, serving as a clinical and research centre in the field of medical and nuclear physics. In addition, IFJ PAN runs four accredited research and measurement laboratories. IFJ PAN is a member of the Marian Smoluchowski Kraków Research Consortium: “Matter-Energy-Future”, which in 2012-2017 enjoyed the status of the Leading National Research Centre (KNOW) in physics. In 2017, the European Commission granted the Institute the HR Excellence in Research award. As a result of the categorization of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Institute has been classified into the A+ category (the highest scientific category in Poland) in the field of physical sciences.

 

 

CONTACTS:

 

Prof. Katarzyna Górska

Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Science

tel.: +48 12 6628161

email: katarzyna.gorska@ifj.edu.pl

 

 

SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS:

 

“Heterogeneous Cattaneo-Vernotte equation connection to the noisy voter model”

K. Górska, A. Horzela, D. Jankov Maširević, T. Pietrzak, T. K. Pogány, T. Sandev

Chaos 36, 043108 (2026)

DOI: 10.1063/5.0325574

 

 

LINKS:

 

http://www.ifj.edu.pl/

The website of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences.

 

http://press.ifj.edu.pl/

Press releases of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences.

 

 

IMAGES:

 

IFJ260610b_fot01s.jpg                                 

HR: http://press.ifj.edu.pl/news/2026/06/10/IFJ260610b_fot01.jpg

The milky pattern on the surface of the foamed coffee provides a delicious example of… anomalous diffusion in an inhomogeneous medium. (Source: IFJ PAN)

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Journal

Chaos An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science

DOI

10.1063/5.0325574 

Article Title

Heterogeneous Cattaneo-Vernotte equation connection to the noisy voter model

 

Cotton plants get a potassium boost from two teamwork hormones

A new study reveals how jasmonate and ethylene work together to activate a key K+ transporter in cotton, improving low-K⁺ tolerance and seed cotton yield.

Science China Press

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Potassium (K⁺) is an essential macronutrient that plays critical roles in diverse physiological processes in plants, including photosynthesis, enzyme activation, and osmoregulation. However, over 70% of global cultivated soils are affected by K⁺ deficiency, posing a widespread challenge for agriculture, particularly for crops with high K⁺ demands such as cotton.

A research team led by Professors Zhaohu Li and Xiaoli Tian at China Agricultural University has identified a hormone-driven molecular cascade that enhances K⁺ uptake in cotton under low-K⁺ conditions. The findings were published in Science Bulletin in an article titled, “GhZAT10 integrates jasmonic acid and ethylene pathways to synergistically regulate the GhKUP3aD-mediated high-affinity K⁺ uptake in Gossypium hirsutum”.

In this study, researchers identified GhKUP3aD as a pivotal high-affinity K⁺ transporter in cotton. Functional analyses confirmed that GhKUP3aD is essential for maintaining K⁺ homeostasis under low-K⁺ stress. Furthermore, the C2H2-type zinc-finger transcription factor GhZAT10 directly binds to the GhKUP3aD promoter, functioning as its transcriptional activator.

A central mechanism revealed in the study is that the GhZAT10-GhKUP3aD module is synergistically regulated by the jasmonate (JA) and ethylene signaling pathways. Downstream components of these pathways—GhMYC2s (JA) and GhEIN3dD (ethylene)—directly bind to the GhZAT10 promoter to enhance its expression. Crucially, these two proteins physically interact to form a transcriptional complex that synergistically amplifies GhZAT10 activation beyond their individual effects.

The study also reveals a layered repression mechanism that operates when K⁺ supply is adequate. Under K⁺-sufficient conditions, the JA signaling repressors GhJAZ2 and GhJAZ10 sequester both GhMYC2s and GhZAT10, thereby suppressing the pathway and preventing unnecessary metabolic expenditure when enhanced K⁺ uptake is not required.

To translate these molecular findings into agricultural practice, the team conducted field experiments under moderate-to-severe soil K⁺ deficiency (available K⁺ levels below 60 mg kg⁻¹). Foliar application of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) or the ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) improved leaf K⁺ concentration and photosynthetic performance in cotton, and their combined application had the best effect, increasing seed cotton yield by 11.6%.

This research delineates the GhMYC2s-GhEIN3dD-GhZAT10-GhKUP3aD regulatory axis, providing a mechanistic basis for hormonal crosstalk underlying cotton K⁺ uptake. These findings deepen our understanding of potassium uptake mechanisms in crops and provide a new strategy for improving potassium use efficiency in agricultural production.

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Journal

Science Bulletin

DOI

10.1016/j.scib.2026.05.049 

 

Lower dopamine may drive teen substance use that fades with age

University of Pittsburgh

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Ashley Parr, Ph.D.

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Credit: Ashley Parr

PITTSBURGH, June 11, 2026 – Teenage risk-taking, such as experimentation with alcohol, cannabis, nicotine and other substances, may reflect a compensatory response to lower baseline dopamine, the brain chemical for reward activity, suggests a new University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study, published today in Nature Communications.

The study’s nuanced findings challenge previous beliefs associating higher dopamine with risk taking and could reshape how scientists think about brain development in adolescence. While additional research is needed, new evidence suggests that non-invasive measurements of brain dopamine could help inform research into which teens might benefit from additional support while navigating this critical stage of development and growth.

“Our results suggest that, for some teens, risk-taking may act as a way to ‘get the system going’ when dopamine-related reward biology is lower at the start of adolescence,” said lead and corresponding author Ashley Parr, Ph.D., research assistant professor of psychiatry at Pitt. “This finding is a big shift for the field because many people would assume higher dopamine activity would be linked to more substance use.”

Adolescence, a dynamic period during which a young person develops from a child into an adult, is a time when many teens begin testing boundaries and taking risks, including substance use experimentation. This exploratory behavior is well-known to many parents and is considered to be a normal part of growing up, an evolutionarily established biological process that is critical for brain development and progressing toward independence in adulthood.

Among a group of more than 800 teenagers, Parr and her team found that those who had lower levels of dopamine in the brain’s reward system were more likely to try substances than those with higher dopamine. But as the teens got older and their dopamine systems matured, their substance use tended to decrease. Most teens who experiment with substances do not develop substance use disorder as adults, and the researchers found that, as a whole, the study cohort’s substance use declined after the college years.

Unlike many adult-focused studies that measure brain dopamine after years of substance use, here researchers analyzed data from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence and Young Adulthood (NCANDA-A), which captured changes in dopamine levels over time, including before, during and after patterns of substance use had been established. That approach helped the scientists understand whether dopamine-related differences may precede substance use behaviors rather than simply reflect the effects of substance exposure over time.

To better understand the biological underpinnings of risk-taking behavior, researchers analyzed more than 6,000 repeated assessments across years of self-reported drinking and drug use, impulsivity and ability to control those impulsive behaviors. Scientists also analyzed participants’ brain scans, collected annually for up to nine years, using a technique that measures brain tissue iron as proxy for dopamine content. This technique was pioneered in the lab of Pitt professor of psychiatry Beatriz Luna, Ph.D., by then-postdoctoral fellow Bart Larsen, Ph.D., now at the University of Minnesota.

The adolescent participants did not all follow the same path. Some showed low or minimal substance use, while others fit a “youth peak” pattern — increasing use earlier in adolescence followed by declines in their mid-twenties. Notably, adolescents in the “youth peak” group had significantly lower dopamine levels in comparison to all other groups, including those whose substance use continued to increase over time, or those who engaged in substance use in adulthood. As participants in the “youth peak” group got older, their brain dopamine levels steadily but rapidly increased, coinciding with the drop in substance use.

“The key question isn’t who experiments, but who continues, and who escalates their use into adulthood,” said Parr. “By tracking teens over time, we were able to pinpoint early brain and behavioral markers that help distinguish temporary, developmentally typical experimentation from patterns that may signal greater long‑term risk.”

This study did not measure social media behavior, though researchers noted that fast-paced, highly reinforcing digital environments may engage related reward processes, making this an important area for future research. Recent reports show that fewer youth are engaging in substance use behavior than in the past, and social media engagement could reflect a modern-day alternate means of reward-seeking. Parr’s findings identifying distinct patterns of risk-taking across adolescence could be used in the future to understand the development of other forms of reward seeking, including social media behavior.

“Risk-taking is a normal part of being a teenager, and for most kids it’s a phase that peaks and then eases,” said Luna, senior author of the study. “Parents can help by steering that drive for new, rewarding experiences toward positive social outlets like team sports, so teens can chase that ‘reward’ in healthier places.”

Pitt co-authors of this research are Daniel Petrie, Ph.D., Finnegan Calabro, Ph.D., Will Foran, Ph.D., Douglas Fitzgerald, Ph.D., and Duncan Clark, M.D., Ph.D.; Additional co‑authors are from Carnegie Mellon University, University of Minnesota, University of California San Diego, University of North Carolina Wilmington, University of Tulsa and Duke University.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant 5RO1MH080243-07), the Developmental Alcohol Research Training Program from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grant T32 AA007453), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (grant K23DA057486), the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the Jacobs Foundation and the Staunton Farm Foundation.

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-73611-1 

Article Publication Date

11-Jun-2026

MINORITY REPORT 

Genetic mapping identifies potential new targets for cocaine addiction

Largest study of its kind uncovers how drug metabolism may drive addiction-like behavior

University of California - San Diego

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Co-corresponding author Olivier George is a professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

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Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have completed a massive genetic study that identifies key biological drivers of cocaine addiction, uncovering a potential new target for treatment that resides in the liver rather than the brain. The study, published in Nature Communications, used a genetically diverse group of nearly 900 rats to map the genetic markers associated with compulsive drug use.

"Finding a liver-based enzyme that shapes cocaine-taking behavior was a real ‘aha’ moment for us,” said co-corresponding author Olivier George, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine, whose lab led the addiction behavioral studies that provided the foundation for the research. “It reminds us that addiction isn’t only in the brain. It’s a complex puzzle involving how the entire body processes the drug.”

While it is well-known that cocaine use disorder has a strong genetic component, scientists have struggled to pinpoint the specific genes that make certain individuals more vulnerable to addiction.

“Identifying those genes in an important goal, because drugs could then be developed to target those genes, shifting genetically susceptible people to become more like genetically resistant people,” said co-corresponding author Abraham A. Palmer, PhD, professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine, who led the project's intensive genetic modeling and analysis.

Current research in this area often focuses on the brain, but the UC San Diego team’s findings suggest that how the body breaks down — or metabolizes — cocaine may be just as critical in determining whether somebody develops an addiction.

The researchers identified a specific group of genes, known as Ces1, which are responsible for creating the enzyme that metabolizes cocaine. The study found that variations in these genes are closely linked to how frequently and compulsively rats self-administered the drug. By utilizing heterogeneous stock rats — a model system capable of mimicking the vast genetic diversity found in human populations — the team was able to capture the critical differences between individuals who are genetically susceptible to addiction and those who are naturally more resistant.

Analyzing millions of genetic markers in each animal, the team was able to identify six major genetic regions linked to addiction-like behaviors, such as the escalation of drug intake and the time elapsed between doses. Their findings suggest that by targeting the enzymes that metabolize cocaine with medicines, scientists might be able to alter how the drug affects the body, potentially reducing its addictive impact.

“This work showcases the power of long-term, team-science collaboration that pairs experts in rodent behavior with quantitative geneticists,” said Palmer. “A decade of coordinated effort across multiple cohorts and federal partners made possible a discovery that no single lab could achieve alone.”

The findings also replicated a known genetic link found in humans (Trak2), providing a vital translational bridge between animal research and human medicine. This replication strengthens the argument that the biological pathways identified in the lab could eventually lead to real-world therapies.

“Seeing the Ces1 signal validate a hypothesis that has been circulating for decades is incredibly exciting,” said first author Montana Kay Lara, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at UC San Diego School of Medicine, who helped bridge the gap between the study's behavioral and genetic components. “It gives us a concrete target to test whether changing how cocaine is metabolized can blunt the drive toward compulsive use.”

The research team is now moving into the next phase of the project, which involves investigating exactly how these genetic mutations change the function of the enzyme. They also hope to use the study’s extensive Preclinical Addiction Biobanks — collections of blood, urine, brain and other tissue samples — to identify biological markers that could one day help predict an individual's risk of developing a substance use disorder.

The researchers hope that by leveraging this resource, they and other scientists working in this space will be able to translate genetic discoveries into diagnostic tools and new treatments that can help stabilize individuals struggling with addiction.

Read the full study: https://www.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73694-w

Additional coauthors on the study include: Lieselot L.G. Carrette, Thiago Missfeld Sanches, Oksana Polesskaya, Alicia Avelar, Angela Beeson, Hassiba Beldjoud, Brent Boomhower, Molly Brennan, Denghui Chen, Riyan Cheng, Lindsay China, Apurva S. Chitre, Dana Elizabeth Conlisk, Mackenzie Fannon, Benjamin B. Johnson, Elaine Keung, Adam Kimbrough, Jenni Kononoff, Angelica Renee Martinez, Lisa Maturin, Khai-Minh Nguyen, Alex Morgan, Joseph Mosquera, Dyar Othman, Sonja L. Plasil, Jarryd Ramborger, Paul Schweitzer, Sharona Sedighim, Osborne Seshie, Kokil Shankar, Benjamin Sichel, Sierra Simpson, Lauren Cassandra Smith, Elizabeth A. Sneddon, Lan Tieu, Nathan Velarde, Selene Zahedi, Marisa Kallupi, and Giordan de Guglielmo at UC San Diego and The Scripps Research Institute, and Leah C. Solberg Woods at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse within the National Institutes of Health (P50DA037844, P30DA060810, U01DA051234, U01DA043799 and U01DA060810.)

The authors declare no competing interests.

 

This image shows the Ces1 protein, which plays a role in metabolizing cocaine.

Credit

UC San Diego Health Sciences

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-73694-w 

COI Statement

The authors declare no competing interests.