Words on File

First we have to recognize these behemoths of science with great names, the TESSERACT and the Stellarator:

TESSERACT is a dark matter detector - Transition-Edge Sensors with Sub-EV Resolution And Cryogenic Targets

The Stellarator is a fusion reactor, but it's not a proper name, it's a type of reactor.

How 'Conan the Bacterium' combines simple metabolites to withstand extreme radiation

Dec 2024, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-conan-bacterium-combines-simple-metabolites.html

Conan the Bacterium - dubbed for its extraordinary ability to tolerate the harshest of conditions, Deinococcus radiodurans can withstand radiation doses thousands of times higher than what would kill a human—and every other organism for that matter.

via Northwestern University and the Uniformed Services University: Brian M. Hoffman et al, The ternary complex of Mn2+, synthetic decapeptide DP1 (DEHGTAVMLK), and orthophosphate is a superb antioxidant, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2417389121

https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2417389121

Image credit: AI Art - Instructions - 2025. Hard to resist a picture of a piece of paper with instructions written on it, but by a computer that doesn't speak English, or know what instructions are, or a piece of paper for that matter. 

Solitude is better for your health when it's not too intense, research suggests

Dec 2024, phys.org

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-solitude-health-intense.html

I'm only here for this phrase:

The Matrix of Solitude - The researchers built a matrix of solitude that includes a base level - no interaction with people - and a total level, which refers to being inaccessible to others and not engaging with media. 

"If you have a positive attitude toward solitude—because you use it to restore energy and know that you will be able to connect with people later—then choosing solitude will probably make you feel better. But if you choose solitude because of a negative attitude toward social interaction—because you don't want to talk to people—it will probably make you feel worse."

via Ohio University and Ohio State - Morgan Quinn Ross et al, The tradeoff of solitude? Restoration and relatedness across shades of solitude, PLOS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0311738

https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0311738

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2024.11.025

Comfortable materials use friction to generate power when worn

Jan 2025, phys.org

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-01-comfortable-materials-friction-generate-power.html

Tunable Haptic Energy Harvester aka Amphiphiles - used in fabrics to prevent chaffing, but also have electronic properties that allow them to "donate" electrons, resulting in a material that was both comfortable and capable of generating electricity through friction produced by rubbing against human skin or other materials.

via North Carolina State U: Pallav Jani et al, Compressing slippery surface-assembled amphiphiles for tunable haptic energy harvesters., Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adr4088.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adr4088

New CAR-T cell therapy 'ALA-CART' shows promise for hard-to-treat cancers

Mar 2025, phys.org

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-car-cell-therapy-ala-cart.html

ALA-CART - adjunctive LAT-activating CAR-T cells optimizes CAR-T cells to more effectively eliminate cancer cells that have been able to hide from traditional CAR-T cells

via Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus: Catherine Pham-Danis et al, Restoration of LAT activity improves CAR T cell sensitivity and persistence in response to antigen-low acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Cancer Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2025.02.008

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2025.02.008

Meteorological Mayhem

Running a planet gets harder every year. 

Solar geoengineering could save 400,000 lives a year

Dec 2024, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-solar-geoengineering-year.html

Stratospheric aerosol injection for 1 degree of cooling could save 400,000 lives, outweighing deaths caused by solar geoengineering's direct health risks from air pollution and ozone depletion by a factor of 13.

via Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy, Princeton, University of Chicago: Anthony Harding et al, Impact of solar geoengineering on temperature-attributable mortality, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2401801121

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-solar-geoengineering-year.html

Image credit: AI Art - Money Gets Swept Away in a Tornado - 2025

Enhanced weathering could transform US agriculture for atmospheric CO₂ removal

Feb 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-weathering-agriculture-atmospheric.html

This is the flip side to the stratospheric injection style geoengineering:

Enhanced weathering - adding crushed basalt to soils using existing agricultural infrastructure; the basalt reacts with CO2, taking it out of the air; it also could improve air quality by interacting with the soil nitrogen cycling processes to reduce the formation of ozone and fine particulate matter.

via Leverhulme Center for Climate Change Mitigation, University of Sheffield: David J. Beerling et al, Transforming US agriculture for carbon removal with enhanced weathering, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08429-2

https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08429-2

Ocean-surface warming has more than quadrupled since the late-1980s, study shows

Jan 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-ocean-surface-quadrupled-late-1980s.html

Ocean temperatures were rising at about 0.06 degrees Celsius per decade in the late 1980s, but are now increasing at 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade, a quadrupling.

Global ocean temperatures hit record highs for 450 days straight in 2023 and early 2024. Some of this warmth came from El Niño, a natural warming event in the Pacific.

When scientists compared it to a similar El Niño in 2015–16, they found that the rest of the record warmth is explained by the sea surface warming up faster in the past 10 years than in earlier decades; 44% of the record warmth was attributable to the oceans absorbing heat at an accelerating rate.

Expect more warming ... 

via University of Reading: Quantifying the acceleration of multidecadal global sea surface warming driven by Earth's energy imbalance, Environmental Research Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/adaa8a

https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adaa8a

Scientists highlight alarming rise in marine heat waves worldwide

Mar 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-scientists-highlight-alarming-marine-worldwide.html

One group of researchers found that the number of such heat waves in 2023–2024 was 240% higher than any other year in recorded history.

(fyi: "Prior research has also shown that abnormally high water temperatures can lead to dolphins and whales swimming closer to shore than normal".)

via Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Climate Change Research Centre, Centre for Marine Science & Innovation and ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of New South Wales: Kathryn E. Smith et al, Ocean extremes as a stress test for marine ecosystems and society, Nature Climate Change (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02269-2

https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02269-2

Extreme ocean heat does not mean climate change is accelerating

Mar 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-extreme-ocean-climate.html

As opposed to being a sign that our models are all wrong and we absolutely helpless, they say it could be a 500-year event, but according to our current climate not the historical climate, which means it could become more like a 100-year event. 

via University of Bern: Jens Terhaar et al, Record sea surface temperature jump in 2023–2024 unlikely but not unexpected, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08674-z

https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08674-z

Post Consumerist Paradise

With the Shopocalypse imminent, the Church of Stop Shopping is the only church to gain congregants in the past ten years. 

When TikTok's underconsumption trend meets festive excess

Dec 2024, BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2p784ppzqo

There is a topic trending on a popular social media platform that celebrates "underconsumption", i.e., buying fewer unnecessary things and making the products you already own go further.

(This is around the Christmas holiday btw, 10% of the United States economy.)

"Trying to reduce consumption goes against the norms of consumer culture."

That is all.

Image credit: AI Art - Multivitamins - 2025

Economic inequality is a powerful predictor of democratic erosion

Jan 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-economic-inequality-powerful-predictor-democratic.html

Economic inequality is one of the strongest predictors of where and when democracy erodes—even wealthy and longstanding democracies are vulnerable if they are highly unequal.

via University of Chicago: Eli G. Rau et al, Income inequality and the erosion of democracy in the twenty-first century, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2422543121

https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422543121

Making Materials Progress

Make it stop: 

'Living' ceramics utilize bacteria for gas sensing and carbon capture

Dec 2024, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-ceramics-bacteria-gas-carbon-capture.html

The work involved first 3D printing stacked, ceramic, spiral structures that could stand on their own. The structures were printed with pits on their outer surfaces to give bacteria a place to live. The larger pits were used as a way to channel nutrients to the bacteria.

To further ensure the bacteria could feed for an extended period of time, they set the structures in shallow pools of nutrient solutions. As the water in the solutions evaporated, the nutrients were pulled up to the pits containing the nutrients via capillary action. The bacteria were then allowed to multiply, filling the pores that had been designed for them. Testing showed they could survive without further nutrients for up to two weeks.

The research team used different types of bacteria for different purposes—with photosynthetic cyanobacteria, for example, the structure could serve as a CO2 extraction device, pulling the gas from the air. They also tried Escherichia coli and found that they made the structure a formaldehyde detector.

via ETH Zurich: Alessandro Dutto et al, Living Porous Ceramics for Bacteria‐Regulated Gas Sensing and Carbon Capture, Advanced Materials (2024). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202412555

https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.202412555

Self-adjusting shading system mimics pine cones for energy-autonomous weather response

Jan 2025, phys.org

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-01-adjusting-mimics-cones-energy-autonomous.html

"We are achieving a shading system that opens and closes autonomously in response to changes in the weather, without the need for operational energy or any mechatronic elements. The bio-material structure itself is the machine."

It's based on pine cones. In high humidity, the cellulosic materials absorb moisture and expand, causing the printed elements to curl and open. Conversely, in low humidity, the cellulosic materials release moisture and contract, causing the printed elements to flatten and close.

via University of Stuttgart Institute for Computational Design and Construction: Tiffany Cheng et al, Weather-responsive adaptive shading through biobased and bioinspired hygromorphic 4D-printing, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54808-8

https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54808-8

Unoccupied housing in China's urban areas emitting massive amounts of carbon, study finds

Mar 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-unoccupied-housing-china-urban-areas.html

Prior research has shown that by 2021, approximately 17% of homes built in cities in China were unoccupied. Some in the field have suggested that the number has only grown since then, to between 20 and 65 million unoccupied units. This new research found that approximately 17.4% of all new residential units built between 2001 and 2018 have never been occupied. 

The total the team came up with was 55.81 million tons of carbon emissions solely due to the unoccupied housing units, which they note represent approximately 6.9% of China's total residential emissions. (One source of emissions is the footprint of the materials, and the second comes from heating and cooling, because most of the units are apartment buildings with central heating and cooling.)

via Tsinghua University: Hefan Zheng et al, Unused housing in urban China and its carbon emission impact, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57217-7

https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57217-7

Captain Tying Knots

With all the topological mention these days, we have to ask - whatever happened to knots?

String figures shed light on cultural connections and the roots of mathematical reasoning

Dec 2024, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-figures-cultural-roots-mathematical.html

String figure games (like cat's cradle or jacob's ladder?) involve the manipulation of a loop of string with the fingers to create complex patterns. The researchers analyzed 826 string figures from 92 cultures around the world. They found 83 recurring designs. The results show that certain figures are globally prevalent. In certain cases, this suggests ancient cultural origins potentially extending back millennia. 

The researchers applied mathematical knot theory to develop a computational method to create a DNA-like symbolic representation of each string figure. This enables the cross-cultural comparison of string figures and the construction of their "family tree."

via University of Helsinki, Aarhus University, National Museum of Denmark and Seattle University: Roope O. Kaaronen et al, A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation, Journal of The Royal Society Interface (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2024.0673

https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2024.0673

Image credit: Fingers, not bad, not good enough. AI Art - Let Go - 2025

The Graphene Zoo

 

From its slightly accidental inception 20 years ago, graphene has now turned into a large branch on the tree of technogenetic life.

Decoding 2D material growth: White graphene insights open doors to cleaner energy and more efficient electronics

Jan 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-decoding-2d-material-growth-white.html

White Graphene - the name for hexagonal boron nitride (where you blast out some of the carbon atoms from graphene and fill them with boron nitride instead)

via University of Surrey and Graz University of Technology: Anthony J. R. Payne et al, Unravelling the Epitaxial Growth Mechanism of Hexagonal and Nanoporous Boron Nitride: A First‐Principles Microkinetic Model, Small (2025). DOI: 10.1002/smll.202405404

https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll.202405404

Image credit: Simulated photon orbits inside hexagonal boron nitride - Fogler group UC San Diego - 2023

Graphyne's transformation: A new carbon form with potential for electronics

Feb 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-graphyne-carbon-potential-electronics.html

Graphyne - It's not graphene, it's not carbon like diamonds with its 3-D lattice, it's not like graphite with its 2-D lattice, and it's not graphene with it's 1-D 2-D lattice. It's a 1-D 2-D 3-D lattice. Got it?

via Case Western Reserve University: Ali E. Aliev et al, A planar-sheet nongraphitic zero-bandgap sp2 carbon phase made by the low-temperature reaction of γ-graphyne, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2413194122

https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2413194122

Synthetic diamond with hexagonal lattice outshines the natural kind with unprecedented hardness

Feb 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-synthetic-diamond-hexagonal-lattice-outshines.html

Synthetic hexagonal diamonds - heating graphene samples to high temperatures while inside a high-pressure chamber. By adjusting the parameters of their setup, the researchers found they could get the graphene to grow into a synthetic diamond with hexagonal lattices.

via Umeå University and materials scientists and engineers affiliated with several institutions in China such as Jilin University: Desi Chen et al, General approach for synthesizing hexagonal diamond by heating post-graphite phases, Nature Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-025-02126-9

https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02126-9

Olympicene molecular chains create quantum spin systems with spintronics applications

Mar 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-olympicene-molecular-chains-quantum-spintronics.html

Olympicenes - open-shell nanographenes (shaped like the Olympics logo)

via Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics: Chenxiao Zhao et al, Spin excitations in nanographene-based antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains, Nature Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-025-02166-1

https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02166-1

Headlines From the Front Lines

It may be April Fool's, but the headlines are real.

Iberian nailed head ritual was more complex than expected, isotope analysis reveals

Feb 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-iberian-ritual-complex-isotope-analysis.html

Not trying to be anti-literacy here, it's just that sometimes the headline is all you need. (Although this particular headline below requires the accompanying image.)

via Autonomous University of Barcelona: Rubén de la Fuente-Seoane et al, Territorialisation and human mobility during the Iron Age in NE Iberia: An approach through Isotope Analyses of the Severed Heads from Puig Castellar (Barcelona, Spain) and Ullastret (Girona, Spain), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105035

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105035

Image credit: Iberian nailed head found at Ullastret, MAC-Ullastret a De Prado, 2015

Antioxidant carbon dot nanozymes alleviate depression in rats by restoring the gut microbiome

Sep 2024, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2024-09-antioxidant-carbon-dot-nanozymes-alleviate.html

Some headlines just make me feel like how a cracked windshield can become the the quintessential heavy metal band name font, but for like a mad scientist type of science thing. 

via Henan Joint International Research Laboratory of Nanomaterials for Energy and Catalysis at Xuchang University: Huimin Jia et al, Antioxidant Carbon Dots Nanozymes Alleviate Stress-induced Depression by Modulating Gut Microbiota, Langmuir (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c02481

https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c02481

Google reacts angrily to report it will have to sell Chrome

Nov 2024, BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4g193qezno

'Alzheimer's in dish' model shows promise for accelerating drug discovery

Nov 2024, phys.org

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-alzheimer-dish-drug-discovery.html

(Alzheimer's isn't funny but Alzheimer's-in-a-dish is funny.)

via Massachusetts General Hospital: Yeganeah, PN et al. Integrative Pathway Analysis across Humans and 3D Cellular Models Identifies the p38 MAPK-MK2 Axis as a Therapeutic Target for Alzheimer's Disease, Neuron (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.10.029.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2024.10.029

Topological quantum processor uses Majorana zero modes for fault-tolerant computing

Feb 2025, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-topological-quantum-processor-majorana-modes.html

It's got all the words - majorana fermion, topological things, and quantum computers - but I still don't buy it because it's Microsoft and they lie about shit all the time. In fact, I'm going to assume that specifically because it's a Microsoft press release, that it was engineered to have all these words on purpose. Shall we say, a kind of artificial headline generator trained on hype words more than the actual work that was done. 

(Actual scientists working in academia are not convinced, by the way.)

via UC Santa Barbara and Microsoft Station Q: David Aasen et al, Roadmap to fault tolerant quantum computation using topological qubit arrays, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2502.12252

https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2502.12252

Biohybrid hand uses sushi-like rolls of lab-grown human muscle to move objects

Feb 2025, phys.org

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-02-biohybrid-sushi-lab-grown-human.html

via University of Tokyo: XINZHU REN et al, Biohybrid hand actuated by multiple human muscle tissues, Science Robotics (2025). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adr5512.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adr5512

Engineers develop a fully 3D-printed electrospray engine that can power tiny satellites

Feb 2025, phys.org

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-02-fully-3d-electrospray-power-tiny.html

via MIT: Hyeonseok Kim et al, High‐Impulse, Modular, 3D‐Printed CubeSat Electrospray Thrusters Throttleable via Pressure and Voltage Control, Advanced Science (2025). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202413706

https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202413706