The following update to the 'list of crazy words you read when scanning science press headlines', 6 months from April 2023 to October 2023. This one is a big list, an avalanche of verbal programming; start your semantic engines.
Appropriately illustrated by artificial intelligence engine-generated images of Dental Art, starting with the above image,
prompted by the words "Hyperrealistic pink tissue bloody gums slippery glistening" but I just call it Dental Art.
Researchers develop the first-ever ingestible electroceutical device to control appetite by hormone modulation
Apr 2023, phys.org
"Electroceuticals" - for the neuromodulation of the gut-brain axis
via NYU: Khalil Ramadi et al, Bioinspired, ingestible electroceutical capsules for hunger-regulating hormone modulation, Science Robotics (2023). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.ade9676.
Meteosat-12: Europe's new weather satellite takes first photos
Apr 2023, BBC News
"Nowcasting" - (like forecasting but better) the ability to say with greater confidence that violent winds, lightning, hail or heavy downpours are about to strike a particular area; Europe's new weather satellite Meteosat-12 flies 36,000km above the Earth and takes pictures every 10 minutes
And the word nowcasting, in the wild: "The insights gained from linking lightning intensity to eruptive activity can provide better monitoring and nowcasting of aviation-related hazards during a large volcanic eruption, including ash cloud development and movement," Van Eaton said." -New study shows Tonga's Hunga eruption produced the most intense lightning ever recorded. Jun 2023. phys.org
'Bioprospecting' technique uncovers viruses that can kill deadly superbugs
May 2023, phys.org
"Bioprospecting" for viruses known as phages that can kill deadly superbugs; like "bioprospector" will be a word on someone's resume soon
via Monash University: Rhys A. Dunstan et al, Epitopes in the capsular polysaccharide and the porin OmpK36 receptors are required for bacteriophage infection of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Cell Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112551
DarkBERT learns language of the Dark Web
May 2023, phys.org
Fucking "DarkBERT" - A Language Model for the Dark Side of the Internet
FYI - "Surface Web content" (as opposed to "Dark Web content") I think what this is saying, without saying it, is that the internet is English, but the Dark Web is not, so they can't use the internet as their training model like we do with all the others.
via Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology: Youngjin Jin et al, DarkBERT: A Language Model for the Dark Side of the Internet, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2305.08596
Combining twistronics with spintronics could be the next giant leap in quantum electronics
Jun 2023, phys.org
I try to keep up, but -- "Twistronics", "spintronics", and "tunable moiré magnetism"
via Tohoku University: Guanghui Cheng et al, Electrically tunable moiré magnetism in twisted double bilayers of chromium triiodide, Nature Electronics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-023-00978-0
Researchers grow bio-inspired polymer brains for artificial neural networks
Jul 2023, phys.org
Neuromorphic "wetware" - based on memristive devices via electropolymerization aka growing wires
via Osaka University and Hokkaido University: Naruki Hagiwara et al, Fabrication and Training of 3D Conductive Polymer Networks for Neuromorphic Wetware, Advanced Functional Materials (2023). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202300903
New study reveals why defense against brain corrosion declines in people with Alzheimer's disease
Jul 2023, phys.org
"Brain corrosion" - Why yes, oxidative stress corrodes the brain, and that's called oxidative damage. Some might even call it "rust", brain rust.
via Case Western Reserve University: Sara Cazzaro et al, Slingshot homolog-1–mediated Nrf2 sequestration tips the balance from neuroprotection to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2217128120
Photonic time crystals could open the door to a new branch of optics
Jul 2023, phys.org
"Photonic Time Crystals" - they are the temporal version of photonic crystals, and in the optical domain could have profound implications for the science of light, enabling truly disruptive applications in the future
Just for background, and because this will all become the new computers of the next technological revolution -- "photonic crystals have a refractive index that oscillates periodically in space causing iridescence of precious minerals and insect wings for example."
via Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, and Purdue University: Eran Lustig et al, Time-refraction optics with single cycle modulation, Nanophotonics (2023). DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2023-0126
Researchers put a new twist on graphite
Jul 2023, phys.org
"Interdimensional" - mixed dimensional materials, like embedding 2D graphene into 3D graphite
via University of Washington, Osaka University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan: Matthew Yankowitz, Mixed-dimensional moiré systems of twisted graphitic thin films, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06290-3.
Spontaneous quasi-crystal self-assembly observed using tiny vibrating magnetic spheres
Jul 2023, phys.org
"Spontaneous Crystals" aka "Spontaneous Quasi-Crystal Self-Assembly" - discovered sort of by accident
via Université Paris-Saclay: Andrea Plati et al, Quasi-crystalline order in vibrated granular matter, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2307.01643
Zentropy and the art of creating new ferroelectric materials
Aug 2023, phys.org
"Zentropy" - The "Z" in zentropy stands for the German word Zustandssumm, meaning "sum over states" of entropy, and alternatively considered a play on the term "zen" from Buddhism, and the idea is to consider how entropy can occur over multiple scales within a system to help predict potential outcomes of the system when influenced by its surroundings. It's also a parameter-free pathway to predicting how advanced materials behave. And in other words, it can integrate top-down statistical and bottom-up quantum mechanics to predict experimental measures of the system without "fitting parameters" to closely match real-world variables.
via Penn State: Zi-Kui Liu et al, Parameter-free prediction of phase transition in PbTiO3 through combination of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, Scripta Materialia (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2023.115480
Researchers use 'topological gardening' to achieve unexpected spin transport
Aug 2023, phys.org
Fastest forming word cluster in the sciences, that's all --
"Topological Gardening" - Although topological insulators conduct electricity only along their edges, and strictly in one direction, new science challenges that view by uncovering a new type of edge transport by manipulating edge states through bulk-edge interactions, similar to the pruning work done in gardening routines.
via Monash University: Yuefeng Yin et al, Extracting unconventional spin texture in two dimensional topological crystalline insulator bismuthene via tuning bulk-edge interactions, Materials Today Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2023.101168
Also: Qile Li et al, Localized Wannier function based tight-binding models for two-dimensional allotropes of bismuth, New Journal of Physics (2021). DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/ac04c9
This fish doesn't just see with its eyes, it also sees with its skin
Aug 2023, phys.org
"Skin Vision" -- Hogfish can change color, and carry a gene for a light-sensitive protein called opsin that is activated in their skin, and that this gene is different from the opsin genes found in their eyes. Their skin is made of cells called chromatophores which contain pigment, with opsin proteins residing in a previously unknown cell type right underneath the chromatophore, which means that light striking the skin must pass through the pigment-filled chromatophores first before it reaches the light-sensitive layer, suggesting that their skin acts like internal Polaroid film, capturing changes in the light, so that they can "literally take a photo of their own skin from the inside".
via Duke University: Lorian Schweikert, Dynamic light filtering over dermal opsin as a sensory feedback system in fish color change, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40166-4.
Scientists develop finger sweat test to detect antipsychotic drugs in patients
Aug 2023, phys.org
"Finger Sweat Test" - Scientists have now discovered a way to test the levels of common antipsychotic drugs (clozapine, quetiapine, or olanzapine) in the sweat from patients' fingerprints (and because blood tests are invasive and uncomfortable).
via University of Surrey: Noninvasive drug adherence monitoring of antipsychotic patients via finger sweat testing, Frontiers in Chemistry (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2023.1245089
Researchers prep fentanyl, heroin vaccines for human trials
Aug 2023, phys.org
"Heroin Vaccine" - Just the words heroin vaccine.
via University of Montana: Bethany Crouse et al, A TLR7/8 agonist increases efficacy of anti-fentanyl vaccines in rodent and porcine models, npj Vaccines (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41541-023-00697-9
Crack vaccine research on rats could help babies of mothers who use cocaine—and reduce addiction
Oct 2023, phys.org
"Crack Vaccine" - Also. I have a feeling it doesn't end here.
via Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil: Rachel J. Stephenson et al, Anti-cocaine Vaccine Development: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c00366
Team simulates collective movement of worm blobs for future swarm robotic systems
Sep 2023, phys.org
"Swarm Ball", "Worm Ball", or "Swarm Robot Worm Ball" - systems of many individual components that must work collectively, using soft-bodied agents
(click on the article above for some high octane nightmare fuel)
via Tohoku University and Hiroshima University: Taishi Mikami et al, Elongating, entwining, and dragging: mechanism for adaptive locomotion of tubificine worm blobs in a confined environment, Frontiers in Neurorobotics (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fnbot.2023.1207374
Vulnerability to different COVID-19 mutations depends on previous infections and vaccination, study suggests
Oct 2023, phys.org
"Antigenic Cartography" - compares the similarity of different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to measure how well human antibodies formed in response to infection with one virus respond to infection with a variant of that virus (and because they found that a person's immune response to SARS-CoV-2 depends on the variant they were previously exposed to)
via University of Cambridge's Center for Pathogen Evolution in the Department of Zoology: Samuel H. Wilks et al, Mapping SARS-CoV-2 antigenic relationships and serological responses, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adj0070.
Next-generation printing: Precise and direct, using optical vortices
Oct 2023, phys.org
An "Optical Vortex Laser" - "Using a special laser beam known as an optical vortex, we have achieved stable printing of high-viscosity liquids that allows for the fabrication of microdroplet laser arrays and the micropatterning of conductive nanoinks, as well as bioinks for cell scaffolds, leading to the establishment of next-generation printed photonic or electronic devices."
via Osaka Metropolitan University: Ken-ichi Yuyama et al, Fabrication of an Array of Hemispherical Microlasers Using Optical Vortex Laser-Induced Forward Transfer, ACS Photonics (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.3c01005
Photonic crystals bend light as though it were under the influence of gravity
Oct 2023, phys.org
"Pseudogravity" - replicating the effects of gravity
Also, they don't say moiré but they describe it: Kitamura and her colleagues modified photonic crystals by introducing lattice distortion; gradual deformation of the regular spacing of elements, which disrupted the grid-like pattern of protonic crystals. This manipulated the photonic band structure of the crystals, resulting in a curved beam trajectory in-medium—just like a light-ray passing by a massive celestial body such as a black hole.
via Tohoku University: Kanji Nanjyo et al, Deflection of electromagnetic waves by pseudogravity in distorted photonic crystals, Physical Review A (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.108.033522
Sabotage tool takes on AI image scrapers
Oct 2023, phys.org
"Data poisoning" - the tool named Nightshade manipulates image pixels that will alter the output during training but are not visible to the naked eye prior to processing. The tool is meant to "poison" graphics appropriated by AI companies to train image-generating models. "A moderate number of Nightshade attacks can destabilize general features in a text-to-image generative model, effectively disabling its ability to generate meaningful images," Zhao said.
via University of Chicago: Shawn Shan et al, Prompt-Specific Poisoning Attacks on Text-to-Image Generative Models, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2310.13828
