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3D Recordings of Swimming Algae
Measurements of the 3D fluid flow around a swimming microorganism could help researchers better understand the swimming dynamics of such microbes.
Swimming microorganisms set up complex fluid flows that affect their ability to feed and communicate. Using advanced holographic methods, researchers have now imaged the entire 3D flow field around a swimming alga, revealing vortex rings that help propel the organism [1]. The researchers hope that the experiments will lead to improvements in measuring the energy expenditure and swimming strategies of a wide range of microorganisms.
The single-cell alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii swims in a “breaststroke” style by beating its flagella—two hair-like appendages located at the front of its body—cycling 50 times per second. The flagella propel the organism forward while creating a surrounding fluid flow field that influences nutrient uptake and allows the organism to detect predators or mates. “The flow field generated by a swimming microorganism is one of its most fundamental characteristics,” says Xiang Cheng of the University of Minnesota. But he says that previous experiments have only captured partial details of this field, such as vortices to the left and right of the swimming organism. Researchers have speculated that these vortices might be connected in a larger coherent 3D flow pattern, but experiments have been unable to resolve such structures.
‘Aquila Booster’ challenges theoretical limits of particle acceleration in pulsar wind nebulae
The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has detected PeV (1015 eV) gamma-ray emission from a pulsar wind nebula powered by PSR J1849-0001 in the constellation Aquila, marking the discovery of a new PeVatron and posing a challenge to the classical theory of particle acceleration in pulsar wind nebulae.
This discovery is important because the calculated particle acceleration efficiency of this celestial structure approaches or even exceeds the theoretical limits allowed under ideal magnetohydrodynamic conditions.
This study, published in Nature Astronomy, was conducted by Prof. Liu Ruoyu, Dr. Wang Kai, and doctoral student Tong Chaonan from Nanjing University, Prof. Chen Songzhan and Assoc. Prof. Wang Lingyu from the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and their collaborators.
Carbon nanotubes are closing the gap on copper conductivity
Carbon nanotubes are one technology that many observers believe hasn’t quite lived up to the extreme hype that surrounded them when they first appeared on the scene in the late 1990s. At that time, much was made of their extraordinary electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties, with predictions that they would revolutionize materials science, electronics, and daily life. But could we be closer to realizing some of that promise?
In a paper published in the journal Science, researchers describe a method for adding a chemical to carbon nanotube bundles that brings them closer to copper’s ability to conduct electricity.
Carbon nanotubes are nanoscale hollow cylinders of carbon atoms, a structure that allows electricity to flow through them with very low resistance. However, when you bundle millions of them together, as you would need for practical applications like power lines and electrical wiring, they lose some of their exceptional conductivity. Electrons move easily along individual nanotubes, but transferring charge between neighboring tubes in a bundle is much less efficient.
New approach to detect ultra-rare part-per-sextillion isotopes could also sharpen dark matter searches
The detection and study of isotopes, atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons, could expand the scope of physics research and enable new scientific discoveries. So far, rare isotopes have been primarily detected using a technique known as accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), which accelerates atoms, to then measure their mass and charge.
Despite its widespread use, AMS is not always precise at the ultra-rare level, as it is susceptible to what is known as background interference. This essentially means that similar atoms or neighboring isotopes can produce misleading signals that reduce the accuracy and precision of measurements.
Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently developed a new technique for detecting and counting individual atoms called Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA).
High-resolution imaging shines light on nanoscale nuclear organization
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have implemented an advanced microscopy technique to visualize multiple biomolecules inside the nucleus of a cancer cell simultaneously at incredibly high resolution. The biomolecules they visualized include critical components of the cell’s transcription machinery and proteins that provide structural support to the nucleus—providing one of the first detailed maps of nuclear organization.
The human body is composed of trillions of cells. Each cell is an intricately organized meshwork of millions of proteins, nucleic acids, and many other molecules vital for the cell’s health. “Building novel technologies to visualize many biomolecules in individual cells is crucial to push the boundaries of biological research,” says Mahipal Ganji, Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry (BC) and corresponding author of the study published in Nature Communications. Conventional imaging techniques, however, allow scientists to visualize only two or three biomolecules in each cell at a time.
In the study, the researchers turned to a microscopy technique called DNA-Points Accumulation for Imaging in Nanoscale Topography (DNA-PAINT), which allows for the visualization of biomolecules inside cells at incredible detail—far beyond the limits of conventional microscopes. It uses small fluorescent DNA fragments or tags that briefly attach to specific targets inside the cell and light up like tiny, blinking signals when a laser beam is shined on them.
Light near surface of ultra-thin optical fibers can sort twisted nanoparticles
Many important objects in the world can be divided into two categories based on their chirality or handedness, including molecules important for life such as amino acids. Such chiral objects (formally defined as objects which are not identical to their mirror images) are often characterized by a structure which twists in a given direction.
An everyday example of a chiral object is a screw. A right-handed screw moves into a material when rotated clockwise, but its mirror image (i.e., a left-handed screw) moves out.
Just as right-and left-handed screws behave differently when turned, chiral particles behave differently when exposed to light with a circular polarization. This fact allows them to be sorted in principle, which is expected to be important for applications such as drug development, where the handedness of a chiral molecule determines how it interacts with biological systems.
Re-engineered human cells boost gene-editing particle potency across multiple delivery systems
Gene editing has emerged as a powerful approach for targeting the genetic causes of disease, but getting the editing machinery into the right cells efficiently, safely, and at the scale needed for therapies remains one of the biggest set of challenges in the field.
Among the leading delivery vehicles are engineered virus-like particles, which resemble viruses—and share their knack for entering human cells—but carry no viral genes. Scientists load them with gene editing tools and use them to make precise changes in targeted cells.
Most efforts to improve these particles have focused on redesigning the particles themselves. A new study led by Valhalla Fellow at Whitehead Institute, Aditya Raguram and lab technician Diana Ly, focuses instead on the human cells that produce them.
Simplifying clean hydrogen production with a new all-in-one photocatalytic cocatalyst
Researchers have demonstrated the first “all-in-one” cocatalyst for photocatalytic overall water splitting, a breakthrough that could simplify the production of clean hydrogen fuel. The discovery marks an important step toward practical technologies that use sunlight and water to generate hydrogen, a key energy carrier expected to play a major role in building a decarbonized and sustainable society.
The findings are published in the journal Nature Chemistry.
Hydrogen is widely regarded as a promising clean energy source because it produces only water when used as fuel. Among the various methods for producing hydrogen, photocatalytic overall water splitting —using sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen—has attracted increasing attention as an environmentally friendly and sustainable approach.
Natural-language AI helps chemists design molecules step by step
Designing molecules is one of chemistry’s most complex challenges. From life-saving drugs to advanced materials, each compound requires a precise sequence of reactions. Planning these steps demands both technical knowledge and strategic insight, making it a task that often relies on years of experience.
Two problems plague much of modern chemistry. The first is retrosynthesis: Chemists start from a target molecule and work backward to identify simpler building blocks and viable reaction pathways. Retrosynthesis involves countless decisions, from choosing starting materials to determining when to form rings or protect sensitive functional groups. While computers can explore vast “chemical spaces,” they often struggle to capture the strategic reasoning used by human experts.
The second problem is reaction mechanisms. These describe how chemical reactions unfold step by step through the movements of electrons. Mechanistic insight helps scientists predict new reactions, improve efficiency, and reduce costly trial and error. Existing computational methods can generate many possible pathways, but often lack the chemical intuition needed to identify the most plausible ones.