Using X-ray lasers, researchers at Stockholm University have been able to determine the existence of a critical point in supercooled water at around −63 °C and 1,000 atmospheres. Ordinary water at higher temperatures and lower pressures is strongly affected by the presence of this critical point, causing the origin of its strange properties. The findings are published in the journal Science.

Water, both omnipresent and essential for life on Earth, behaves very strangely in comparison with other substances. How water’s density, specific heat, viscosity and compressibility respond to changes in pressure and temperature is the complete opposite of other liquids that we know.

All matter shrinks when it is cooled, resulting in an increase in its density. One would therefore expect that water would have a high density at the freezing point. However, looking at a glass of ice water, everything is upside down, since—as we all know—ice cubes float. Strangely enough for the liquid state, water is the densest at 4 degrees C, and therefore it stays on the bottom whether it’s in a glass or in an ocean.

Immune effector cell–associated neurotoxicity syndrome: a practical overview for the general neurologist.

Purpose of Review.

When at rest, the mind becomes preoccupied with self-generated thoughts, commonly known as mind-wandering. While the social, autobiographical, and temporal features of these thoughts have been extensively studied, little is known about how frequently the wandering mind turns toward the interoceptive and somatic body. To map this underexplored component of “body-wandering,” we conducted a large-scale neuroimaging study in 536 healthy participants, expanding a retrospective multidimensional experience sampling approach to include probes targeting visceral and somatomotor thoughts. Our findings reveal a robust interindividual dimension of body-wandering characterized by negative affect, high autonomic arousal, and a reduction in socially oriented thoughts.

Cesar and Kim review how the synaptonemal complex assembles and serves as a dynamic signaling platform that coordinates meiotic recombination.

New observations of cosmic rays that distinguish between hydrogen and helium find unexpected complexity in a long-observed spectral feature.

A research group from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology reports in Nature an unprecedented achievement in electron microscopy: the direct measurement of “dark points” within light waves. By doing so, the researchers were able to confirm a prediction from the 1970s that the speed of these points exceeds the speed of light.

The “dark points” measured by the group are essentially tiny “holes” in the wave structure. Known as vortices, the holes are a common phenomenon in nature: We encounter them in ocean waves, in air currents, and even in coffee when we stir it or pour it into the sink. As early as the 1970s, a surprising theoretical prediction was proposed: Vortices may move faster than the wave in which they are formed. As strange as it sounds—imagine a vortex in a river overtaking the flow of water in which it exists—the phenomenon is real. Until now, this was based on theory. The research team’s achievement has now confirmed it experimentally.

A newly engineered molecule acts like a “rechargeable” solar heat battery, storing sunlight and releasing it on demand.

In Your Way Out, actors move like NPCs, wear lycra masks and painted costumes, and the lighting has no shadows.

Watkins et al. show that RNase L dampens the expression of interferon-stimulated genes by accelerating mRNA decay, inhibiting nuclear mRNA export block, and repressing transcription.