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Living tissues are shaped by self-propelled topological defects, biophysicists find

With a new mathematical model, a team of biophysicists has revealed fresh insights into how biological tissues are shaped by the active motion of structural imperfections known as “topological defects.” Published in Physical Review Letters, the results build on our latest understanding of tissue formation and could even help resolve long-standing experimental mysteries surrounding our own organs.

Topological defects are structural imperfections that emerge in systems hosting multiple, incompatible configurations of particles. They can be found in many different kinds of systems—both natural and manmade—but are especially important for describing “active fluids,” which are composed of particles that constantly harvest energy from their surroundings and convert it into motion, generating their own propulsion.

This behavior also underpins the physics of liquid crystal displays, where topological defects emerge in 2D systems of rod-shaped molecules and help determine how light is modulated to produce the images and colors we see every day on our phones, laptops, and TV screens.

The “Most Effective” Treatment for Osteoarthritis May Be Less Helpful Than Thought

A sweeping review of clinical evidence casts doubt on one of the most commonly prescribed treatments for osteoarthritis. For millions of people living with osteoarthritis, being told to exercise is almost a reflex in medical care. But a new analysis suggests that, when it comes to easing joint pa

Mechanical Dialogues of Life and Death: How External Molecules Entry Triggers a Chromatin‐Cytoskeleton Morphogenetic Duel in Cancer Cells

The next-generation anti-cancer therapeutics must disrupt intracellular mechanics, efficiently eradicating cancer cells, rather than simply intoxicating them. We evaluate the mechanism of action of PCMS, a PAMAM-based supramolecule that eradicates cancer cells by reorganizing their internal mechanics rather than their genes. Once internalized, PCMS self-assembles into a perinuclear ring that severs nucleus-cytoskeleton communication. We observed PCMS’s dual-intelligent mechanisms of action: Cytoskeletal rescue, where actin-microtubule filaments move towards the PCMS ring, treating it as a surrogate plasma membrane, attempting to restore vesicular trafficking; Nuclear counter-expansion, where chromatin-lamina condensates undergo stepwise viscoelastic transitions that push the nuclear envelope outward to reestablish membrane contact. These contradictory forces amplify mechanical stress, driving super-critical strain and nuclear lysis without broad transcriptional modulations. By geometry alone, PCMS collapses the actin-microtubule-nucleus continuum and turns the cell’s adaptive machinery into its own executioner. The discovery that life and death decisions can be reprogrammed through spatial conflict establishes a paradigm of mechanical deception, inaugurating a new class of cellular adaptive feedback-targeted mechanotherapeutics that overcome resistance by exploiting the cell’s own morphogenetic logic.

A neural blueprint for human-like intelligence in soft robots

A new AI control system enables soft robotic arms to learn a wide repertoire of motions and tasks once, then adjust to new scenarios on the fly without needing retraining or sacrificing functionality. The work was co-led by researchers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART).

5 Sci-Fi Aliens — And The Likelihood They Could Actually Exist

Special Biology Blog on BigThink on 5 Types of Science Fiction Aliens and the Likelihood that they Actually Exist:

Link through my website Search for Life in the Universe: [ https://www.searchforlifeintheuniverse.com/post/5-sci-fi-ali…ally-exist](https://www.searchforlifeintheuniverse.com/post/5-sci-fi-ali…ally-exist)

While all cellular life on Earth shares the same DNA-based chemistry, planets with different environments could produce alien organisms far more diverse. From insect-like swarms to intelligent machines, many classic sci-fi alien archetypes have at least some grounding in biology, astrobiology, or emerging technology. Ultimately, truly alien life may defy our expectations altogether, and recognizing it could require rethinking not just what aliens look like, but how we define life itself.

Webb maps the mysterious upper atmosphere of Uranus

For the first time, an international team of astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Using Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, the team observed Uranus for nearly a full rotation, detecting the faint glow from molecules high above the clouds.

These unique data provide the most detailed portrait yet of where the planet’s auroras form, how they are influenced by its unusually tilted magnetic field, and how Uranus’s atmosphere has continued to cool over the past three decades. The results, published in Geophysical Research Letters, offer a new window into how ice-giant planets distribute energy in their upper layers.

Led by Paola Tiranti of Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, the study mapped out the temperature and density of ions in the atmosphere extending up to 5,000 kilometers above Uranus’s cloud tops, a region called the ionosphere where the atmosphere becomes ionized and interacts strongly with the planet’s magnetic field. The measurements show that temperatures peak between 3,000 and 4,000 kilometers, while ion densities reach their maximum around 1,000 kilometers, revealing clear longitudinal variations linked to the complex geometry of the magnetic field.

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