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9 April 2026 |
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Today’s Deep Dive delves into how liquid metals could level up spacecraft engineering. But first, catch up on the latest science news, including a contact lens that delivers drugs and an ancient not-octopus. |
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Earth Science | Science Advances |
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Sink and swim |
For low-lying areas around the globe, sea level rise presents a looming threat. But rising seas are only part of the problem, finds new research published in Science Advances; sinking land is the other.
Researchers focused on Java, the most densely populated island in the world, which is experiencing rates of sea level rise higher than the global average. They used a combination of satellite radar data and machine learning to instead map land sinking, or subsidence, along Java. The method revealed that urban and rural areas were sinking at up to 15 centimeters per year—far faster than the sea is rising. The team also reconstructed past sea level changes and forecasted future ones to find that sinking land should account for up to 85% of the encroaching water along Java’s coast by 2050.
While the result sounds frightening, it may actually be more promising than it seems. “Subsidence is one of the most actionable components of coastal risk
,” co-author Manoochehr Shirzaei said in a statement. The biggest driver of sinking land is overdrawing of groundwater for urban, agricultural, and industrial uses, which can be addressed through local policy and sustainable resource use. “That makes it a critical lever for building resilience.” |
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Paleontology | Proceedings of the Royal Society B |
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Fossil, you’re no octopus |
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An artist’s reconstruction of Pohlsepia mazonensis. Thomas Clements/University of Reading |
In 2000, scientists reported that a roughly 300-million-year-old fossil unearthed at a site not far from Chicago was the world’s oldest octopus—pushing back the known origins of these many-armed animals by more than 150 million years and even earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Now, a new study has revealed the whole affair to be a case of mistaken identity
. Researchers used synchrotron imaging, a technique that harnesses beams of light much brighter than conventional x-rays, to peer inside the fossil. They discovered rows of tiny teeth with at least 11 teeth per row—too many to belong to an octopus, but consistent with a species of extinct nautilus, an octopus relative and also found at the same fossil site. The team suspects that this particular nautilus had been decomposing for some time before it became fossilized, causing it to separate from its external shell and distorting its soft tissues to take on a more octopuslike appearance.
“It turns out the world’s most famous octopus fossil was never an octopus at all,” lead study author Thomas Clements explained in a statement, noting that the new work provides “a much clearer picture of when octopuses actually first appeared on Earth.” Ironically, even with its revised identification, the fossil is still a record-breaker, since it now represents the oldest known nautiloid soft tissue. |
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Medicine | Science Translational Medicine |
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A pharmacy on a contact lens |
When your optometrist asks you to look through a machine at the red hot air balloon in the distance and warns you about an incoming “little puff of air,” they’re measuring your eye pressure. If that pressure is too high, you may be at risk for glaucoma, a disease that can damage the optic nerve and lead to vision loss.
But intraocular pressure (IOP) is difficult to monitor outside the clinic, leaving long gaps between measurements and complicating treatment. To address this, researchers developed a soft contact lens, described in a study published in Science Translational Medicine, that can continuously track intraocular pressure and release drugs when needed.
“We believe less is more,” senior author and biomedical engineer Yangzhi Zhu told STAT News
. “We didn’t use any battery, we didn’t use any electronics. Everything is based on polymers.” Built entirely from soft materials, the lens incorporates a microfluidic pressure sensor that deforms as IOP varies, along with a silk-based component that can detect subtle pressure fluctuations. When IOP values cross a preset threshold, the lens triggers the release of glaucoma drugs such as timolol or brimonidine from an integrated reservoir.
To test the system, the researchers fitted the lenses onto rabbit eyes and ex-vivo cow eyes, where the lens responded to pressure spikes reliably, delivering controlled doses only when needed.
Because the system is battery-free and built from biocompatible materials, it more closely resembles conventional contact lenses, making it potentially safer and more comfortable to wear long-term. The authors suggest that this approach could form the basis of “pharmacy-on-a-contact-lens” platforms that both sense and treat disease.
Whether it performs as intended in humans remains to be seen (wink wink); plans for a clinical trial are currently underway. |
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Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology: Call for Entries 2026 |
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This prize is awarded to young scientists for their outstanding contributions to neurobiological research based on experimental methods of molecular, cellular, systems, or organismic biology. Researchers not older than 35 years are invited to apply. |
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Deep Dive |
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Liquid metals like this gallium could take spacecraft engineering to the next level. AndrewDaGamer via Wikimedia Commons |
CC BY-SA |
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A fluid approach to space engineering |
When a spacecraft overheats, whether from constant exposure to the Sun or from its own electronics, there’s no air around it to carry heat away. Surfaces exposed to direct sunlight can reach 120°C (250°F), hot enough to warp materials and degrade sensitive equipment. And if something breaks in space, fixing it is a complicated undertaking, if at all possible. On the International Space Station,
failures in cooling systems have required astronauts to perform spacewalks
to replace critical components; that means spending hours outside the spacecraft, working in vacuum, with limited tools and no margin for error. There’s also limited space on board, meaning there are few backup systems, and small failures can quickly cascade into larger ones.
With so many constraints, most space hardware is designed to be rigid and stable, built to withstand a wide range of stressors. But as missions venture farther from Earth—from crewed lunar missions, like Artemis II, to
robotic exploration of the outer solar system—and last longer, systems need to adapt to an increasing number of challenges, including extreme temperature swings and persistent radiation.
Innovation, in this case, may be shaped by the heat of the challenge. A new Perspective in Cell Press Blue suggests that liquid metals, particularly gallium- and bismuth-based alloys, are good candidates for a new class of space technologies
that can flow, reconfigure, and potentially recover from damage. While liquid metals can conduct heat and electricity efficiently, much like conventional metals, they can also move and redistribute within a system. They also have strong surface tension, which keeps them cohesive even when other liquids might disperse in microgravity.
“With their high thermal and electrical conductivity, excellent fluidity, and unique self-healing capability, liquid metals are naturally suited to the demanding conditions of extreme space exploration,” Xudong Zhang, a co-author of the Perspective, told ScienceAdviser.
Mercury, the only metal that is liquid at room temperature, has been used for centuries in thermometers and other scientific instruments. More recently, liquid sodium and lead-based alloys act as coolants in nuclear reactors, where they circulate heat away from reactor cores under extreme temperatures and radiation. Gallium-based liquid metals are also used in high-performance computing on Earth, including in some gaming laptops. Their application in space has already been tested on board the Tiangong Space Station, where such cooling systems manage heat before it becomes mission-critical.
“Thermal management systems are arguably the closest to broader implementation, because they address an immediate and universal engineering need in space,” Zhang said, especially when it comes to “AI data centers, communication satellites, and the space station.”
The authors also suggest that liquid metals could be used in spacesuits and life support systems. Today’s spacesuits regulate temperature using water-based cooling garments, which rely on fixed networks of tubing. Because liquid metals can flow and carry heat while still conducting electricity, they could keep systems working if a suit is bent, strained, or even punctured. In environments where minor failures can become life-threatening, this kind of adaptability could add an extra layer of safety. |
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Example behaviors of liquid metals when in contact with other surfaces under Earth’s gravity versus microgravity. Shi et al./Cell Press Blue (2026) |
In electronics, if a liquid metal circuit is disrupted, it can reconnect as the material shifts back into place, allowing systems to keep running even after physical damage. In soft robotics, this ability could enable components to squeeze through tight spaces or absorb impacts, then return to their original shape. Engineers are also exploring their use in sensing systems, where liquid metals can respond to pressure, strain, or temperature changes by altering their electrical properties, and for in-orbit repair, where damaged connections could potentially be restored without replacing parts.
But this adaptive system isn’t an engineering silver bullet. “In microgravity, the absence of buoyancy means surface tension dominates, which can alter flow stability and heat transfer performance,” Zhang said. Long-term exposure to radiation may also affect how these materials interact with surrounding surfaces. Interfaces, in particular, pose a major obstacle, as liquid metals can corrode or bead up, failing to spread evenly across other materials.
Some liquid metals can also solidify as temperatures drop, making it harder for systems to restart after cooling. And although their high surface tension reduces leakage risk, any unintended spill of a conductive fluid inside a spacecraft could have serious consequences.
For now, most of these ideas remain at the experimental stage, with researchers still working to understand how liquid metals behave over long durations in space. But as missions grow more ambitious, materials that can adapt, rather than simply endure, may become an important part of spacecraft design. |
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Weeding the gut microbiome? |
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Studies suggest that agricultural pesticides, even in low doses over time, may have an effect on the gut microbiome and, in turn, human health—though research establishing causality is needed. If the chemicals we use on crops do mess with our microbes, “at the moment, we don’t have a simple or universal solution,” one expert noted. |
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Read more at News from Science |
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An ancient breath |
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The oldest cartilaginous tissues to date—more than 285 million years old—suggest that even though they were relatively new to sucking in air, ancient reptiles could have breathed much like their living kin. “We know that the rib cage and shoulder girdle work together for breathing in modern lizards,” explained one biologist. “This fossil shows that the same breathing mechanism was possible in this ancient reptile.” |
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Nature Paper | Read more at
Science News |
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Don’t throw out the DNA with the bathwater |
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Ten minutes in a bath is long enough to imbue the water with detectable DNA, researchers have found. The forensic intel could shed light on cases involving water. “For example, detecting DNA from an unexpected individual, or observing the absence of an expected contributor, might offer clues about possible copresence or inconsistencies in statements,” explained one of the scientists. |
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PLOS ONE Paper | Read more at
C&EN |
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Restrictions [on child smartphone use] may ease public anxiety, but on their own, they are blunt instruments that erode trust and overlook opportunities. |
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Policy Forum | 2 April 2026 | Sandra Cortesi and Urs Gasser |
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Last but not least |
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Today, I learned how to slice a pizza fairly. Though I’d argue that to slice a pizza equitably, you need to know how the diners feel about crust. |
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Christie Wilcox, Editor, ScienceAdviser
With contributions from Hannah Richter, Phie Jacobs, and Ana Georgescu
Do you have a burning science question you can’t seem to find a good answer for? Submit it to Ask Science! Selected questions will receive responses from Science editors right here in ScienceAdviser. |
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