Lagrange Point

Fungal invasions taking over living hosts is the thing of science fiction, but the humble button mushroom is taken steps to start. Often a fungi will specialize in symbiosis, invading or decomposing. But Mycena are starting to adapt to do all three. Humans, plants and fungi are in a complicated relationship where we influence the development of each other. The complex fungal toxin patulin is dangerous for humans, but can be broken down by microbes in soil. What can we learn from soil to fight back against fungal toxins and keep our fruit safe. 10.1002/mbo3.137310.1111/1462-2920.16398

What caused those large quakes on Mars? How can Mars have big Mars-quakes without plate tectonics? If an impact crater isn't too blame for the Mars quakes what may be the cause. An international collaboration pooled the instruments of many countries Mars Missions to solve a mystery. Even using many different countries space ships, no 'smoking crater' was found that caused a mysterious martian quake. How can we study the ancient martian rivers and oceans using data from old martian missions? 10.1016/j.icarus.2023.11572910.1029/2023GL103619

E.coli is one of the most studied and versatile bacteria, so how can we make it work for us? Bacteria's ability to generate electricity is well known, but often requires complex conditions. How can we use E.Coli to generate electricity without a complicated setup? Geothermal systems seem to promise unlimited power but sometimes a cold water 'short circuit' ruins the plan. How do you carefully control the efficiency of geothermal power in the extreme temperatures and pressures of the earth? References: 10.1016/j.joule.2023.08.00610.1016/j.energy.2023.128163

How does a jellyfish manage to see and learn without a large central brain? Like the Scarecrow of Oz, jellyfish are a without a brain but are still able to learn and do great feats. How does the nervous system of a jellyfish learn to dodge and avoid obstacles without a big brain? Plants respond to light, but is it possible to communicate with them about upcoming dangers? 10.1016/j.cub.2023.08.05610.1371/journal.pbio.3002303

There are many different types of treatments for cancer, all of them with pros and cons. Enhancing our anti cancer toolbox requires careful testing to help reduce side effects. CAR-T takes your immune cells and boosts them to help fight cancer, but can have some pretty nasty side effects. By carefully coating CAR-T cells you can fight back against cancer and limit the chance of a cytokine storm or neurotoxicity . 10.1038/s41563-023-01646-6

What happens when two massive planets collide? How can you end up with a gas giant that's super dense and heavy? how can a planet the size of Neptune be as dense as steel? What happens when two giant planets collide at high speed? Watching a black hole devour a star, one bite at a time. 10.1038/s41586-023-06499-210.1038/s41550-023-02073-y

Infrastructure projects and large engineering projects can lead to archaeological discoveries. When you start digging a large sewer network, the last thing you suspect to find is 1,000s of fossils. Large water projects in Auckland managed to discover new species and shed light on New Zealand 3 million years ago. We often think of modern plumbing as being a sign of the modern era, but in ancient China, a community banded together to build their own drainage network. References:​ 10.1080/00288306.2023.224323410.1038/s44221-023-00114-4

At the depths of the ocean, in freezing waters there is somehow a paradise for Octopi. Off the coast of Monterey, an extinct underwater volcano creates just the right conditions for an absurd number of octopi to breed, nest and survive despite the freezing temperatures. With water near freezing, an octopi egg would normally take 8 years to hatch, but how are they managing to survive in huge numbers? References: 10.1126/sciadv.adg3247

How long do you really have to wait after a concussion? Athletes are always keen to get back in the game after a head knock, but how long do they really need to wait? When trying to assess and track a concussion getting hard data is difficult. Using special headbands and measuring the pulse of the brain you can get an insight into concussion recovery. Concussion symptoms can disappear long before the brain has truly recovered. If you are slowly recovering fro a concussion how long will you need to wait? 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.2863310.1212/WNL.0000000000206853

When whales and humans interact the results can be confusing and messy for both sides. Whether it be noisy boat propellers, or orcas on a collision course, humans and whales don't always get on. How can we monitor and track how whales respond to humans. The best ways of monitoring animals is often with tags, but the very act of tagging can ruin what you're trying to study. 10.1002/ece3.9967

Antibiotic resistance is a global challenge, but the solution may come from the natural predator of bacteria. Bacterial infections can be nasty, but you can engineer a phage to help better identify and treat them. Knowing exactly which bacteria is causing problems can help doctors target treatment more precisely and tailor antibiotic courses. Using bacteriophages you can quickly identify and then eliminate common types of bacterial infections. 10.1038/s41467-023-39612-010.1038/s41467-023-39863-x

Cracks in metal can ultimately lead to fatigue failure, but is there a way to unwind the damage? Fatigue failure is a serious problem for everything from bridges to phones so finding a way to tackle it is important. One microcrack can turn into another as a metal fatigues, but what if the cracks could close themselves up again? Can a metal piece itself back together again? Maybe if its in a vacuum. 10.1038/s41586-023-06223-0

Getting an accurate picture of someone's health or vital signs is essential in medicine, but hard to physically do without wires. Invasive health monitoring systems can't provide insights into 'everyday' scenarios. Trying to assess someone's posture, gait and rehabilitation is hard if they're wired into a harness. Smart Pants using fibre optics can help rehabilitation by fully understanding the problem points in high detail. Non-contact monitoring of breathing and other vital signs is important in a hospital setting to reduce risk, but camera based solutions are too variable. How can you 'remove the wires' in a hospital setting? By using LiDAR and RF radar. 10.1364/BOE.49279610.1038/s41566-023-01245-6

Its a huge leap from a single celled organism to a complex multicellular beast. So how does evolution manage it? You can evolve humble yeast from a single celled organism into a complex interwoven multicellular one. Over 3,000 generations in the lab, the humble yeast was evolved from microscopic to macroscopic with super strength. Grouping together or splitting apart can offer benefits for organisms, but what environmental pressures cause an organism to go one way or the other? 10.1038/s41586-023-06052-110.1126/sciadv.adi0963

Chemistry is complicated but it had to start somewhere. The origins of complex chemistry had to be built up from scratch. How did complex compounds form on early earth. How can we replicate the conditions of early earth and watch complex chemistry develop? Peering into chemical reactions is tricky because they can happen so fast. 10.1038/s41586-023-06182-6

The universe scaling work of the NANOGrav team stands on the shoulders of giants to understand giants lurking in our universe. Huge decade spanning scientific projects like NANOGrav are built of ideas and concepts which we can trace back to earlier pioneers. NANOGrav relies on Pulsars to map the universe but the discovery of them can be traced back to one key woman, Jocelyn Bell Burnell. This week we dive into the discovery of Pulsars and how they have been used to make a new way of looking at the universe. Finding a periodic signal in the noise can be helpful but a whole universe them of them can widen our understanding.

Weather in space, can seem far away but it's dazzling effects come with some danger. Aurora localised entirely around a satellite can cause a steamy situation for communications. Analysing space weather can lead to better designed satellites capable of withstanding 1-100 year solar storms. It's a balancing act when protecting satellites from solar weather, too much and too little protection can lead to disaster. Meteor showers are beautiful but how do you get one without an icey comet? The only way to get an asteroid to make a lovely meteor shower unfortunately involves a violent collision or big explosion. 10.1029/2023SW00343610.3847/PSJ/acd538

When a volcano erupts we're used to imagining damage from lava, ash and even tsunamis. So why were satellites taken out? The colossal eruptions at Hunga-Tonga in 2022 caused pressure waves that caused damage 1000s of km away and even to satellites. Satellites, long distance radio and GPS all rely on the ionosphere, but large eruptions can wreck havoc and cause disruptions. When a pressure wave spreads out from a volcanic eruption, we can also get similar disruptions to the ionosphere. Sometimes even before shock wave hits. The way our ionosphere protects and responds to stellar radiation can be influenced by big events down here on Earth. 10.1038/s41598-023-33603-3

Batteries power the modern world, but how can we make them more sustainably and last longer. Lithium powers most of our modern batteries but it doesn't cope with the cold. The electrolytes inside lithium ion batteries are powerful but weak when its cold, so what can we use instead? Extracting lithium is carbon intensive and difficult, are there more abundant materials we can use? Calcium based batteries have a higher power density than lithium but finding a suitable electrolyte is a challenge. 10.1002/advs.20230117810.1002/aenm.202204182

Humans are filling the atmosphere with more and more pollution. How does it get out of the air and where does it go? For complex pollutants in the atmosphere, having a bit of hydroxide around helps break it down but where does it come from? Hydroxide can spontaneously generate in droplets but it doesn't seem to need sunlight's or photo-chemistry. Spontaneous generation of hydroxide in water droplets helps clean up our atmosphere. Which trees are best at cleaning up the air around them? From conifers to broad leave trees which help keep our air clean the best? C is for conifer, and their leaves and needles help capture pollution out of the air. Broadleaf trees are well...broad and this helps them capture lots of air pollution. References: 10.1073/pnas.222022812010.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109681