Researchers at Aalto University’s Department of Applied Physics found a new way to create tiny hurricanes of light — known to scientists as vortices — that can carry information. The method is based on manipulating metallic nanoparticles that interact with an electric field. The design method, belonging to a class of geometries known as quasicrystals, was thought up by Doctoral Researcher Kristian Arjas and experimentally realised by Doctoral Researcher Jani Taskinen, both from Professor Päivi Törmä’s Quantum Dynamics group. The discovery represents a fundamental step forward in physics and carries the potential for entirely new ways of transmitting information.

Half order and chaos

A vortex is in this case like a hurricane that occurs in a beam of light, where a calm and dark centre is surrounded by a ring of bright light. Just like the eye of a hurricane is calm due to the winds around it blowing in different directions, the eye of the vortex is dark due to the electric field of bright light pointing to different directions on different sides of the beam.

Previous physics research has connected what kind of vortices can appear with how much symmetry there is in the structure that produces them. For example, if particles in the nanoscale are arranged in squares the produced light has a single vortex; hexagons produce a double vortex and so on. More complex vortices require at least octagonal shapes.

Now Arjas, Taskinen and the team unlocked a method for creating geometric shapes that theoretically support any kind of vortex.

“This research is on the relationship between the symmetry and the rotationality of the vortex, i.e. what kinds of vortices can we generate with what kinds of symmetries. Our quasicrystal design is halfway between order and chaos,” Törmä says.

Good vibrations

In their study, the group manipulated 100,000 metallic nanoparticles, each roughly the size of a hundredth of a single strand of human hair, to create their unique design. The key lay in finding where the particles interacted with the desired electric field the least instead of the most.

‘An electrical field has hotspots of high vibration and spots where it is essentially dead. We introduced particles into the dead spots, which shut down everything else and allowed us to select the field with the most interesting properties for applications,’ Taskinen says.

The discovery opens a wealth of future research in the very active field of topological study of light. It also represents the early steps for a powerful way of transmitting information in domains where light is needed to send encoded information, including telecommunications.

‘We could, for example, send these vortices down optic fibre cables and unpack them at the destination. This would allow us to store our information into a much smaller space and transmit much more information at once. An optimistic guess for how much would be 8 to 16 times the information we can now deliver over optic fibre,’ Arjas says.

Practical applications and scalability of the team’s design are likely to take years of engineering. The Quantum Dynamics group at Aalto, however, have their hands full with research into superconductivity and improving organic LEDs.

The group used the OtaNano research infrastructure for nano-, micro- and quantum technologies in their pioneering study.

The research was published early November in Nature Communications.

Described in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, Idiopyrgus eowynae and Idiopyrgus meriadoci were named in honour of Éowyn and Meriadoc Brandybuck from J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic series.

In their research paper, the authors explain the name Idiopyrgus eowynae, stating, “Éowyn exemplifies courage, resilience, and resistance against darkness, both internal and external, standing against Gríma Wormtongue and the Witch-king of Angmar.”

Regarding Idiopyrgus meriadoci, they write, “Besides standing with Éowyn against the Witch-king in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Merry is also an example of the fight for nature conservation in Middle-earth, pushing the Ents into action and ultimately ending Saruman’s threat to Fangorn Forest.”

The discovered species are troglobitic and were found in a single limestone cave in the Serra do Ramalho karst area of Bahia state, northeastern Brazil. The gastropods belong to the family Tomichiidae, a group previously known for inhabiting surface freshwater environments but now shown to have adapted to subterranean ecosystems.

Both snails have unique periostracal hairs — thorn-like structures — on their shells, a feature uncommon among Brazilian freshwater snails. Their cave-specific adaptations include reduced pigmentation, fragile shells, and small size.

The Gruna do Pedro Cassiano cave, where the snails were discovered, is a fragile ecosystem threatened by water extraction, deforestation, and climate change. Due to the species’ limited habitat and environmental threats to their subterranean ecosystem, the authors recommend their classification as vulnerable. The findings highlight the importance of protecting Brazil’s subterranean biodiversity and raise concerns about the impact of human activities on these delicate ecosystems.

On his choice of Tolkien-inspired names for the new species, lead author Dr Rodrigo B. Salvador of the Finnish Museum of Natural History said, “I tend to use lots of pop culture references in my species names — from books, comics, Dungeons & Dragons, and video games. If we think about it, there is a long-standing tradition in taxonomy of using names from mythology and literature to name species.

“Granted, in the old days, those names mostly came from Greek and Roman myths and Shakespeare. Today, we have newer mythologies and literature classics, so in a way, we’re just continuing that tradition.”

The university announced on the 7th of November that the research team of Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has succeeded in developing a microbial strain that efficiently produces pseudoaromatic polyester monomer to replace polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using systems metabolic engineering.

Pseudoaromatic dicarboxylic acids have better physical properties and higher biodegradability than aromatic polyester (PET) when synthesized as polymers, and are attracting attention as an eco-friendly monomer* that can be synthesized into polymers. The production of pseudoaromatic dicarboxylic acids through chemical methods has the problems of low yield and selectivity, complex reaction conditions, and the generation of hazardous waste.

To solve this problem, Professor Sang Yup Lee’s research team used metabolic engineering to develop a microbial strain that efficiently produces five types of pseudoaromatic dicarboxylic acids, including 2-pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid and four types of pyridine dicarboxylic acids (2,3-, 2,4-, 2,5-, 2,6-pyridine dicarboxylic acids), in Corynebacterium, a bacterium mainly used for amino acid production.

The research team used metabolic engineering techniques to build a platform microbial strain that enhances the metabolic flow of protocatechuic acid, which is used as a precursor for several pseudoaromatic dicarboxylic acids, and prevents the loss of precursors.

Based on this, the genetic manipulation target was discovered through transcriptome analysis, producing 76.17 g/L of 2-pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid, and by newly discovering and constructing three types of pyridine dicarboxylic acid production metabolic pathways, successfully producing 2.79 g/L of 2,3-pyridine dicarboxylic acid, 0.49 g/L of 2,4-pyridine dicarboxylic acid, and 1.42 g/L of 2,5-pyridine dicarboxylic acid.

In addition, the research team confirmed the production of 15.01 g/L through the construction and reinforcement of the 2,6-pyridine dicarboxylic acid biosynthesis pathway, successfully producing a total of five similar aromatic dicarboxylic acids with high efficiency.

In conclusion, the team succeeded in producing 2,4-, 2,5-, and 2,6-pyridine dicarboxylic acids at the world’s highest concentration. In particular, 2,4-, 2,5-pyridine dicarboxylic acid achieved production on the scale of g/L, which was previously produced in extremely small amounts (mg/L).

Based on this study, it is expected that it will be applied to various polyester production industrial processes, and it is also expected that it will be actively utilized in research on the production of similar aromatic polyesters.

Professor Sang Yup Lee, the corresponding author, said, “The significance lies in the fact that we have developed an eco-friendly technology that efficiently produces similar aromatic polyester monomers based on microorganisms,” and “This study will help the microorganism-based bio-monomer industry replace the petrochemical-based chemical industry in the future.”

The results of this study were published in the international academic journal, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of United States of America (PNAS) on October 30th.

This study was conducted with the support of the Development of Next-generation Biorefinery Platform Technologies for Leading Bio-based Chemicals Industry Project and the Development of Platform Technologies of Microbial Cell Factories for the Next-generation Biorefineries Project (Project leader: Professor Sang Yup Lee) from the National Research Foundation supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology and ICT of Korea.

In a study led by Naim Bautista, a postdoctoral researcher in Jay Storz’s lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the team took highland deer mice and their lowland cousins on a simulated ascent to 6,000 meters. The “climb” ventured from sea level and the mice reached the simulated summit seven weeks later. Along the way, Bautista tracked how the mice responded to cold stress at progressively lower oxygen levels.

“Deer mice have the broadest environmental range of any North American mammal, as they are distributed from the plains of Nebraska to the summits of the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada,” said Storz, Willa Cather Professor of biological sciences. “This study tested whether they are able to thrive across such a broad range of elevations by evolving adaptations to local conditions or by possessing a generalized ability to acclimatize.”

Conducted in a specialized lab at Canada’s McMaster University, the study divided each team of highland and lowland mice into two distinct groups — a control that remained at sea level throughout the study, and an acclimation group that embarked on the seven-week ascent.

After seven days at sea-level, conditions for the acclimated group advanced by 1,000 meters in elevation weekly, with oxygen levels reduced to reflect what climbers would experience. The research team monitored the ability of each mouse to cope with cold exposure by means of metabolic heat production.

Data showed that the highland and lowland deer mouse cousins do not share a general ability to acclimate to hypoxia (low oxygen conditions). As the simulated elevations rose above 4,000 meters, the homefield advantage of the highland mice quickly became apparent. As oxygen levels dropped, the highland mice were better able to regulate body temperature than their lowland counterparts owing to more efficient breathing and circulatory oxygen-transport.

“The results show us that the highlanders and lowlanders do not share a generalized ability to acclimatize to changing environmental conditions,” Bautista said. “Rather, the mice living at higher elevations share evolved ways to acclimatize to low oxygen conditions that are distinct from those of the lowland prairie mice.”

The study also showed that the highland mice have a genetic advantage that helps suppress thickening of the right ventricle of the heart, a symptom of pulmonary hypertension, which is a common malady among lowland mammals that are forced to acclimatize to low oxygen conditions.

Bautista said the findings show how adaptation to local conditions can allow a widely distributed species like the deer mouse to thrive in diverse environments.

“It highlights how evolved changes specific to populations help shape their flexibility,” Bautista said. “Ultimately, it is these changes that influence their ability to survive within different habitats.”

Bautista is finalizing plans to repeat the study, taking it to new heights by measuring the responses of the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse, the world’s highest-dwelling mammal. The species hails from the Andes mountains, living at elevations up to 22,110 feet, and was discovered by Storz.

The deer mice study was recently published in PNAS. Other members of the research team include Storz; Ellen Shadowitz and Graham Scott of McMaster University; Nathanael Herrera and Zachary Cheviron of the University of Montana; and Oliver Wearing of the University of British Columbia.

The discovery, detailed in a study in Current Biology, could inform a key strategy to protect the food supply in the face of climate instability, the researchers said. Agricultural productivity is particularly vulnerable to climate change, the study noted, and rising temperatures are predicted to reduce crop yields by 2.5% to 16% for every additional 1 degree Celsius of seasonal warming.

The scientists took some lessons from evolution to experiment with how best to speed up the adaptation process for varieties of tomato plants, explained study author Sorel V. Yimga Ouonkap, a research associate in molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry at Brown. It would take a long time to wait for evolution to weed out the vulnerable tomato varieties like Heinz in favor of those that can handle extreme heat, a process that might also jeopardize the qualities that make vulnerable crops commercially desirable.

“We’re trying to figure out thermoregulation at a molecular and cellular level, and identify what and where we need to improve so that we can target those in commercial plant cultivars and conserve everything about them except for this one aspect that makes them vulnerable to extreme heat,” Ouonkap said. “Over time, you can start accumulating different resistance mechanisms as the growing conditions continue to change.”

Understanding thermotolerance, or the ability of a plant to withstand extreme temperatures, is a promising strategy to address climate adaptation, said study author Mark Johnson, a professor of biology at Brown.

“Imagine if you could just make a Heinz tomato more resilient to temperature stress without affecting the flavor profile or the way people experience the tomato,” Johnson said. “That would be a great advantage.”

Plant reproduction: a ripe area for research

The plant reproduction phase has been the focus of research in Johnson’s lab for many years. While the scientific literature includes studies of how heat stress affects plant growth in general, or the development of key reproductive structures, there was an absence of work that specifically examined what happens after pollen lands on the stigma during plant reproduction, Johnson said.

For Ouonkap’s thesis project, he focused on the pollen tube growth phase of the plant reproductive cycle. He studied different cultivars of tomato plants known for their ability to produce fruit in exceptionally hot growing seasons. The tomato varieties in the study were native to the Philippines, Russia and Mexico and were all grown in the Plant Environment Center at Brown.

Collaborating with scientists at the University of Arizona, Ouonkap studied how heat stress affects the ability of the pollen to grow in the flower of the tomato plant. He focused on how gene expression changes when tomato pollen produced by plants growing in optimal greenhouse conditions were exposed to high temperatures when growing in a petri dish.

The team’s partners in Arizona found that exposure to high temperature solely during the pollen tube growth phase limits fruit and seed production more significantly in tomato cultivars that were heat sensitive than those that were heat tolerant. Importantly, Ouonkap found that pollen tubes from the Tamaulipas variety of tomato, known to be tolerant to heat, have enhanced growth under high temperature. His molecular analysis of the pollen tube in these tomatoes allowed the research team to pinpoint the mechanisms that were associated with thermotolerance.

Tomatoes are an ideal organism for this kind of research, the researchers said. The ability of different varieties to adapt to a variety of extreme climates offer scientists insights into how species vary in their responses to environmental conditions. Tomatoes are also an important commercial crop in countries all over the world, from the Mediterranean to Egypt to Turkey to California — some of which are among the most vulnerable to extreme heat conditions.

With the right molecular mechanisms now identified, a next step would be determining specific techniques for enabling tomato growth in different climates. In one hypothetical scenario, scientists might develop a small molecule that could prime the pollen in the plants to be able to withstand a heat wave, Johnson explained.

“When the weather forecast showed two weeks of high temperatures during the pollen tube growth phase, the farmer would apply a product to plants that would change the gene expression so that the pollen would be resilient to heat,” he said.

While that type of manipulation is still far off in the future, the researchers said this area of research is ripe for exploration.

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation (IOS-1939255) with additional support from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (2020-67013-30907, 2024-67012-41882) and the National institutes of Health (5R35GM139609, PI AEL).

Scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA) say the study — the result of their autonomous Seaglider getting accidentally stuck underneath the Ross Ice Shelf — suggests this will likely only increase further as climate change drives continued ocean warming.

The glider, named Marlin, was deployed in December 2022 into the Ross Sea from the edge of the sea ice. Carrying a range of sensors to collect data on ocean processes that are important for climate, it was programmed to travel northward into open water.

However, Marlin was caught in a southward-flowing current and pulled into the ice shelf cavity where it remained, with its sensors on, for four days before re-emerging. During this time the ‘lost’ glider completed 79 dives, taking measurements of the water within the cavity to a depth of 200 metres, right up to base of the overlying ice shelf.

Researchers from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences recorded a 50 metre-thick ‘intrusion’ of — relatively — warm water that had entered the cavity from the nearby open water. Water temperatures ranged from -1.9°C to a warmer -1.7°C under the ice.

Subsequent re-analysis of all available measurements shows that heat transported into cavity has increased over the last 45 years, most likely due to warming of the Ross Sea because of climate change. The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

“While the temperature increase — four thousandths of a degree a year — might not seem all that much, it could lead to around 20 to 80 cm of additional ice loss per year over the 45 years we look at,” explained lead author Dr Peter Sheehan.

“We found the waters of the intrusion were warm enough to melt the underside of the ice shelf, unlike the freezing-point waters they likely displaced. What’s new here is that we can track the warm water pretty much from the open water of the Ross Sea at the ice front, back into the cavity. We have not seen one of these intrusions happening directly before.”

Dr Sheehan added: “A trip into the cavity underneath the Ross Ice Shelf was not planned, and it’s not normally possible to measure this region of an ice shelf: you can’t send instruments this close to the underside of an ice shelf deliberately, it’s too risky.”

The ice shelves that surround Antarctica are exposed to the warmth of the ocean across the expanse of their undersides that float out over the continent’s shelf seas, and the ocean-driven melting that occurs at the ice base is the largest cause of Antarctic ice-mass loss.

While the melting of floating ice does not itself substantially raise sea level, ice shelves slow the seaward flow of land ice and so stabilize the Antarctic ice sheet; their thinning and disintegration would hasten the delivery of land ice to the ocean and accelerate global sea-level rise.

One of the processes that can drive warm surface water under the Ross Ice Shelf is wind. Certain wind patterns lead to southward flow in the surface ocean and into the ice shelf cavity.

These wind-driven ocean-surface flows are called Ekman currents, and as with any ocean current, these have an associated heat transport. Because this is an ocean-surface process, this heat is instantly available to melt the overlying ice: it doesn’t have to wait to be mixed upward to the ice base.

Ekman heat transport is particularly relevant for climate scientists because oceans absorb and redistribute much of the Earth’s heat. Changes in this system can have profound effects on weather, sea levels, and global temperature trends.

Dr Sheehan and co-author Prof Karen Heywood used long-term measurements of wind and ocean temperature — blended with a model to fill in spatial and temporal gaps in the record — to calculate the strength of southward Ekman heat transport over the last 45 years. They found that the heat transported into the cavity by Ekman currents has increased.

Year-to-year variability is driven by the wind. However, the trend towards greater heat transport into the cavity is likely linked to warming of the Ross Sea — because the water has warmed, winds today will transport more heat energy into the cavity than winds of comparable strength in the past.

Prof Heywood said: “It appears reasonable to expect that the magnitude of the Ekman heat flux, and of the melting that it drives, will increase yet further as climate change drives continued ocean warming. This trend is a concern in itself.

“The influence of surface-water intrusions, alongside the trends and variability in the Ekman dynamics that can drive these, must be incorporated into climate models, not least given continued uncertainty in the response of Antarctic land-based ice to climate change.”

This is the first time that this process has been looked at using a long-term, multi-decadal data set. Previous understanding of surface-water intrusions has come mainly from comparisons of hydrography in open water, for example from ships, observations from tagged seals, and ice moorings deployed within a cavity.

The study was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, the US National Science Foundation and European Research Council Horizon 2020 programme.