Scientists have successfully completed a series of commissioning experiments to solve their very first protein structure on a one-of-a-kind X-ray instrument: the compact X-ray light source. This marks a major milestone in the opening of what promises to be the dawn of a new era of scientific discovery and its downstream applications to improve the health and well-being of society.

For nearly a decade, glaciologist Leigh Stearns and collaborators have aimed a laser scanningsystem at Greenland’s Helheim Glacier, recording one of the most detailed observations ever captured of a glacier calving. Their long-running survey revealed that even when Helheim sheds kilometers-wide icebergs, it doesn’t speed up as much as expected, reframing how scientists think about the climate-driven forces that affect sea-level rise.

University of Virginia researcher Baoxing Xu’s research group introduces HydroSpread, an innovative fabrication method that uses water as a platform to create delicate films and devices for next-generation robotics and sensing.

Fidget poppers are an example of “bistability,” as the popped circles rest in one of two stable states. Purdue University researchers have taken this idea to its extreme, building robots that can be preprogrammed and controlled using just the physical properties of these fidget poppers.

A new molecular switch, created through protein design, may be a potential way to control when drugs are active or inactive in the body. Researchers hope this approach is a starting point for further developments to reduce side effects from cancer drugs or antibody therapies. This type of designed molecular switch has already been shown to increase the speed of a COVID test. The scientists have also created a switchable version of interleukin-2 in a effort to manage the side effects of this potentially powerful cancer drug.