Piri piri or African bird’s eye chilli peppersSteidi/Alamy Accidentally made your food too spicy? One day, you might be able to reach for an “anti-spice” condiment to tame the heat of a dish, thanks to the discovery of chemicals found in chilli peppers that counteract their spicy sensation. A chilli’s heat comes from compounds called capsaicinoids, which bind to receptors on nerve fibres within your mouth, sending impulses to the brain that create a burning sensation similar to those caused by a fire’s heat or a sting. Advertisement Chilli aficionados compare the heat of different strains using the Scoville scale, which is based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, yet some varieties aren’t quite as hot as their Scoville rating suggests they should be. To investigate, Devin Peterson at the Ohio State University and his colleagues used an analytical method known as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine how much of two capsaicinoids – capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin – were in powdered samples of 10 types of peppers, including chile de árbol, African bird’s eye and Scotch bonnet. Then they gave samples of tomato juice containing powder from the different chillis to a panel of tasters. Each contained the same amount of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin – which should have been enough to give all the samples a relatively mild kick of 800 Scoville units. But the tasters perceived the heat from the 10 peppers as different, so Peterson and his colleagues performed additional chemical analyses. This identified three compounds in the chilli powder – capsianoside I, roseoside and gingerglycolipid A – that were present in high quantities in the chillies that weren’t as intense as they should have been according to the Scoville scale. All three compounds are glucosides, molecules that contain the sugar glucose. The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day. Sign up to newsletter A group of 37 tasters then tested two samples at once, one containing these suspected spice-killing compounds and one without, placed on either side of their tongue to stop an enflamed tongue affecting a second taste test. Their feedback revealed that the compounds decreased the chilli intensity by between 0.7 and 1.2 points on a 15-point scale, on average. “They are effectively anti-spice compounds,” says Peterson. He isn’t yet sure how they work, but says they could be altering receptors on nerve fibres in the mouth in a way that results in a reduction in their burning signals. Knowing about these anti-spice chemicals could allow growers to breed or genetically modify plants so they lack them to create valuable, even hotter chillis, or breed very mild fruit with higher amounts of anti-spice, says Peterson. Using the compounds could also enable the creation of a household ingredient to tone down excessive heat in dishes, he says, or they could work as relievers for severe pain by blocking pain signals. “Sometimes when I’ve ordered food with my kids and it’s too spicy, that’s a no-go,” says Peterson. “So, the idea of having some kind of a natural compound to dial it back may be appealing.” “The way the study was done using the half tongue was very clever,” says Barry Smith at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, adding that it shows the Scoville scale isn’t a very precise instrument for describing how hot a chilli is. Smith also wonders if the perceived intensity of menthol or mint, which cause a cooling sensation in a similar way to how capsaicinoids cause a burning one, could also be muted by these kinds of compounds. Journal reference:Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5c01448 Topics:food and drink

May 13, 20256 min readDeep Math from String Theory Appears in Clashing Black HolesResearchers have shown that abstract mathematical functions from the frontiers of theoretical physics have a real-world use in modeling gravitational wavesBy Ramin Skibba edited by Lee BillingsAn illustration of two black holes about to merge and emitting copious gravitational waves. Chris Henze/NASA/SPL/Getty ImagesA decade ago astrophysicists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), operated by the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, managed to detect subtle ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves, released by a pair of black holes spiraling into each other, for the first time. That impressive discovery—which earned the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics—has since become commonplace, with researchers regularly detecting gravitational waves from myriad far-distant celestial sources.And as the numbers of gravitational-wave observations have increased, physicists’ careful modeling is revealing new details about their mysterious origins. Some of the most intriguing gravitational-wave events, it turns out, could arise not from catastrophic collisions but rather from near misses. Furthermore, these cosmic close calls might be best understood using concepts derived from string theory—a notional theory of everything that posits that all of nature is fundamentally composed of countless, wriggling subatomic strings. This arguably marks the first linkage to date between a core mathematical aspect of the arcane theory and real-world astrophysics.At least, that’s the conclusion of an international team of researchers that applied geometric structures inspired by particle physics and string theory to the behavior of black holes when the colossal objects closely pass and deflect each other. Such interactions between black holes or neutron stars (compact remnants of exploded massive stars) can be studied through the deflection angle, the energy released through the near miss and the momentum of the objects’ recoil—all of which may be discerned in gravitational waves. The team’s results were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Black Holes as ParticlesIn their study, the researchers used an obscure class of abstract mathematical functions to solve the formidable equations involved in determining the radiated energy from a near miss. “You need these new functions, which, in math and mathematical physics, have been studied intensively but, to date, have not appeared in any real physical observable. That’s what makes it quite interesting,” says Jan Plefka, a theoretical physicist at the Humboldt University of Berlin and a co-author of the new study. Those obscure functions, known as six-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifolds, had never been shown as directly relevant to descriptions of real astrophysical phenomena before.In the years since LIGO’s initial detection, two additional major gravitational-wave observatories, Europe’s Virgo and Japan’s Kamioka Gravitational-Wave Detector (KAGRA), have come online. Together, they form the international LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration and have amassed detections of nearly 300 gravitational-wave events over the past decade, mostly from colliding pairs of black holes. Also called black hole “mergers,” such events are the cacophonous moment when these dense gravitational behemoths smash together to form a single, larger beast. Plefka and his colleagues are studying different interactions known as “scattering” events, which occur when paired black holes slip by each other, usually in prelude to their eventual coalescence. During these close encounters, the clashing gravity of the black holes causes each to accelerate past the other, generating a significant gravitational-wave signal, but the objects are sufficiently separated to avoid merging.It’s no coincidence that this resembles elementary particles deflecting each other. “You can use the techniques developed for the scattering of microscopic objects to describe this scattering of macroscopic ones,” Plefka says. Considered from far enough away, well beyond the event horizon—that pivotal region within which neither matter nor light can escape—a black hole can be modeled as a particlelike point with mass and spin, albeit one that generates gravitational rather than electromagnetic waves.On that basis, Plefka and his colleagues applied techniques from quantum field theory that are more typically used to analyze the behavior of elementary particles. “We’re building on decades of work that has been done to make predictions for collider experiments,” says Gustav Mogull, a particle physicist at Queen Mary University of London and one of Plefka’s co-authors.Closer to Complex RealitiesThe team’s goal was to bring its numerical approximations as close as possible to mirroring reality—which, of course, tends to be more messy. To do that, Mogull, Plefka and their team toiled to crank up the complexity of their calculations. In this work, the researchers incorporated five levels of that complexity—to what is known as the fifth post-Minkowskian order of precision—for describing the scattering angles of black hole pairs, their radiated energies and their recoils.This is where the Calabi-Yau geometric structures, normally associated with string theory, come in. In string theory, Calabi-Yau geometries involve the compactification of higher dimensions. Here, they are not merely abstractions but instead emerge from the researchers’ calculations of black hole scattering. It’s perhaps ironic that string theory, notoriously derided as untestable, has given rise to mathematical structures of relevance to measurable physics far from the rarefied realm of strings.A visualization of two black holes scattering off each other and emitting gravitational waves, which are rendered in shades of blue (darker shades correspond to higher energies). This visualization was computed with the aid of advanced mathematical functions known as Calabi-Yau manifolds.Mathias Driesse/Humboldt Universtität zu BerlinAny mathematical function is associated with some kind of geometry, Mogull explains—and as the function increases in complexity, so, too, does its geometry. In the case of something basic, such as the sine or cosine functions used in trigonometry, that geometry is a simple circle. Elliptic functions, on the other hand, imply a doughnut-shaped geometry called a torus, which is also a Calabi-Yau onefold. It turns out that the functions Mogull, Plefka and their team developed for black hole scattering are associated with Calabi-Yau threefold structures, which involve six-dimensional surfaces. “I don’t think the appearance of Calabi-Yaus was that unexpected within our community. I would say this represents confirmation of something that people had suspected but was yet to be verified,” Mogull says.To demonstrate the utility of their approach in their study, Plefka, Mogull and their colleagues compare their approximations of black hole scattering angles to other, presumably more precise ones that were derived from numerical simulations. Such simulations can be time-consuming to run, even on state-of-the-art supercomputers—hence the search for accurate approximations. The team’s highest-order approximation closely matches the results of supercomputer number crunching for cases of black holes that gently deflect each other across great distances. But when the black holes come closer to a head-on collision, the team’s calculations begin diverging from the numerical simulations.Such work may seem to be a purely academic exercise, but in fact, the research could prove vital for making new discoveries. Signals from scattering black holes and neutron stars should be within reach of the next generation of gravitational-wave detectors that are set to come online in the late 2030s. These detectors, which will also need a new generation of models called waveform templates to discern true gravitational-wave signals from a sea of cosmic and terrestrial noise, include the proposed Einstein Telescope in Europe and Cosmic Explorer in the U.S. The latter, like LIGO, is supported by the National Science Foundation, and so far these kinds of gravitational-wave projects have avoided being directly targeted by the Trump administration’s aggressive proposed cuts to federally funded science.The work’s prospect for enhancing our understanding of gravitational-wave sources excites scientists who are gearing up for this new wave of detectors. They include Jocelyn Read, a physicist at California State University, Fullerton, who works with the Cosmic Explorer project. “Next-generation facilities can measure nearby signals with exquisite fidelity,” she says. (Here “nearby” means “within a few billion light-years.”) “So having very accurate and precise predictions from our current theories is definitely needed to test them against those kinds of future observations,” Read adds.Yet she also urges caution when assessing the significance of Plefka, Mogull and their colleagues’ work. “If they’re talking about implications for gravitational-wave astronomy, there are a few more steps that are needed,” she says. And their team has competitors, too, including some who have been deploying numerical simulations of their own.These kinds of approximate methods could eventually inform the waveform templates that are so crucial for filtering out noise in upcoming gravitational-wave detectors, Plefka says. Geraint Pratten, a LIGO physicist at the University of Birmingham in England, agrees. “I think it’s a heroic calculation by the group. It will provide a lot of insight into how we can structure next-generation waveform models,” he says. Pratten adds that more work will need to be done to move past the new study’s limitations. For example, the paper focuses on black holes without spin and those that undergo “unbound” scattering, which means that they deflect each other and never meet again. In reality, most, if not all, black holes are thought to spin, and usually scattering events precede an eventual merger.But in any case, he believes some gravitational waves from black hole and neutron star deflections will eventually be detectable, such as through observations of globular clusters, where these dense objects are packed together in a small space, cosmically speaking.For Plefka, Mogull and their peers, this macroscopic version of quantum field theory is still a young field, and there are many new types of astrophysically relevant calculations that they and others can do. These esoteric Calabi-Yau structures, formerly on the frontier of theoretical physics, could be just the beginning. “You’ve had this whole new class of mathematical functions—these theoretical things that had appeared in string theory,” Mogull says. “And we’re saying, ‘Look, this is tangible. This [radiated energy from scattering] is something you can try to detect, try to measure. This is real physics now.’”

Electronic music icon Don Diablo is known for pushing the boundaries of music, visual arts and live performance — and the music video for his latest single, “BLACKOUT,” explores using generative AI, combining NVIDIA RTX-powered and cloud-based tools in a hybrid workflow. Set inside an industrial warehouse, the video features Diablo performing in front of an immersive, AI-generated environment — blending stylized effects, a cinematic mood and personalized elements. The image creation and experimentation was done locally on a desktop powered by a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, while the final animation was rendered using Kling AI, a cloud-based generative video tool. This hybrid approach gave the team creative control and high-fidelity results. CTRL + ALT + Create With RTX All image-based work in the music video — including stylization and identity modeling — was performed locally using ComfyUI, a visual, node-based interface for building and customizing generative AI workflows. With minimal setup, the team could launch preconfigured workflows and experiment freely with different models and techniques. ComfyUI offered speed, ease of use and support for a wide range of open-source tools — enabling fast iteration and distinctive visuals that aligned with Diablo’s creative direction. Diablo wanted the visuals to reflect his identity — not just serve as decor. To achieve this, a custom model was trained on a facial dataset of Diablo, using low-rank adaptation in the FLUXGYM user interface. The resulting model was then loaded into ComfyUI and integrated into a Stable Diffusion pipeline for stylized image generation. An identity-embedding node ensured consistent facial features across frames, as well as stylistic cohesion. Once the imagery was locked, the team turned to Kling AI in the cloud to animate the visuals into dynamic scenes, harnessing the tool’s advanced physics and cinematic capabilities. This workflow, all running locally on an RTX 5090 GPU, enabled faster iteration, precise visual control, tighter feedback loops and full creative autonomy. It showcases how creators can use local RTX-powered tools — as well as cloud-based platforms for pre-defined workloads that require more compute — to quickly and easily produce high-impact content on their terms. “Working with these new AI tools literally feels like stepping into my own mind,” said Diablo. “We were able to creatively raise the bar, shape the visuals in real time and stay focused on the story. AI is a powerful tool for creativity.” Creative Workflows, Powered by RTX AI Watch the full “BLACKOUT” music video to see how the team brought their creative ideas to life with RTX AI. Artists and developers are already using generative AI to streamline their work and push creative boundaries, whether exploring concepts, designing virtual worlds or building intelligent apps. With RTX AI PCs, users can access the latest and greatest models and tools, as well as powerful AI performance. Learn more about the NVIDIA Studio platform and RTX AI PCs. Each week, the RTX AI Garage blog series features community-driven AI innovations and content for those looking to learn more about NVIDIA NIM microservices and AI Blueprints, as well as building AI agents, creative workflows, digital humans, productivity apps and more on AI PCs and workstations. Plug in to NVIDIA AI PC on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X — and stay informed by subscribing to the RTX AI PC newsletter. Follow NVIDIA Workstation on LinkedIn and X.

If the year 2025 has had a message for developing countries, it’s this: “You’re on your own.”Most notably, the Trump administration began with an unprecedented and ongoing assault on foreign aid, including global health programs. But there have been further ill omens. Other rich countries, including the UK and France, followed the US example by cutting their own aid programs as well. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign has hit poor countries that had been achieving export-driven growth, like Bangladesh, especially hard.RelatedThe worst thing Trump has done so farIf there’s a silver lining for the Global South, it’s that being on their own in 2025 means something very different than what it meant in, say, 1990. Countries where poverty was once near-universal, like India or Indonesia, are now considered middle-income. Some populous countries in sub-Saharan Africa, like Kenya or Nigeria, are, if not completely politically stable, now possessed of enough real state capacity to try ambitious projects like universal health coverage.The resources available to these nations are still highly limited by rich-world standards. But they’re still enough to achieve very impressive feats, and I recently heard of an intriguing project that could serve as a perfect test case. If it works, it could show that major international health projects, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, can be funded largely by the countries they’re meant to help, rather than by forces of philanthropy and foreign aid that have suddenly become unreliable.Neonatal sepsis: When babies’ infections go very, very badlyIt’s called NeoTest.The program targets an extremely common and preventable cause of death in young infants: neonatal sepsis. Sepsis is a catch-all term for infections that provoke an overwhelming immune response, damaging internal organs, and in the worst cases, leading to death. Sepsis can in principle be caused by anything — a virus, a fungus, a protozoa — but in practice, most infants who get it get it from a bacterial infection.In one way, that’s good: We have antibiotics! In another way, it’s bad: The risk of antibiotic resistance means you don’t want to overuse them. The challenge, then, is to match antibiotics to the babies who need them the most.The tests we have now for bacterial sepsis in infants are slow and expensive. The main technique is “blood culturing,” which involves taking blood from the patient, putting it in a liquid “culture” that reacts if bacteria are present, and waiting to see the reaction show up. This is expensive and often takes two to three days, potentially delaying life-saving treatment. It also has very high “false negative” rates, with studies showing that a large share of neonatal sepsis cases occur in babies who test negative.This story was first featured in the Future Perfect newsletter.Sign up here to explore the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them. Sent twice a week.So our targeting of antibiotics to babies is currently bad, with the result that hundreds of thousands of babies die every year from sepsis. The estimates we have on the toll of neonatal sepsis aren’t precise, but the best figure I’ve seen, from the World Health Organization (WHO), is a range of 400,000 to 700,000 deaths a year. That’s in the same ballpark as malaria (600 to 700,000 a year) and HIV/AIDS (630,000 deaths in 2023).Other studies go lower (more like 200,000) but, because they exclude infant deaths from pneumonia-caused sepsis, underestimate the number of deaths that could be saved by better targeting antibiotics to babies.The team behind NeoTest — which includes physician and global health research Akhil Bansal, Center for Global Development head Rachel Glennerster, economist and House of Lords member Jim O’Neill, and Nobel-winning economist Michael Kremer — aims to improve that targeting by getting a better test, one that gives results within minutes and is cheap to produce.If you fund it, they will comeThe NeoTest team does not, itself, consist of medical test manufacturers. But in Glennerster and Kremer, it includes two of the inventors of a tool called an “advance market commitment” (AMC).AMCs are a way to communicate to companies that there’s a big market for a product which doesn’t yet exist. The participants, which can include governments or other businesses or philanthropists, commit to buying a set amount of the new product, at a set price, from any manufacturers who meet the deal’s specifications. The hope is that this provides an incentive for manufacturers to develop the product, because they know for a fact there will be demand for it.It’s worked before. The first AMC, for better vaccines against pneumococcal bacteria at a time when that disease was killing as many as 1 million children a year, resulted in three new vaccines being developed, and in the number of vaccine doses growing from just 3 million in 2010 to around 150 million in 2016. By one estimate from Kremer and co-authors, the new vaccines enabled by the AMC saved some 700,000 lives between 2010 and 2020.NeoTest is an attempt to put together funds — about $120 million in total — for an advance market commitment for a better neonatal sepsis test.More famously, Operation Warp Speed, the US effort that got effective vaccines against Covid-19 on the market less than a year after the pandemic began, used a purchasing mechanism that worked quite a bit like an AMC. The government purchased hundreds of millions of doses from vaccine manufacturers months before the vaccines were in fact approved — giving the pharma firms confidence to start producing doses in large numbers, and encouraging them to keep up their R&D work.NeoTest is an attempt to put together funds — about $120 million in total — for an advance market commitment for a better neonatal sepsis test. Test manufacturers who are willing to sell for $8 per test ($5 funded by the AMC, $3 by the government of the country receiving the tests) would be guaranteed at least 24 million subsidized orders. Ideally, the test will settle at around $3 as a final price, with the initial subsidy helping fund initial costs associated with developing the tests and setting up manufacturing.A rapid test is not some outlandish dream. Neonatal sepsis experts have been saying we need better diagnostics for years; there’s a whole Neonatal Sepsis Diagnosis Working Group that puts out papers explaining the problem. The WHO has put together a detailed description of what a useful rapid test for sepsis might look like, including elements like the size of the blood draw required and the ideal wait for results.Rapid, point-of-care tests that can give answers in minutes are common at this point for viruses like Covid and the flu, and already exist for some bacterial infections like syphilis. But in part because neonatal sepsis is so concentrated in poor countries, developing a test for it hasn’t been a priority for profit-driven firms to date. Dangling $120 million in front of them might change that.This is a problem developing countries could solve as a groupOne of the most intriguing aspects of NeoTest to me is that Akhil Bansal, the physician who first devised the idea, is pitching it first to governments of middle- income countries (India, Kenya, South Africa, etc.) that might actually use the test in large numbers.$120 million is a decent sum, but not enormous for a global health project. The pneumococcal AMC, by contrast, was for $1.5 billion. And it’s totally within the budgets of some middle-income countries to contribute a portion of that $120 million, especially when the result is a product that will save the lives of thousands of babies every year in their country.Of course, money is money, and if any foreign aid professionals in upper-income countries or philanthropists reading this piece want to support NeoTest, they should — they’re still actively fundraising and are in need of support. The most important thing is that the problem gets solved.But I found the approach of going first to countries directly benefiting for funding intriguing, and surprisingly heartening at what is otherwise a dark time for global healthFor one thing, it’s remarkable and encouraging that enough middle-income countries have gotten to the point where funding an initiative like this is within their budgets. That wasn’t true 20 years ago.More importantly, though, it serves as a reminder that the work of development will continue with or without Western governments’ support. That support is invaluable, and I hope it returns. But the Global South is resilient, and increasingly shows an ability to solve big problems for itself.A version of this story originally appeared in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here!You’ve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you — join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

It can be difficult to gauge how much milk a breastfed baby is gettinglebedinskaia natalia/Getty Images Parents could one day track how much breast milk their baby is drinking, thanks to a device that sends alerts to their smartphones in real time. “A common anxiety around breastfeeding is the uncertainty surrounding the amounts of breast milk that babies get,” says Daniel Robinson at Northwestern University in Illinois. “It increases stress for the breastfeeding mothers, parents and even the clinicians.” Undernourished infants may grow less quickly and, in extreme cases, can become dehydrated. Advertisement Clinicians often assess how well infants breastfeed by weighing them before and after a feed, and reviewing how frequently they fill diapers, but these are cumbersome and crude measures, says Robinson. To develop a more precise metric, he and his colleagues built a device made up of four electrodes, each a few centimetres wide, that can stick to the breast, away from the nipple. Two electrodes transmit very weak electrical currents from one side of the breast to the other, where they are received by the second pair. The device sends these recordings to a smartphone app that calculates how much milk has been released in real time, based on the electrical signals becoming weaker as more milk is released, says Robinson. Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday. Sign up to newsletter To test the validity of the system, the researchers used it on 12 breastfeeding women as they used breast pumps to express into bottles for about 15 minutes. The system estimated the volume of milk collected to within about 2 millilitres of the actual amount, on average, with each participant expressing an average of 50 millilitres. This suggests the device could enable parents, under the supervision of clinicians, to track their babies’ nutrition and make appropriate changes, such as potentially supplementing with formula milk, says Robinson. The device consists of sticky electrodes that attach to the breastNorthwestern University In another experiment, one of the women wore the device while breastfeeding. The app calculated that her baby drank 24 millilitres of milk, which is similar to the 20 millimetres the team calculated by weighing the infant immediately before and after feeding, says Robinson. “One of the commonest reasons for mothers with term infants giving up breastfeeding is the perception that they have insufficient milk, so this technique could be helpful in establishing whether that is true or not, and also maybe to see if changing positioning or latching could improve milk flow,” says Mary Fewtrell at University College London. But larger studies are needed to verify the accuracy of the approach, as well as whether the device interferes with milk production, has any long-term side effects and if parents even want it, says Amy Brown at Swansea University in the UK. Journal reference:Nature Biomedical Engineering DOI: 10.1038/s41551-025-01393-w Topics:children

A team led by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago and UC Davis has developed a method to 3D bioprint tissue-specific, high cell-density bioinks capable of forming complex multiphase constructs. Published in Materials Today, the study introduces a platform that combines individual or aggregate-based stem cell bioinks with localized growth factor delivery, offering precise control over spatial differentiation and tissue development. Using a shear-thinning, photocrosslinkable alginate microgel supporting bath, the research team successfully printed structures with high shape fidelity and tunable degradation. These constructs enable self-assembly through cellular condensation and localized differentiation into distinct tissues such as cartilage and bone. After four weeks of culture, the bioprinted structures maintained their original geometry and exhibited clear phase separation between chondrogenic and osteogenic regions. A new approach to bioink precision Conventional bioprinting approaches often rely on biomaterial-laden inks that can interfere with direct cell–cell interactions and degrade unpredictably. To overcome these limitations, the researchers developed bioinks containing either individual stem cells or multicellular aggregates, combined with gelatin microparticles (GMs) loaded with growth factors such as TGF-β1 and BMP-2.These formulations demonstrated favorable rheological properties, shear-thinning, self-healing, and low yield stress, making them well-suited for extrusion-based bioprinting. Critically, the growth factor-loaded GMs allowed for spatially controlled, sustained biochemical signaling without requiring external supplementation.Following 3D printing and stabilization of the supporting bath, stem cells underwent lineage-specific differentiation, resulting in stable osteochondral constructs. Histological and biochemical analyses confirmed targeted extracellular matrix deposition and distinct tissue boundaries at the cartilage–bone interface.3D printing of the tissue specific high cell-density bioinks within the OMA microgel supporting bath, which fluidizes via its shear-thinning property. When the printing needle fluidizes the mechanical stable OMA microgels (i, disordered region), tissue specific high cell-density bioinks can fill the shear-thinning region (ii). After the needle passes, the OMA microgel bath can be stabilized by its self-healing property (iii, self-healing region) to firmly hold the printed bioinks. Image via Jeon et al., Materials Today. From biomaterials to biofunction While 3D bioprinting has long promised the recreation of complex biological architectures, printing functional, multicellular, multi-tissue constructs remains a key challenge. Cell-only bioinks often require preformed strands or aggregates, limiting resolution and design flexibility. The approach developed by Jeon et al. addresses this gap, enabling high-resolution deposition of cell-dense bioinks that self-organize into biologically relevant structures. Characterization of resolution and shape fidelity and chondrogenic differentiation of 3D bioprinted constructs. (A) Photomicrographs of the 3D printed individual cell-based tissue specific bioink filaments [i and ii; TGF-β1-loaded GM + hMSCs. iii and iv; bone morphogenic protein-2 (BMP-2)-loaded GM + hASCs] into OMA microgel supporting baths with a 22G printing needle and (B) quantification of their mean diameters, demonstrating the capability of high-resolution printing with narrow filament diameter distribution. Scale bars indicate 500 μm. N.S.: Not significant. (C) Digital images and (D) photographs of the 3D printed structures, demonstrating high shape fidelity. The scale bars indicate 5 mm. (E) Photomicrographs of Saf-O/Fast Green stained construct sections cultured in BPM (i and ii) and CPM (iii and iv). The scale bars indicate 500 μm. (F) Quantification of GAG/DNA in the chondrogenically differentiated 3D printed constructs. These demonstrate hMSC differentiation and deposition of chondrogenic extracellular matrix (ECM) in the individual cell-based tissue specific bioink printed constructs. N.S.: Not significant. Image via Jeon et al., Materials Today. Recent innovations have similarly advanced bioink design and tissue engineering. Researchers at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, developed a  SCOBY-derived bioink to 3D print cellulose scaffolds for direct tissue repair, while another team created a personalized heart-on-a-chip using photopolymerizable, patient-specific bioinks. Bio INX and Readily3D launched a ready-to-use bioink for volumetric bioprinting, and Texas A&M engineered a specialized vascular-specific bioink tailored for blood vessel formation. Elsewhere, studies have demonstrated functional brain tissue constructs with active neural networks, and Frontier Bio received a 2024 3DPI Award for developing lung-like tissue in vitro. Jeon et al.’s work builds on these efforts by integrating localized growth factor delivery into high cell-density bioinks, enabling the fabrication of multiphase tissues with fine spatial control and biological fidelity.By controlling the spatial presentation of bioactive cues within densely cellular environments, the platform holds promise for regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and drug screening. Future research will aim to enhance tissue maturation and incorporate vascularization to improve functionality and translational potential. What 3D printing trends should you watch out for in 2025? How is the future of 3D printing shaping up? Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news.You can also follow us onLinkedIn and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content.

House Republicans have proposed banning states from regulating AI for the next ten years. The sweeping moratorium, quietly tucked into the Budget Reconciliation Bill last Sunday, would block most state and local governments from enforcing AI regulations until 2035 if passed. The proposed legislation stated that “no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems,” for 10 years. Industry experts warn that this potential regulatory vacuum would come precisely when AI systems are becoming more powerful and pervasive across the US society. Oversight gap raises concerns The moratorium would create an unprecedented situation: rapidly evolving AI technology would operate without state-level guardrails during what may be its most transformative decade. “The proposed decade-long moratorium on state-level AI regulations presents a double-edged sword,” said Abhivyakti Sengar, practice director at Everest Group. “On one hand, it aims to prevent a fragmented regulatory environment that could stifle innovation, on the other hand, it risks creating a regulatory vacuum, leaving critical decisions about AI governance in the hands of private entities without sufficient oversight.” The proposed legislation includes specific exceptions. According to the bill text, states would still be allowed to enforce laws that have “the primary purpose and effect of which is to remove legal impediments to, or facilitate the deployment or operation of, an artificial intelligence model, artificial intelligence system, or automated decision system.” States could also enforce laws that streamline “licensing, permitting, routing, zoning, procurement, or reporting procedures” for AI systems. However, the bill explicitly prohibits states from imposing “any substantive design, performance, data-handling, documentation, civil liability, taxation, fee, or other requirement” specifically on AI unless such requirements are applied equally to non-AI systems with similar functions. This limitation would prevent states from creating AI-specific oversight frameworks that address the technology’s unique capabilities and risks. State AI regulations threatened If enacted, the impact could be significant. Several states have been developing AI oversight frameworks that would likely become unenforceable under the federal provision. Various state-level efforts to regulate AI systems — from algorithmic transparency requirements to data privacy protections for AI training — could be effectively neutralized without public debate or input. The moratorium particularly threatens state data privacy protections. Without these state laws, consumers have few guarantees regarding how AI systems use their data, obtain consent, or make decisions affecting their lives. Global standards diverge The US approach now stands in stark contrast to the European Union’s comprehensive AI Act, which imposes strict requirements on high-risk AI systems. “As the US diverges from the EU’s stringent AI regulatory framework, multinational enterprises may face the challenge of navigating conflicting standards,” Sengar noted. This divergence potentially leads to “increased compliance costs and operational complexities.” Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research, sees a splintering global AI landscape ahead. “America’s moratorium will likely deepen the regulatory divergence with Europe,” said Gogia. “This will accelerate the fragmentation of global AI product design, where use-case eligibility and ethical thresholds vary dramatically by geography.” Enterprises face a new reality For businesses, the regulatory clarity comes with difficult strategic decisions. Companies must determine how aggressively to implement AI systems during this regulation-free decade. Many large companies aren’t waiting for government guidance. “Even before public oversight being put on hold, large enterprises have already launched internal AI governance councils,” Gogia explained. “These internal regimes — led by CISOs, legal, and risk teams — are becoming the primary referees for responsible AI use.” But Gogia cautioned against over-reliance on self-regulation: “While these structures are necessary, they are not a long-term substitute for statutory accountability.” Legal uncertainty remains Despite the moratorium on regulations, experts warn that companies still face significant liability risks. “The absence of clear legal guidelines could result in heightened legal uncertainty, as courts grapple with AI-related disputes without established precedents,” said Sengar. Gogia puts it more bluntly: “Even in a regulatory freeze, enterprises remain legally accountable. I believe the lack of specific laws does not eliminate legal exposure — it merely shifts the battleground from compliance desks to courtrooms.” While restricting state action, the legislation simultaneously expands the federal government’s AI footprint. The bill allocates $500 million to the Department of Commerce for AI modernization through 2035. The money targets legacy system replacement, operational efficiency improvements, and cybersecurity enhancements using AI technologies. This dual approach positions the federal government as both the primary AI regulator and a major AI customer, consolidating tremendous influence over the technology’s direction. Finding balance Industry observers emphasize the need for thoughtful governance despite the moratorium. “In this rapidly evolving landscape, a balanced approach that fosters innovation while ensuring accountability and public trust is paramount,” Sengar noted. Gogia offers a succinct assessment of the situation: “The 10-year moratorium on US state and local AI regulation removes complexity but not risk. I believe innovation does need room, but room without direction risks misalignment between corporate ethics and public interest.”

A lot of different trades powered the Industrial Revolution. As that movement motored into the 20th Century, a particularly crucial one was the patternmaker. When you hear "patternmaker" today you probably picture a seamstress and garments. But the patternmaker I'm talking about was someone that 20th-century engineers, and industrial designer of 3D objects, would have collaborated with. In order to produce cast metal parts, you first need to create a mold. The only viable option, for much of the 20th century, was to start with wood. Manufacturers hired highly skilled woodworkers to precisely carve the first instance of the intended part. This wooden pattern was then pressed into a box filled with sand to create the mold. Patternmakers were called on to carve machine parts, sewing machine bodies, bells, fire hydrants, sewer grates, manhole covers, pipe fittings and even automotive parts like differentials and engine blocks. Though patternmakers who work with wood are hard to find today, the profession existed well throughout the 20th century. If your'e interested in learning more: Joel Moskowitz, the founder of Brooklyn-based Tools for Working Wood, is a mechanical engineer by training. His first job was developing power tools for Black & Decker in the 1980s, and in this blog post he describes the process of working with a patternmaker to develop a vacuum attachment.

Real-world journeys that blend digital, physical, and emotional touchpointsAt the very beginning, there were no templatesWhen e-commerce first took off, every website was a handcrafted experience. Brands hired developers to code their stores from scratch, pouring hours into every layout decision and line of code. It was messy, expensive, and full of quirks — but each site had a personality. No two stores looked alike, and that uniqueness helped brands stand out (for better or worse).Then came the era of standardization. Platforms like Shopify and Magento made it easy to spin up an online store in hours, not months. Templates took over, and with them came the rise of best practices, grid systems, and polished uniformity. This shift was supported by principles like Jakob’s Law, which tells us that users spend most of their time on other sites — so experiences should feel familiar. It was the golden age of efficiency — just not of originality. But now, the pendulum is swinging back. More and more brands are breaking free from the template mold, crafting distinctive, memorable experiences that turn browsing into something closer to brand theatre. Conversion matters — but so does character.Luxury is leading character-based e-commerceWhile living in Shanghai, I saw firsthand how luxury brands embraced digital experiences without compromising their identity. Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada proved that people were willing to buy high-ticket items online, long before it became the norm. I still remember the buzz when someone in Shanghai bought a Ferrari online. It was a wake-up call: e-commerce had matured.Luxury brands, especially in China, began investing in beautifully crafted websites that didn’t just sell — they told stories. They became pioneers of what best-in-class online shopping could feel like. Before diving into broader industry examples, let’s look at a few luxury sites that show how to combine simplicity, usability, and brand immersion.Louis Vuitton offers a seamless journey through thousands of products while maintaining an elegant, editorial aesthetic. It’s a smart balance of information density and calm navigation that respects the user’s cognitive load.Celine made a bold move with a unique left-side navigation that breaks convention without breaking usability — bringing core controls within easy reach and inviting curiosity through layout.Dior invites you to explore the craftsmanship behind its products before nudging you toward e-commerce. This thoughtful sequence taps into the Peak-End Rule: people remember the emotional peak and the ending, not every step. Dior ensures both are on-brand and memorable.Louis Vuitton’s website combines seamless site loading with elegant visuals and best in class navigation.Celine came up with a unique left side navigation.Dior wants you to first see how their bags are handcrafted before even going into the ecommerce section.Delightful Experiences Powered by Modern TechToday (in 2025), designing great e-commerce experiences is both more challenging and more exciting than ever. Why? Because we now have more tools at our disposal — AI-powered chatbots, recommendation engines, immersive video, and more. But technology alone isn’t enough. It takes smart experience design to turn these tools into something customers truly value.Dior — Recovering from “Out of Stock” with GraceWhen a friend of mine rushed to Dior’s website after seeing their new foundation stick on TikTok, it was already sold out. Instead of a dead end, the site invited her to leave her email for a restock alert. The next day, she received an email with a direct link to her shade, picked “pick up in store,” and shortly after, got a personalized WhatsApp message from a Beauty Advisor. Dior turned a moment of friction into an orchestrated omnichannel success story — from anonymous browser to known customer (capturing someone’s email on your site should be one of your key objectives).Dior’s “Alert me” CTA leads to an email capture.Oysho — Communicating Lifestyle & QualityOysho is a masterclass in how to blend emotional connection with functional UX. The website immerses you in a world of wellness, movement, and slow fashion. It’s not just about the products; it’s about how you’ll feel wearing them. Their art direction — light-filled photography, calm color palettes, and minimal design — reinforces a brand identity centered on mindful living.From a UX perspective, the site is quietly brilliant. Returning users immediately see their order status, creating a sense of continuity (and reducing anxiety). Gift-wrapping flows and personalized messages add thoughtful delight, while back-in-stock alerts close the loop with zero friction.Gifting options on Oysho include a personal message, gift wrapping and not including the cost of the purchase. Very thoughtful.The site does an excellent job of communicating the functional benefits of their clothing — like breathable or high-resistance fabrics — using clean, unobtrusive icons. These subtle visual cues enhance decision-making without adding friction, creating a sense of trust and product clarity. It’s a design tactic Uniqlo also uses effectively, especially for their tech-enhanced basics, where innovation needs to be conveyed clearly but without overwhelming the shopper.Oysho strikes a perfect balance between inspire and shopping.In doing so, Oysho taps into the Aesthetic-Usability Effect — the perception that beautiful interfaces are more usable, which increases patience and satisfaction even when minor issues arise.Uniqlo — The Online/Offline QueenUniqlo continues to quietly disrupt the fashion world with a digital ecosystem that just works. The brilliance lies not in bells and whistles, but in a frictionless, service-oriented approach that integrates online convenience with in-store immediacy.Here’s what sets Uniqlo apart:Check store inventory in real-time, down to color and size — even when you’re in-store. Using the app, you can scan a product tag to instantly see which sizes or colors are available nearby.Reserve online, pick up in store the same day — a perfect blend of impulse and instant gratification.RFID self-checkout in physical stores is almost magical: just drop your clothes into the checkout tray, and everything is automatically scanned. No barcodes. No awkward folding. Just out.Membership benefits are effortlessly cross-channel — simply scan your member code from the app, and you’re recognized whether shopping online or in person. It’s a seamless loyalty experience that doesn’t ask customers to jump through hoops.Behind all this is a Uniqlo does this beautifully, absorbing backend complexity to offer a surprisingly intuitive customer journey.Making the checkout very simple while capturing the users membership information to connect offline to online experiences.Same day click and collect make it convenient to order online things that I can pick up later when I go out for lunch with is close to a Uniqlo store and don’t have to wait for it to be delivered to my home.Starbucks — Best-Value Membership ExperienceStarbucks has created a digital flywheel powered by simplicity and consistency. Everything revolves around one app. It’s your loyalty card, your payment tool, your order-ahead assistant, your offer inbox — and your direct line to perks. It all feels effortless, but that’s precisely the point. Compare that to other retailers who force you to log into a website just to check your points — assuming you even remember your password. Starbucks eliminates those micro-frustrations entirely.And because it’s a native app, it taps into core mobile capabilities — like GPS for finding nearby stores, integrated payment, and real-time push notifications — without ever feeling like it’s trying too hard. This kind of thoughtful integration is exactly what makes omnichannel UX feel natural, fluid, and genuinely useful.The loyalty system is brilliantly simple: earn one star per dollar, unlock rewards. That’s no accident — it’s the Endowed Progress Effect at play. By giving users visible progress toward a reward, they’re far more likely to stay engaged and repeat behavior.Even better, the app is context-aware. It remembers your preferences, tailors offers, and knows your go-to store. It’s a prime example of personalization that empowers, not overwhelms.Starbucks Loyalty Points System — You always get rewardedNike — Personalization at ScaleNike has been one of the standout players in making personalization feel purposeful. Their site and emails adapt to your browsing and buying habits, surfacing just the right styles, sizes, and drops at the right time.This isn’t just smart targeting, Nike speeds up decision-making and makes the experience feel curated rather than crowded.Nike Personalised Newsletter ScreenshotMovie Theatres — What Not to DoTo truly appreciate great digital experiences, sometimes it helps to look at the frustrating ones. Buying a movie ticket online can still feel like dropdown-menu bingo: toggle between times, dates, locations, screen sizes, and seat availability until you’ve clicked yourself into submission. Then brace for upsells, fees, and a confusing confirmation page.And yet — movies are all about emotion, immersion, and excitement. Why doesn’t the digital journey reflect any of that? Imagine a platform that knows your favorite genres and actors, recommends the perfect showtimes, remembers your seat preferences, and rewards you with season passes or early access to premieres. Why not offer family bundles, VIP red carpet nights, or mood-based movie suggestions?There’s so much opportunity here to create something magical. Instead, most theatre sites treat ticketing like a utility — transactional, impersonal, and joyless. It’s a missed chance to design for passion.Closing ThoughtsWhile we now have more advanced tools than ever — from AI and real-time data to responsive frameworks — great customer experiences still don’t happen automatically. It takes skilled UX and CX designers to ask the right questions, map the right journeys, and infuse every digital touchpoint with brand identity and human insight.The best e-commerce experiences today don’t just convert. They connect. They inspire. They make people feel something. And that’s where design makes all the difference.Great CX isn’t just built. It’s designed — thoughtfully, intentionally, and with the end user at heart.Here a couple of resources that are worth exploring.Blurring boundaries: The online-offline fusion in Tech & Durables retailIn-Store & Online: Designing For the Changing Behaviors of Today's ShoppersNielsen Bridges Online and Offline Behaviors with Innovative Cross-Platform Offering5 brands that nail the art of omnichannel UX was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.