Still No Theory To Explain This Observation

This week’s episode of Science News is about creating order from chaos. Physicists have theorized for decades that chaos doesn’t just destroy order, it can also create it. This could in turn mean that the laws of nature that make our universe the way it is could be emergent from chaos. In a recent study, physicists demonstrated order emerging chaos in an experiment. Let’s take a look.

This Could Explain Why Human Bodies Are Not Left-Right Symmetric

Many organs in the body, such as the heart, are not symmetric, but it has been unclear how this asymmetry arises. Researchers from the RIKEN Center in Japan have identified a simple origin of left–right asymmetry inside individual cells. In experiments on single human cells grown in isolation, they carefully tracked the growth of cells in the laboratory and found that the cells’ centre slowly rotates in one preferred direction, even though the cell itself looks perfectly round. The motion is driven by a ring (the actomyosin ring) just under the cell’s upper surface, which acts a bit like a microscopic motor. Because the molecules that make up the ring are themselves left-handed, the rotation always goes the same way. The study shows how a tiny built-in asymmetry at the molecular level can be amplified into a clear directional bias of an entire cell, helping explain where left–right differences in living tissues ultimately come from. Paper here. Press release here. 

This Cup Stops Drinks From Spilling

Researchers from China have developed a simple way to keep liquids from sloshing and spilling. They printed cups with an inside that has regular, sharp-angled grooves. They also coated the upper part of the cup with a water repellent material. In laboratory tests and real-world trials, including walking, cycling, driving, flying, and even placing a tower of cups on a car driving over speed bumps, the cups lost almost no liquid, while normal cups lost more than forty percent. I would buy it. Paper here.