Have you ever wondered what a mummy smells like? According to research reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, it’s “woody,” “spicy,” and even “sweet.” Researchers analyzed the volatile compounds emitted from nine mummies spanning nearly 2000 years of Egyptian history and found that the scents still lingering today could tell us how the bodies were preserved — or how the person once lived — thousands of years ago.

The behavior of high-pressure gas flows involved during the plasma arc cutting process is not fully understood, particularly when the cutting front has a curved shape. In a new study, using simulations and Schlieren visualization techniques, researchers from Pusan National University and KIMM have observed curved cutting fronts creating shockwaves, reducing gas flow velocity and cutting efficiency. These findings highlight critical velocity limits where cutting fails, providing insights for improving the plasma arc cutting process.

Previously, EMBL scientists developed a new microscope based on Brillouin scattering – a phenomenon where light interacts with naturally occurring thermal vibrations within materials, from which their mechanical properties can be deduced. This method has since been used for non-invasive and live-imaging applications in biology, and that advance was selected as one of The Guardian’s 10 biggest science stories of 2022. In a new paper, the same scientists have now succeeded in substantially further advancing Brillouin microscopy, making it approximately a thousand times faster and more efficient. Simultaneously, the new microscopy method expands the swath of material it can view – from a 100-pixel line to a ~10,000-pixel full plane, capturing  3D images quickly enough for live-organism observation.

In a pioneering study, researchers have successfully realized valley vortex states in water wave crystals, drawing parallels with phenomena observed in photonic crystals. This achievement advances the understanding of valley states in the classical wave domain and opens new avenues for potential applications in ocean energy extraction, marine engineering, and the development of coastal infrastructures.