Manufacturing complex fluids industrially often involves mechanical forces that introduce internal stress and damage microscopic structures, compromising a material’s integrity and functionality. While rheo-optical techniques are available for evaluating structure–stress relationship, they do not accurately link mechanical stresses to observable optical changes under extensional stress. Addressing this, researchers from NITech, Japan, have now developed a novel technique for simultaneous measurement of macroscopic extensional stress and microscopic changes to optical properties during uniaxially extensional flow.

Encapsulated microbubbles (EMBs) are vital in ultrasound imaging and emerging drug-delivery technologies. To analyze their behavior in blood, researchers from Nagoya Institute of Technology developed a detailed numerical framework that tracks the dynamics of EMBs near rigid walls in viscoelastic fluids. By combining the Oldroyd B model with the boundary element method, they demonstrated how shell thickness, viscoelasticity, and ultrasound parameters influence EMB dynamics, providing key insights for their safer design.

As global temperatures continue to rise, scientists are working to understand how warming affects the planet’s carbon cycle. A new study published in Biocontaminant reveals that higher temperatures significantly alter how aquatic microbes process carbon released during the decomposition of animal carcasses, with important implications for water quality and climate change predictions.

Due to the unique conditions of the space environment and abundant resources, the field investigation and study of the Moon, Earth’s sole natural satellite, represent a crucial milestone in China’s forthcoming deep space endeavors. The successful collection of lunar soil by the Chang’E-5 mission signifies the next phase of the lunar exploration program, which aims to establish a preliminary research station on the lunar south pole. Highly adhesive fine dust particles with an adhesion strength of 0.1 to 1.0 kN/m², which originate from the regolith, disperse throughout the lunar surface. These particles exhibit a lasting attraction and subsequent persistent adhesion to the surface of spacecraft or spacesuits. The accumulation of highly adhesive dust on spacecraft presents a serious issue to hinder long-term extravehicular activity and the establishment of a permanent station on lunar surface. In contrast to the immediate physical damage caused by hypervelocity (> 1.0 km/s) impacts, this adhesion observed at low- velocity (0.01 to 100 m/s) collisions can more unobtrusively and mortally degenerate the performance of equipment. In recent years, many interaction models have been developed to forecast the adhesion and ejection dynamics of lunar dust on various surfaces. Most researches on the electrostatic force applied on dust particles near the surface use point-charge approximation. Although this simplification makes the simulation easier, the error can be large due to the polarization of dust induced by the image charge.