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Category: science

Demon face syndrome: The science behind prosopometamorphopsia

Imagine looking at a loved one and seeing their face twist into a demonic, unnatural shape. Their eyes might stretch to the sides of their head, their nose might swell, and deep, unnatural grooves might appear across their cheeks and forehead. This terrifying visual experience belongs to a rare neurological condition known medically as

In popular media and online discussions, it is sometimes referred to as “demon face syndrome.” People with this condition see human faces as severely distorted, even though their vision for everyday objects remains completely normal.

Prosopometamorphopsia is fundamentally different from a hallucination. A hallucination involves seeing something that is not actually present in the physical world. People experiencing these facial distortions are looking at a real person standing in front of them. Their brain simply alters the shape, size, color, or position of the facial features before the image reaches their conscious awareness.

Dick Van Dyke Credits His Longevity to One Habit, And Science Supports It

Dick Van Dyke, the legendary American actor and comedian who starred in classics such as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, turned 100 on December 13. The beloved actor credits his remarkable longevity to his positive outlook and never getting angry.

While longevity of course comes down to many factors – including genetics and lifestyle – there is some truth to Van Dyke’s claims.

Numerous studies have shown that keeping stress levels low and maintaining a positive, optimistic outlook are correlated with longevity.

Better reporting is better science: Community-defined minimal reporting requirements for light microscopy

Accessible minimal requirements for reproducible light microscopy. This viewpoint from Paula Montero Llopis, Chloë van Oostende-Triplet, the QUAREP-LiMi consortium and colleagues presents a community-endorsed checklist defining minimal light microscopy metadata to improve rigor, reproducibility, and transparency in research.

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Senescence Modulation: An Applied Science Review of Strategies in Anti-Aging, Regenerative Aesthetics, and Oncology Therapy

Cellular senescence is an irreversible cell cycle arrest, triggered by stressors like telomere shortening, DNA damage, and oncogenic signaling.

Gemini 3 Deep Think: Advancing science, research and engineering

Today, we’re releasing a major upgrade to Gemini 3 Deep Think, our specialized reasoning mode, built to push the frontier of intelligence and solve modern challenges across science, research, and engineering.

We updated Gemini 3 Deep Think in close partnership with scientists and researchers to tackle tough research challenges — where problems often lack clear guardrails or a single correct solution and data is often messy or incomplete. By blending deep scientific knowledge with everyday engineering utility, Deep Think moves beyond abstract theory to drive practical applications.

The new Deep Think is now available in the Gemini app for Google AI Ultra subscribers and, for the first time, we’re also making Deep Think available via the Gemini API to select researchers, engineers and enterprises. Express interest in early access here.

Rocket science? 3D printing soft matter in zero gravity

What happens to soft matter when gravity disappears? To answer this, UvA physicists launched a fluid dynamics experiment on a sounding rocket. The suborbital rocket reached an altitude of 267 km before falling back to Earth, providing six minutes of weightlessness.

In these six minutes, the researchers 3D-printed large droplets of a soft material similar to the inks used for bioprinting —a developing technology that shows huge potential for regenerative and personalized medicine, tissue engineering and cosmetics. Bioprinting involves 3D-printing a mix of cells and bio-inks or bio-materials in a desired shape, often to construct living tissues.

The experiment was called COLORS (COmplex fluids in LOw gravity: directly observing Residual Stresses). Using a special optical set-up, the researchers could see where the printed material experienced internal stresses (forces) as the droplets spread and merged. Stressed regions stand out as bright colors in the experiment. Investigating how and where these stresses emerge is important because they can get frozen in a material as it solidifies, creating weak points where 3D-printed objects are most likely to break.

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