The messy breakup of a liquid droplet that occurs when it hits a surface can be suppressed by giving the droplet an electrical charge.

Liquid droplets hit solid surfaces in a range of technological processes, such as spray coating and inkjet printing. Typically, the collision causes the droplet to break up into many tiny fragments, creating a splash. A research team has now shown that electrical charging of droplets can reduce or even entirely suppress the splashing, offering greater control over the impact process [1]. The findings could be useful in the design of more precise and efficient droplet-related technologies.

Electrical charging of droplets is very common both in nature and in technology, for example, in thundercloud electrification. The charging usually results from contact electrification, where friction, or even mere contact, between two surfaces results in electrons or ions passing between them. The effect can be exploited technologically: For example, mechanical engineer Zuankai Wang, now at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and his colleagues have previously shown that the charge on falling water droplets can be harnessed for electricity generation [2].

Researchers have discovered that the underside of the North American continent is dripping away in blobs of rock—and that the remnants of a tectonic plate sinking in Earth’s mantle may be the reason why.

A paper published in Nature Geoscience describes the phenomenon, which was discovered at The University of Texas at Austin. It’s the first time that “cratonic thinning” may be captured in action.

“We made the observation that there could be something beneath the craton,” said the study’s lead author Junlin Hua, who conducted the research during a postdoctoral fellowship at UT’s Jackson School of Geosciences. “Luckily, we also got the new idea about what drives this thinning.”

Lucid PhaaS hit 169 targets in 88 countries by abusing iMessage and RCS to bypass SMS filters.

Apple patched 3 live exploits—CVE-2025–24085, −24200, −24201—across legacy iOS/macOS devices to block escalation attacks.

23,958 IPs scanned Palo Alto GlobalProtect portals in late March, signaling systemic recon before potential exploits.

By Brian Wowk, Ph.D.

Interventions to increase resilience to misinformation work but decay over time. Here, the authors show that memory—which can be strengthened—is a key predictor for the longevity of intervention effects, more so than motivation.

Nitisinone reduces survival of the malaria-transmitting mosquito Anopheles gambiae by blocking tyrosine catabolism.

Now online! Global analysis of protein turnover dynamics in single cells: The SC-pSILAC method enables single-cell measurement of both protein abundance and turnover, providing notable advances in the depth and versatility of proteomic technologies.