A new type of all-carbon molecule has been studied under normal room-temperature conditions. This marks only the second time this has ever been done, after spherical buckyballs were synthesised 35 years ago. The breakthrough could lead to extremely efficient materials for new electronic and quantum technologies.

Cyclic carbons, molecules made up of a ring of carbon atoms, could display bizarre chemical behaviour or conduct electricity in unusual ways 鈥� much like their all-carbon molecular cousins, buckyballs and nanotubes. But these rings are so delicate they usually fall apart, or in some cases even explode, before researchers have a chance to study them.

鈥淐yclic carbons are intriguing molecules, and we鈥檝e been trying to make them for a long time,鈥� says at the University of Oxford. Doing so has traditionally required extremely harsh conditions in order to keep the molecules around long enough to be studied. But Anderson and his colleagues found a way to stabilise cyclic carbons at room temperature.

The technique involves modifying a cyclic carbon. The researchers demonstrated this on a never-before-studied molecule: a ring of 48 carbon atoms, called cyclo[48]carbon, or C₄₈. Anderson and his colleagues added 鈥渂umpers鈥� to the C₄₈, threading it through three smaller rings, to protect the 48 atoms from colliding with each other 鈥� or with other molecules.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no unnecessary decoration,鈥� says at the University of Ulm in Germany. 鈥淭here鈥檚 an absolute beauty in the simplicity.鈥�

The new structure, called cyclo[48]carbon [4]catenane, remained stable enough to study for about two days, enabling researchers to examine cyclo[48]carbon in detail for the first time. Intriguingly, the molecule鈥檚 48 carbons acted like they were arranged in an infinite chain, a structure theoretically capable of transferring electric charge from one atom to the next indefinitely.

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This possible electricity-conducting potential hints cyclic carbons could be used in a range of next-generation technologies, including transistors, solar cells, semiconductors and quantum devices. However, further research is needed to confirm this.

The new technique for stabilising cyclic carbons may also inspire other researchers to study their own exotic carbon molecules. 鈥淚 think maybe there will be a race now,鈥� says von Delius. 鈥淭hink of this long ring as a stepping stone to making the infinite chain.鈥�

A chain of single carbon molecules, von Delius explains, would make an even better conductor than a ring like C₄₈. 鈥淭his will be truly, truly amazing 鈥� and truly the next step,鈥� he says.

Human eggs appear to be protected against a certain type of age-related mutation. In a small study, researchers found no signs that mutations accumulate in the mitochondrial DNA of human egg cells as women get older, which may give us clues as to how they can stay fresh for decades.

鈥淲hen we think about age-related mutations, we think about older people having more mutations than younger people,鈥� says at Penn State University. 鈥淏ut expectation is not necessarily the truth.鈥�

Mitochondria, which supply most of the energy to most of our body鈥檚 cells, are only passed down from mothers to their children. Although mutations in mitochondrial DNA are usually harmless, they can sometimes lead to complications, which particularly affect muscle and nerve cells given their high energy needs. 鈥淭he oocyte [egg] provides this stockpile鈥� says at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the study.

Studies have shown that , prompting the widespread assumption that this also occurs among mutations to mitochondrial DNA. To study this, Makova and her colleagues used a DNA-sequencing method to identify any new mutations in 80 eggs collected from 22 women, aged 20 to 42.

They found that mitochondrial mutations in the women鈥檚 eggs actually didn鈥檛 increase as they aged. The same wasn鈥檛 true for the mitochondria in their salivary and blood cells. 鈥淚 think that we evolved a mechanism to somehow lower our mutation burden, because we can reproduce later in life,鈥� says Makova.

The researchers previously found that until the animals were approximately 9 years old, their reproductive prime, then stayed constant. 鈥淚t would be interesting to also look at younger women; this might be also the case in humans,鈥� says team member at Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria.

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Human eggs seem to dispose of their waste more slowly than other cells do, which may help them avoid wear and tear 鈥� and explain why they live longer.

Every woman is born with a finite number of egg cells, or oocytes, which need to survive for about five decades. For cells, that鈥檚 an unusually long time. Although some human cells, like those in the brain and eyes, can live as long as you do, most have much shorter lifespans, in part because the natural processes that allow them to function also damage them over time.

Cells must recycle their proteins as a form of necessary housekeeping 鈥� but it comes at a cost. The energy consumed in this process can generate molecules called reactive oxygen species, or ROS, which cause random damage in the cell. 鈥淭his is damage happening in the background all the time,鈥� says at Center for Genomic Regulation in Spain. 聽鈥淭he more ROS there is, the more damage there鈥檚 going to be.鈥�

But healthy eggs seem to avoid this issue. To find out why, B枚ke and her colleagues studied harvested human eggs under a microscope. The cells were placed in a liquid with fluorescent dyes, which bind to acidic cellular components, called lysosomes, that behave as 鈥渞ecycling plants鈥�, says at the University of Cologne in Germany.

The bright dye revealed the waste-disposing lysosomes in human eggs were less active than the same components in other human cell types or those in the egg cells of smaller mammals, like mice. Zaffagnini and his colleagues say this may be a form of self preservation.

Slowing down their waste-disposal mechanism may be just one of many ways human egg cells achieve their relatively long lifespans, says Zaffagnini. B枚ke speculates to avoid damage, the human oocytes 鈥減ut a brake on everything鈥�. If all cell processes run slower in human egg cells, she says, this could result in lower levels of harmful ROS, and therefore less risk of damage.

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Since delaying the protein-recycling process seems to help egg cells maintain their health, failing to do so could explain what makes some oocytes unhealthy. 鈥淭he way I see this is, it could be a clue into why human oocytes really become dysfunctional after a certain time,鈥� says at Yale School of Medicine. 鈥淚t could be a segue into advanced assessment of all the things that go wrong in human oocytes,鈥� he says.

Assessing egg health in this way could eventually improve fertility treatments. 鈥淲e do know that protein degradation is essential for cell survival, so it 100 per cent does affect fertility,鈥� says B枚ke. She notes the study focused on healthy eggs; she says work to compare those cells with eggs from people affected by complications with fertility is ongoing. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 high ROS in the cell, there are poor IVF outcomes,鈥� she says.

Human egg cells are still not well understood, because they are difficult to study. 鈥淸They are] hard to work with, because the sample limitation is an issue,鈥� says B枚ke. Seli says this obstacle is one of 鈥渕ultiple layers鈥� to the problem, which also include regulations restricting the study of egg cells and a lack of funding.

If these hurdles can be surpassed, Zaffagnini says, there may be 鈥渞eally surprising鈥� results. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really worth it,鈥� he says.

Researchers have 3D printed devices made of insulin-producing cells. These devices could enable a long-term treatment for type 1 diabetes that would let people produce their own insulin 鈥� without requiring invasive surgery.

Because people with type 1 diabetes cannot make enough insulin to regulate their blood sugar, they must constantly manage their condition, usually with injections and dietary precautions. One longer-term treatment involves transplanting human islets 鈥� clusters of insulin-producing cells that typically grow in the pancreas 鈥� from donors. But like an organ transplant, this requires invasive surgery.

鈥淐urrent practice is to inject these human islets through the portal vein into the liver,鈥� says at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina. However, about half of the implanted islets quickly lose their functionality, which means people must undergo several transplantations to make the treatment effective.

If islets could be placed directly under the skin, surgery would not only be less invasive, but it would also produce less of the stress and inflammation that shortens the cells鈥� functional life.

鈥淭he higher the density [of islets], the smaller the size of the device you would need to plant in the patient,鈥� says at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and the biotech company FluidForm Bio in Massachusetts.

To achieve that high density, Perrier and his colleagues 3D printed islets from a 鈥渂ioink鈥� made of human pancreatic tissue and alginate, a type of carbohydrate derived from seaweed. Live insulin-producing cells were mixed into this material.

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鈥淲e put this bioink with the [human] islet into a syringe, and we print a special motif [with it],鈥� says Perrier. This porous grid is designed to allow new blood vessels to grow around and through the structure.

In the lab, this technique 鈥渨orks very well鈥�, says Perrier, noting that about 90 per cent of the islets鈥� cells survived and functioned for up to three weeks. 鈥淭he next challenge is really to validate this finding in vivo.鈥� Perrier and his colleagues presented their research at the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) 2025 meeting in London on 29 June.

Feinberg and his colleagues have also 3D printed their own islets. Their technique is to make a framework by printing cells and collagen directly into a hydrogel polymer 鈥� 鈥渒ind of like 3D printing inside of hair gel鈥�, he says. It was presented at the International Pancreas & Islet Transplant Association 2025 meeting in Pisa, Italy on 16 June. In diabetic lab mice, the islets restored normal glucose control for up to six months.

Feinberg says Perrier鈥檚 work is 鈥渄efinitely promising鈥� but that the inherent variability of the human tissue used to make the islets could pose challenges in a living body. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like getting a transplant organ,鈥� he says. 鈥淥n one side, the material may work better. On the flip side, it鈥檚 variable and hard to get, and that鈥檚 a really hard problem to solve.鈥�

To avoid such transplantation issues, both Feinberg and Perrier say stem cell therapies represent the future of type 1 diabetes treatment. Using stem cells in the 3D printing process 鈥� instead of the cells they are currently using 鈥� could solve a lot of issues at once, they say.

People who use emojis in messages with friends are seen as more attentive and responsive 鈥� regardless of which emojis they send.

Across the world, emojis are used over 10 billion times a day to inject emotional nuance into digital conversations. But their actual influence on how those conversations are perceived remains unclear: while often interpreted positively, these little symbols can sometimes miss the mark, leading to misunderstandings. Now at the University of Texas at Austin has tried to gauge how emojis affect our view of the person who sends them.

In her study, 260 participants in the US were asked to look at 15 text-based conversations and imagine they had these exchanges with a close friend. Conversations consisted of either text-only responses or ones that included emojis. After reading these samples, participants were asked a series of questions about how they felt towards the person behind the messages.

Across the board, participants thought that messages containing emojis were more responsive than text-only alternatives. This perceived responsiveness made the sender seem more likeable and the relationship seem closer. Surprisingly, this effect happened regardless of the type of emoji used, with no real difference seen between emojis that directly expressed the sender鈥檚 emotions 鈥� such as faces 鈥� and more neutral emojis showing other objects.

鈥淓mojis are quite powerful in terms of building or shortening the psychological distance between the sender and the receiver,鈥� says at HEC Paris. However, his own research has demonstrated that, while constructive in casual conversations between friends, emoji use in crisis situations can backfire, making the sender seem incompetent rather than attentive.

However, Yu says this is not as much of an issue in China, where 鈥渆ven when the crisis is very severe, it鈥檚 fine 鈥� you can send emojis鈥�. He suggests emojis are more helpful in East Asian countries, where nonverbal cues are often used to evaluate the tone of face-to-face communication, as opposed to Western cultures, where language is more literal. Thus in China, even in an emergency, 鈥渟ending emojis can increase your personal warmth, so people feel more comfortable鈥�, he says.

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