As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Writer Fuel: Scientists Use “Ice Printing” to Create Scaffold for Constructing Blood Vessels

A 3D-printed ice template (left) was used a scaffolding to later grow cells (right) in a blood vessel-like structure. (Image credit: Image courtesy of Feimo Yang.)

Scientists are working to build blood vessels from human cells using tiny ice sculptures — these frigid 3D forms twist and branch like real arteries and can be used as temporary scaffolds that later get melted away, to be replaced by living cells. The researchers demonstrated the first step of this blood-vessel-building process in a … Read more

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Writer Fuel: Scientists Make Ice That’s As Dense as Water

medium-density amorphous ice

Using ultracold temperatures and some steel ball bearings, scientists have created a brand-new, bizarre form of ice that has the same density of liquid water. The ice, known as medium-density amorphous ice, fits into a gap in the annals of frozen water that scientists weren’t sure would ever be filled. Unlike the crystalline ice that … Read more

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Writer Fuel: It’s Spring on Mars, and the Polygons Are Blooming

NASA - Mars ice polygons

It’s springtime on Mars and the mysterious polygons are in bloom, a new image from the orbiting High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HIRISE) camera shows. Recorded on March 30, 2022, the image reveals a patchwork of white zig-zags cracking across the Martian soil at high latitudes, with occasional sprays of black and blue mist fanning out … Read more

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

WRITER FUEL: There Are Five States of Matter

States of Matter - Deposit Photos

Welcome to the latest installment of “Writer Fuel – cool real-world stories that might inspire your little writer heart. Check out our Writer Fuel page on the LimFic blog for more inspiration. Today: Each of the five states of matter collectively make up all the “stuff” that’s in the universe- — everything that takes up … Read more

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

WRITER FUEL: NASA’s Going Ice Hunting

Moon + Earth - Deposit Photos

We now know where NASA’s first-ever robotic moon rover will touch down. The ice-hunting Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will land just west of Nobile Crater, which sits near the moon’s south pole, NASA officials announced Tuesday (Sept. 20). In late 2023, VIPER will fly to the moon aboard Griffin, a lander built by … Read more