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| 14 July 2026 | | Today’s Visualized explores the intersection of art and environmental conservation. But first, catch up on the latest science news, including how ancient people thrived on a corn-heavy diet and an ink-based electrode that works just like a temporary tattoo. | |
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| archaeology | Science Advances | | Ancient Mesoamericans used a-maize-ing strategies to avoid malnutrition | Corn flakes for breakfast, tamales for lunch, and some hominy grits with a side of corn bread for dinner? As delicious as this corn-ucopia sounds, such a maize-heavy diet is not without potential health trade-offs: Maize contains very little lysine, an amino acid important for preventing connective tissue disorders and anemia. For the hundreds of millions of people around the world who rely on maize as their primary source of food, finding dietary supplements that can add lysine is vital to prevent malnutrition.
To help understand how the earliest maize-eating societies avoided these consequences, a group of researchers examined the remains of 39 humans who lived in Belize between 1100 and 6100 years ago—just a few millennia after corn was first domesticated in Mexico. By taking small samples from the skeletal remains and analyzing the ratios of carbon isotopes in their amino acids, the researchers deduced that the people ate animals like turkeys that had themselves eaten corn and concentrated the lysine in their bodies, allowing the amino acid to build up through a process known as trophic magnification. The findings, published in Science Advances, suggest that Mesoamericans may have provided maize to food animals long before fully domesticating them around 2200 years ago, perhaps as an intentional approach to stave off lysine-related illnesses.
“By exploring how ancient populations mitigated the risks of nutritional deficiencies in the face of a changing world, our study deepens our understanding of the complex interplay between food security, sustainability, and human health, offering perspectives that resonate beyond the past,” the authors wrote. | | |
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| engineering | pnas | | As smart as paint |  | | This ink-based electrode lets wearers monitor their hearts and nervous systems in sharktastic style. Provided by Wanqing Zhang | Wearable healthcare devices like heart monitors are incredible tools for studying the health of our internal organs as we go about our daily routines. But as good as existing sensors are, getting them to remain attached to the skin is a sticky subject: Their adhesive connective pads struggle to hold their grip and obtain accurate measurements through hair and sweat, especially during exercise. What’s more, they simply are not very stylish. Now, scientists may have solved both problems at once.
In a new study, researchers unveiled an ink-based electrode that bonds closely with the skin to yield precise, exercise-proof readings—and doubles as a customizable temporary tattoo. Made from a glue-like mixture of polymers, the water-based ink can detect electrical signals from the heart, muscles, or brain, just as a typical metal-based electrode does. Unlike these traditional sensors, however, the ink can be painted directly onto the skin, drying within 10 minutes and conforming to the body’s contours for closer monitoring . The ink funnels the signals it detects into an electric module taped to the skin, which then sends the data to a computer via Bluetooth. The tattoo remains effective for at least 12 hours, after which it can be washed off and later re-applied.
For some extra flare, just add food dye into the ink before painting it on into any pattern you can imagine. “The ink itself almost behaves like face paint,” study co-author Larry Cheng said in a statement. The researchers plan to continue developing their innovative electrode design, hoping that it can one day be used to detect molecules like cortisol and glucose. | | |
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| artificial intelligence | News from Science | | AI can create languages, but are they creative? | “Conlangers” are linguists and others who enjoy constructing entirely new languages, such as the alien tongues used in science fiction movies and fantasy novels. It’s a time-consuming craft that requires both rigor and creativity, they say: constructing a coherent set of grammatical rules but also inventing novel words that have the right feel. But now artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can construct new languages are fueling debate over the role of human creativity in language construction—and whether an AI conlanger can replicate that imaginative leap.
One of those systems is ConlangCrafter, which was a topic of discussion at the recent Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics . Researchers have used it to generate dozens of languages, from humanlike tongues to more speculative ones, such as a language for alien cephalopods that communicate through color changes and tentacle gestures instead of sound. And while conglangers and linguists applaud the system’s ability to produce convincing languages, they question whether it is truly creative, or just generating sophisticated remixes.
But Ganesh Bagler, a computational scientist at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, wonders whether human creativity is as unique as generally imagined, given that musicians, for example, often remix existing material. “Human creativity inherently is fundamentally combinatorial,” he said. “Why then can’t an AI be called creative?” | | |
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 | | | Harnessing the promise of Latin American science | | Latin America’s scientific community is demonstrating resilience and ambition despite funding and infrastructure challenges. At Voices of Latin American Science, hosted by Einstein Hospital Israelita, leaders explored innovation, collaboration, and scientific impact. | |
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| | | visualized |  | | Courtney Mattison’s large-scale ceramic structures are inspired by coral formations. Courtney Mattison | | Coral reefs, with their vibrant colors and complex structures, seem like natural works of art. But due to threats like climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction, these beautiful ecosystems are experiencing a rapid and unprecedented decline. According to a new Focus article published in Science Advances, art just might be the key to their survival. |  | | Textile artist Vanessa Barragão uses techniques like crochet, latch hook, embroidery, and weaving to create organic-looking artworks that resemble living reefs. Vanessa Barragão | Scientific research alone, the paper argues, is not enough to protect coral reefs. Instead, the authors call for a new approach to conservation that integrates science with artistic expression and creative design, with the goal of inspiring broader public attention and engagement. “Coral reefs are not only a source of aesthetic inspiration but also a poignant symbol of nature’s fragility and resilience,” the team writes. “Art can offer more than reflection; it can serve as a powerful tool to inspire, educate, and drive collective action.”
As part of this mission, the researchers founded the Coral Art-Science Consortium, a nonprofit initiative dedicated to advancing coral reef awareness, conservation, and restoration through collaborations among scientists, artists, educators, policymakers, and communities around the world. The consortium’s website features an enormous variety of art spanning genres and mediums. |  | | Jodi Lomask translates complex environmental concepts into choreography and motion sculpture. Jodi Lomask | Sculptor Courtney Mattison, for example, crafts large-scale ceramic installations that resemble thriving and bleached reefs. Ezri Tarazi’s 3D-printed underwater structures are designed to support coral growth and restoration. Jodi Lomask explores the emotional impact of coral reefs through dance and motion sculpture, while the Small Island Big Song initiative highlights Indigenous and local voices from island nations across the Pacific and Indian oceans with music, film, and performance . Other works include textile art, abstract painting, photography, animation, immersive sound-based installations, books, prints, and scientific illustration.
“One of the most encouraging outcomes of this work is that people are not indifferent,” co-author Or Ben-Zvi says in a statement. “When complex environmental issues are communicated in ways that resonate emotionally as well as intellectually, they become more accessible, and that can be the first step toward meaningful engagement.” | |
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| Whalefall | | Gray whales, previously on the path to recovery, are now dying in record numbers as warming waters threaten their feeding grounds in the Arctic. “It’s a whole lot of bad happening at once,” said one biologist. | | Read more at News from Science | |
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| Dinosaur for sale | | A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil nicknamed “Gus” is set to be auctioned off this morning at Sotheby’s New York City office. The specimen, one of the largest and most complete of this kind ever found, is expected to sell for more than $30 million—and could be lost to science forever. | | Read more at BBC | |
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| Salting the earth | | As climate change causes sea levels to rise, salt water from the Atlantic Ocean now intrudes deep into the mouth of the Gambia River, turning once-fertile farmland into “wet deserts.” | | Read more at Inside Climate News | |
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| | I am here, your future self, to tell you that you are enough. You don’t break. You put one foot in front of the other, and you not only make it through, but you have fun. | | CAREERS | 9 July 2026 | Becca Neumann | |
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| Last but not least | | I’d love to travel back in time and tell Archimedes that future scientists would one day recreate his famous gravity-defying water pump at the nanoscale. I don’t speak ancient Greek, so he wouldn’t have any clue what I was talking about, but still! |  | Phie Jacobs, General Assignment Reporter, Science
With contributions from Benjamin Hack and David Malakoff
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