LabX

Sometimes the smallest details change the whole story: a crease in a surface, the age mix hidden inside a statistic, or the speed at which a species must adapt.

This week’s Friday Findings brings together droplets with surprising navigation skills, a smoking statistic that needed a closer look, and albatrosses facing an evolutionary speed limit. Swipe through for three new findings from PNAS and PNAS Nexus, then tell us which one made you stop scrolling.

A cocktail that changes color right in front of you? Sounds like a job for some chemists. 🧪🍹

In this episode of Chemists in the Kitchen, our chemists experiment with color-changing cocktails and explore the chemistry responsible for what you see in the glass.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://ow.ly/pNAv50ZR867

What does Pokérus have to do with how diseases spread?

We teamed up with adef to investigate one of Pokémon’s strangest mechanics — and follow the question from the game into the science of infectiousness.

Watch the full LabX × adef video:
https://ow.ly/ouyl50ZQL1r

Science got delightfully specific this week. 🔬

A papal announcement gave collective enthusiasm a measurable half-life. Messenger RNA may have evolved ways to avoid becoming one giant molecular clump. And a pufferfish taste receptor is surprisingly relaxed about which way its amino acids are facing.

Swipe through for three new findings from PNAS and PNAS Nexus. Which one are you bringing up at dinner?

What do WWII sugar rationing, bacterial tails, and urinal splashback have in common?

They’re all in this week’s Friday Findings.

We’re looking at research on early-life sugar exposure and long-term health, a hidden vulnerability bacteria create while building flagella, and a PNAS Nexus study that used physics to design a much less splashy urinal.

Read this week’s stories and sign up for more: https://ow.ly/AV8T50ZLJpR

Some exciting news for a project we've been developing for a while: Scryptid Games will publish Bloomfall: Here, There, and Elsewhere, a storybook tabletop role-playing game designed by Sharang Biswas and Yeonsoo Julian Kim in collaboration with LabX.

Rascal News took a closer look at the project and one of the ideas at the heart of it: connecting what happens around the game table with what players notice in the real world.

Between group Adventures, Bloomfall players complete Solo Excursions—short, guided activities that ask them to observe the plants and natural environments around them. Those observations then return to the table, becoming material for characters, creatures, worldbuilding, and future adventures.

For LabX, that's what makes Bloomfall such an interesting experiment in public engagement: science and nature aren't separated from the story. They're part of how players experience and build it.

Bloomfall is headed toward crowdfunding in Spring 2027, and a Quick Start is available now.

Read the full story from Rascal News:

Scryptid Games to Publish Bloomfall: A Storybook Roleplaying Game A school days portal fantasy TTRPG designed in partnership with LabX, a program of the National Academy of Sciences

Why does the Tree of Life work so well on TikTok?

Because it’s full of the exact thing short-form video thrives on: surprises.

Our latest Substack looks at how LabX worked with NAS member Doug Soltis to turn unexpected evolutionary connections into a short-form series designed around curiosity, not lectures.

Read it here:

The Tree of Life Was Made for TikTok How we turned one of biology’s biggest ideas into 60-second stories about the surprising connections hiding across life on Earth.