Living materials created with a 3D printer are like living tissues with one notable exception: You get to choose exactly which cells are in them, as well as their final 3D shape. Depending on the type of bacteria included in the print, the material can clean up contaminated water or break down waste materials such as plastic.

The 3D bioprinters that create these structures, however, can cost upwards of $100,000, and the soft shapes they produce can collapse before they set.

To solve this, a team of researchers led by the 天美传媒鈥檚 has developed a low-cost solution using a standard plastic 3D printer.

鈥淲e aim to create DIY bioprinters using inexpensive, easily obtainable parts, so that they are affordable and easy for other scientists to make in their own labs as well,鈥� says Meyer, a professor in the .

BYO-bioprinter

In published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials, Meyer and colleagues from 天美传媒 and Cornell University modified a regular plastic 3D printer by removing the plastic filament extruder and replacing it with a syringe pump that squeezes out bio-ink鈥攁 specialized formula that mixes living cells with a polymer solution. Once printed, the bio-ink hardens into a gel.

鈥淥ur syringe can also perform both extrusion and retraction, preventing oozing at the edges of printed structures,鈥� says Meyer. 鈥淭his new setup allows for printing of crisp shapes with well-defined edges.鈥�

In the true spirit of DIY, Meyer鈥檚 lab constructed the customized bioprinter at a cost of $450. All the parts are easily available, adds Meyer, allowing other labs to build their own version of the printer and syringe pump. are available on the GitHub platform.

Reaching new heights

While previous DIY 3D bioprinters were limited to printing structures of less than 20 layers, 鈥淥ur upgraded printer can create living structures that are significantly taller and more complex than was previously possible, and it can even create hollow cavities within the prints,鈥� says Meyer, noting that the upgraded DIY printer can print living materials with more than 100 layers.

鈥淭his opens up possibilities to make structures that have a high surface-to-volume ratio, so that the embedded bacteria can more efficiently receive signals or nutrients from the environment and can excrete any useful products much more rapidly into their surroundings,鈥� she adds.

Researchers also developed a support gel called a slurry that the bioprinter prints into, which holds up bio-ink and helps it solidify quickly and at any height.

Two types of slurry were created: one for easy removal of the print, and one for incubation that allows microbes in the bioprints to stay alive in the slurry for four or more weeks. In previous methods, the printed bacteria started to die after about nine days.

The new slurry could have a significant impact on the research of biofilms鈥攖hree-dimensional communities of microorganisms, such as bacteria, that adhere to surfaces鈥攖hat can be both harmful and beneficial to humans.

For Meyer, the benefit of using different methods of incubation is the possibility 鈥渢o create engineered biofilm materials that either have more biofilm characteristics, allowing study of and testing on medically relevant biofilm, or that have stronger mechanical properties, allowing them to be used for applications.鈥�

I grew up in an academic environment. My dad is a now-retired professor of political science. When I was about three, I apparently approached Carl Sagan on the quad at Cornell and asked him questions.

I read a lot as a kid, and I really liked the Doctor Who series of novels. I think that鈥檚 what got me interested in physics. The first time I saw E=mc² was in one of those books.

I originally wanted to be an archaeologist, but around 10th grade, I saw a BBC interview with the famous physicist Richard Feynman. I was mesmerized. I鈥檇 never heard anyone speak with that kind of clarity of thought. I started reading books on quantum mechanics. It鈥檚 the strange weirdness about quantum mechanics that got me.

I became interested in complex systems in grad school. I was planning to study high-energy physics, but I went to a talk by my eventual advisor where he used techniques from condensed-matter physics and applied them to things like social and economic systems. I realized I could combine my interests in socioeconomics, political science, anthropology, history, and physics under this umbrella of studying complex systems.

Complex systems are pretty much everywhere in the universe. A society, an economy, the human brain, the desk in my office鈥攁ll are complex systems. When you have many interacting components, things get very complicated. But something interesting happens where there is this emergent global behavior, and things simplify. All of a sudden, you can understand a very complicated system through very reduced sets of variables.

I鈥檓 trying to understand a fundamental question: How does order emerge from very messy systems? Right now, through my Templeton Foundation grant, we鈥檙e bringing together philosophers, evolutionary biologists, physicists, and computer scientists to study how life, intelligence, and agency emerge and what distinguishes living systems from machines.

We鈥檙e trying to formalize some of these ideas mathematically. The first part of the project is a philosophical component, where we鈥檙e trying to define concepts like agency and intelligence. The second part involves developing mathematical models of how these systems arise and sustain themselves and the energetic costs of that.

Agency is something I鈥檓 really interested in. Living systems are constantly trying to stay alive, and much of what they do is organized around self-maintenance, whereas engineered systems are designed to solve problems. But even more important is knowing which questions to ask. Living systems accrue a tremendous amount of knowledge but discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information.

There are tasks that AI can perform much better than humans, but think about the resources and computing power it takes to train AI. AI is very good at solving existing problems, but I don鈥檛 see it advancing the frontier and asking truly original questions. Yet. You do have to be humble about these things and be open to what may come. And I honestly don鈥檛 know what that may be.

I use AI, but I don鈥檛 completely trust it. I use Claude and ChatGPT, mostly for mundane purposes, like accounting and travel research, or as a sounding board for ideas. I鈥檝e trained it to be adversarial. Every time it agrees with me, I scold it, so it鈥檚 a great way for me to sharpen my ideas.

I鈥檓 a scientist, but I have a love for the arts and humanities. I think it鈥檚 important to have a holistic perspective. I love to travel and go to museums and the theater. I鈥檓 a huge history buff, and I鈥檓 beginning to appreciate philosophy more. I like learning new things and reinventing myself periodically.

This story appears in the fall 2026 issue of Rochester Review, the magazine of the聽天美传媒.

More than a mile beneath the South Pole, thousands of light sensors sit frozen into a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice. Those sensors are waiting for some of the universe鈥檚 most elusive particles to pass by.

Together, the sensors make up the , an enormous detector that has transformed the ice beneath Antarctica into a new kind of telescope鈥攁nd transformed the way scientists observe the universe.

The physicist who spent decades championing the idea, Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison, has now received science鈥檚 highest honor for it. On October 6, Halzen was awarded the 鈥渇or decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.鈥�

At the 天美传媒, physicist greeted the news with 鈥渁mazement, pride, and a bit of awe.鈥� He knows firsthand how long the journey took.

BenZvi, a professor and chair of the , was a member of the IceCube Collaboration at the University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison when scientists announced in 2013 that they had detected high-energy neutrinos arriving from beyond our solar system.

He joined the 天美传媒 faculty the following year, when the University also joined the international IceCube Collaboration. Today, his research group leads IceCube鈥檚 real-time search for neutrinos produced by exploding stars.

鈥淚 know that the work leading up to the discovery took many decades to come to fruition,鈥� BenZvi says.

A big idea, buried deep in the ice

Halzen didn鈥檛 begin his career trying to turn Antarctica into a telescope.

A theoretical physicist who worked closely with researchers at particle accelerators such as Fermilab, he shifted his attention toward astrophysical neutrinos after scientists detected particles from Supernova 1987A, an exploding star in a nearby galaxy.

The discovery raised a tantalizing possibility: Could neutrinos become a new way of exploring the cosmos?

There was just one rather large problem: Neutrinos are notoriously difficult to detect.
Halzen and his collaborators pursued an audacious solution. They would bury light-sensitive detectors in natural ice and look for the telltale flashes created when a neutrino interacts with matter.

Their early efforts didn鈥檛 go according to plan. At the depths researchers initially drilled, bubbles trapped in the ice scattered the light they were trying to detect.

So they went deeper.

Below about a mile, the ice became remarkably clear. The subsequent Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array鈥攂etter known as AMANDA鈥攑roved the concept could work and paved the way for something vastly larger: IceCube.

鈥淚f I can describe [Halzen鈥檚] role in two words,鈥� BenZvi says, 鈥渢hey would be vision and persistence. Getting IceCube built and turned into a successful experiment was a multidecade effort that would not have happened without his leadership.鈥�

What are neutrinos鈥攁nd why do scientists want to find them?

Here is the strange thing about neutrinos: They are everywhere, and yet they are extraordinarily difficult to find.

Neutrinos are tiny subatomic particles with almost no mass and no electric charge. They interact so weakly with ordinary matter that enormous numbers of them can pass straight through your body鈥攁nd through the Earth鈥攚ithout hitting anything at all.

For scientists, that elusiveness is both the problem and the opportunity.

Because neutrinos can travel through matter that blocks other forms of radiation, they can carry information from places conventional telescopes may struggle to see. Detecting them gives astronomers another way to investigate some of the most extreme environments in the universe.

鈥淕etting IceCube built and turned into a successful experiment was a multidecade effort that would not have happened without [Halzen鈥檚]聽leadership.鈥�

Until IceCube鈥檚 discovery in 2013, the only neutrinos scientists had detected from beyond our solar system came from Supernova 1987A. IceCube changed that.

Scientists discovered high-energy neutrinos arriving from much farther out in the cosmos and have since traced some of them to active galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. 鈥淭hese high-energy neutrinos come from the most extreme environments in the known universe,鈥� BenZvi says.

Because neutrinos can escape the dense gas and dust surrounding black holes and neutron stars, they can give scientists a glimpse into regions of galaxies that other forms of radiation can鈥檛 reveal.

How does IceCube detect something that passes through almost everything?

If neutrinos are so reluctant to interact with matter, how do you catch one?

You build an enormous detector鈥攁nd wait.

IceCube consists of more than 5,000 light-sensitive sensors embedded deep in the Antarctic ice near the South Pole. Every once in a while, a neutrino interacts with matter in or near the detector, producing charged particles that streak through the ice and generate tiny flashes of light.

IceCube鈥檚 sensors capture those flashes. From their pattern and timing, scientists can reconstruct information about the neutrino, including the direction it arrived from.

In other words, IceCube uses a cubic kilometer of some of the clearest ice on Earth to look outward into the universe.

At 天美传媒, waiting for an exploding star

天美传媒 joined the IceCube Collaboration in 2014, when BenZvi arrived at the University.

The Nobel-recognized discovery had already been made. But IceCube鈥檚 work was hardly finished.

Since then, scientists have continued using the detector to investigate where high-energy neutrinos originate and what they can tell us about the cosmos. Meanwhile, BenZvi and his 天美传媒 group are using IceCube to watch for a very different signal: a star exploding relatively close to home.

The 天美传媒 group develops software that continuously searches IceCube鈥檚 stream of data for a burst of neutrinos from a nearby supernova. The group also co-leads the SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS), an international collaboration that combines alerts from neutrino detectors around the world.

Scientists have been waiting nearly four decades to detect supernova neutrinos again.

The next nearby supernova 鈥渨ill be the observation of the decade,鈥� Benzvi says.

When Supernova 1987A exploded in a nearby galaxy, detectors around the world recorded just 24 neutrinos. The next time could look very different.

If a star exploded near the center of the Milky Way today, BenZvi says, IceCube could detect nearly one million neutrinos.

IceCube is getting an upgrade, too. New photosensors have been deployed at the South Pole since 2025, and the 天美传媒 group is now integrating the new detectors into its supernova data acquisition system. The new detectors will allow the group to better measure the energies of supernova neutrinos鈥攁nd potentially detect exploding stars beyond the Milky Way.

For BenZvi and his team, that means preparing now for an astronomical event that no one can put on the calendar. The next nearby supernova could give scientists an unprecedented look at what happens inside a dying star鈥攁nd send a torrent of neutrinos through IceCube鈥檚 frozen array.

In the seconds it takes the star to collapse, IceCube could track changes in those neutrinos in extraordinary detail, giving scientists a front-row view of the formation of a neutron star or black hole.

They just have to wait for the universe to cooperate.

鈥淲hen it occurs,鈥� BenZvi says, 鈥渋t will be the observation of the decade.鈥�

In some of Earth鈥檚 coldest places, soil freezes, thaws, and slowly creeps downhill, creating large, wave-like patterns across entire hillsides. The patterns resemble those made by familiar fluids鈥攖hink paint dripping down a wall or icing down the side of a cake. But the physics behind those everyday materials can鈥檛 explain how the icy landscapes form.

So 天美传媒 researchers went looking for a better comparison. They found one in an unlikely place: oobleck.

In a published in AGU Advances, , an assistant professor in the Departments of and , and her 天美传媒 colleagues used mathematical modeling to compare how different fluids behave. Their analysis suggests that solifluction patterns鈥攖he ripples formed as frost-heaved, water-saturated soil slowly moves downhill鈥攆orm through a process analogous to the unusual behavior of oobleck, a mixture of cornstarch and water that becomes harder to move the harder it鈥檚 pushed.

鈥淭his demonstrates how patterns in everyday fluids can be compared and contrasted with complex patterns in sediment to better understand how Earth鈥檚 surface evolves,鈥� Glade says.

What is solifluction?

Solifluction is a gradual process where soil freezes and heaves upward. When there is a thaw, saturated soil turns to icy sludge and creeps downhill at a few centimeters per year, forming large-scale patterns that resemble fluid-like ripples. Over time, the movement can sculpt entire hillsides. The behavior of the frost-heaved soil and the formation of solifluction patterns are complex because of seasonal variability in water and ice in the soil.

To understand the behavior of solifluction patterns, the researchers used computer and mathematical models to examine a range of fluids, from paint dripping down a wall to folding lava and rolling waves. But these fluids could not account for the solifluction patterns in icy soil. So researchers turned to something more unusual: a strange substance called oobleck.

Predicting the movement of icy soil

Oobleck may be familiar from children鈥檚 science experiments, but its unusual physical properties have also made it useful for scientists studying how certain fluids move. Unlike ordinary fluids, oobleck becomes harder to move when force is applied. The mixture thickens as it flows downhill and hits bumps, causing a pileup of material behind the bump, which ultimately forms waves.

The researchers found that solifluction patterns look similar and form through a somewhat similar process. Variations in moisture and other properties can cause frost-heaved, water-saturated soil to move at different speeds around small bumps, creating wave-like patterns on hillsides in cold regions.

鈥淏y having an equation that is similar to the oobleck waves, we were able to find something that gives us these patterns.鈥�

Using this information, the researchers developed an equation that could reproduce solifluction patterns.

鈥淏y having an equation that is similar to the oobleck waves, we were able to find something that gives us these patterns,鈥� says Glade.

Developing an equation for soil movement could help determine whether a hill will have a landslide or predict the probability of an oil pipeline burst caused by heaving soil.

While the model has not yet been tested in real-life applications, it is a step toward developing processes that could help researchers better understand how landscapes change.

鈥淚t鈥檚 improving our understanding of this fundamental system so that we can try to better predict things in the future,鈥� says Glade. 鈥淟andscapes are always changing.鈥�

Other 天美传媒 researchers who contributed to this research include , a professor of and a senior scientist; PhD student JohnPaul Sleiman; research scientist Fernando David C煤帽ez; and postdoctoral associate Sara Williams.

Embracing the opportunity

The internship was an immersive experience for Maryame Kouram, a master鈥檚 student at the . Kouram worked with , which runs family-events websites and sells advertising to local businesses like schools, museums, and summer camps.

鈥淚 felt included by the team from day one,鈥� says Kouram. 鈥淭he first week, I got to meet with the content and sales teams, learn what they do on a daily basis, and also learn about their pain points to understand the purpose of my internship.鈥�

Kouram had a strong champion in Debra Ross, the company鈥檚 founder and chief executive. After Kouram developed an AI-powered tool that combined data from several sources鈥攊ncluding customer records, Google Analytics, an ad server, and others鈥擱oss saw how the tool transformed her sales team鈥檚 work and had applications beyond her business.

鈥淔or less than $100 a year in tokens, she鈥檚 revolutionized how my staff can query our database and provide beautiful and actionable reports to our clients.鈥�

鈥淭here are so many contexts in which businesspeople get data from all kinds of sources and need a way to put it together,鈥� says Ross. 鈥淚 realized that this is publishable and something that people throughout industry would find of interest.鈥�

Ross encouraged Kouram to present the model she developed, Vera, at the . Before the internship ended, Kouram further refined the tool to cut its cost by 80 percent.

鈥淔or less than $100 a year in tokens, she鈥檚 revolutionized how my staff can query our database and provide beautiful and actionable reports to our clients,鈥� Ross says.

Developing industry experience

Data science master鈥檚 student Naman Bhagat interned with , a Rochester company that develops intelligent imaging and radar products for performance-critical edge AI systems. Working with radar datasets to detect motion, he was stuck by the difference between developing real-world production systems and working on class or research projects.

鈥淵ou have to think about trade-offs instead of always chasing metrics,鈥� says Bhagat. 鈥淭hose numbers matter, but in the end, it is mostly about meeting the requirements and making it deliverable with the lowest cost.鈥�

鈥淲hat employers really care about, more than your coding skills or your grades, is your ability to stand alone and figure things out,鈥� Bhagat adds.

鈥淲hat employers really care about, more than your coding skills or your grades, is your ability to stand alone and figure things out.鈥�

At , a photonic biosensing startup in Rochester (cofounded by 天美传媒 Medicine faculty member and two of his graduate students), Zihan 鈥淔rannie鈥� Zheng 鈥�27聽helped the company build data pipelines and use analytical tools that transform raw photonic and microscopy data into meaningful biomarker insights, dashboards, and automated reports.

鈥淚 learned that improving a data pipeline isn鈥檛 just about fixing one bug at a time,鈥� says Zheng. 鈥淓very step affects what comes next, so I first had to understand the workflow as a whole and identify where different parts were conflicting. That helped me simplify the process, fix the underlying problems, and make the analysis more reliable and automated.鈥�

The Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence will begin accepting applications in December from New York companies that want to offer internships.