We humans inhabit a tiny patch of the livable pressure-temperature space. How does the rest of life work?
Hello and welcome! I study the fundamental effects of pressure and temperature on marine organisms, cells, and molecules. I am a postdoctoral scholar in the Girguis Lab at Harvard University and was a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow from 2022-24.
The team reached out last October with a concept for Liptactic Foam, a deep-sea buoyancy material combining the properties of industry-standard syntactic foam with the pliancy of lipid droplets.* The Wizards’ impressive R+D work on Liptactic Foam earned them a ticket to the international FLL tournament in Worcester MA, just down the road…
…where, out of 108 teams from 28 countries, they brought home first prize for their Liptactic Foam innovation project!
Not content to rest on these laurels, the team visited the lab the next day and tested their prototypes to a simulated depth of 4000 meters. Kudos, Winning Wizards, and keep innovating!
*Some deep-sea fishes use oil droplets for buoyancy.
The study also enjoys some great freely available press coverage, thanks to Elizabeth Anne Brown with SciAm, Sean Cummings at the AAAS, and Yasemin Saplakoglu with Quanta Magazine:
*Let’s not forget that there’s no such thing as a jellyfish. Journalists frequently don’t compose their own headlines.
© 2025 Jacob Winnikoff – All rights reserved.