Scientists are increasingly focused on constraining the behaviour of matter at extreme densities, as found in neutron stars and the early universe. Jacquelyn Noronha-Hostler, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and colleagues demonstrate a novel method for extracting mesoscopic chemical potentials from nuclear and hypernuclear binding energies. This research establishes a link between finite nuclei and a mesoscopic regime, allowing for the determination of local derivatives of the strong-interaction energy landscape. By analysing the (hyper)nuclear landscape, the team reveals smooth responses and a significant negative strangeness chemical potential, offering empirical constraints that any robust equation of state must satisfy and enabling targeted…