Innovation combines computational and signal processing. A research team supported by the Q-NEXT quantum research center demonstrates a new way to use quantum sensors to tease out relationships between microscopic magnetic fields. Say you notice a sudden drop in temperature on both your patio and kitchen thermometers. At first, you think it’s because of a cold snap, so you crank up the heat in your home. Then you realize that while the outside has indeed become colder, inside, someone left…
Researchers from the DZNE have solved an important puzzle in neurobiology: the wiring and the movement of nerve cells are interwoven, but separately controlled. The study focuses on neuronal growth and migration: As nerve cells form, they wire the brain to enable communication with other nerve cells. One of these wires, the axon, becomes long; these wires are a basis for neuronal networks. At the same time, nerve cells migrate to a specific place in the brain, the cortex. Remarkably,…
Routing activity in the visual cortex. A new study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research uses computer simulations to explore how patterns of spikes propagate in neuronal networks constrained by experimental data from the turtle visual cortex. The researchers found that rare but strong connections in the network could promote the reliability of propagation, providing a substrate to easily halt or promote propagation, resulting in a highly reliable system to route activity within these networks. The…
The tropical oceans are home to the most diverse plankton populations on Earth, where they form the base of marine food chains. Modern plankton biodiversity in the tropics is a surprisingly recent development and the result of 8 million years of global cooling, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. The finding raises concerns that rapid ocean warming could force the plankton to move away from the tropics, which would negatively affect ocean…
Researchers and engineers from QuTech and Eindhoven University of Technology have created Majorana particles and measured their properties with great control. These Majoranas are so-called ‘poor man’s Majoranas’ based on two quantum dots in a nanowire, which could be scaled up to a larger chain of quantum dots with more resilient Majorana behavior. Majorana particles are one of several promising candidates for stable quantum bits, the building blocks of quantum computers. The researchers have published their results in Nature. Quantum…
… could lead to next-generation energy storage devices. Flexible polymers made with a new generation of the Nobel-winning “click chemistry” reaction find use in capacitors and other applications. Society’s growing demand for high-voltage electrical technologies – including pulsed power systems, cars and electrified aircraft, and renewable energy applications – requires a new generation of capacitors that store and deliver large amounts of energy under intense thermal and electrical conditions. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley…
Natural gas furnaces not only heat your home, they also produce a lot of pollution. Even modern high-efficiency condensing furnaces produce significant amounts of corrosive acidic condensation and unhealthy levels of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and methane. These emissions are typically vented into the atmosphere and end up polluting our soil, water and air. Now, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an affordable add-on technology that removes more than 99.9% of acidic gases…
Advance offers a new way of investigating diseases—including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and different cancers—where mitochondria are disrupted. An advanced imaging-based method from scientists at Scripps Research offers a new way of studying mitochondria, which are best known as the “powerhouses” of cells. In their report on February 14, 2023, in the Journal of Cell Biology, the scientists described a set of techniques that enables the imaging and quantification of even subtle structural changes inside mitochondria, and the correlation of those changes…
Using lasers, researchers can directly control a property of nuclei called spin, that can encode quantum information. In principle, quantum-based devices such as computers and sensors could vastly outperform conventional digital technologies for carrying out many complex tasks. But developing such devices in practice has been a challenging problem despite great investments by tech companies as well as academic and government labs. Today’s biggest quantum computers still only have a few hundred “qubits,” the quantum equivalents of digital bits. Now,…
Protein degrader shows promise against STAT5, which plays a role in leukemia, other cancers. The protein STAT5 has long been an appealing target against cancer, but after decades of research it was consigned to the “undruggable” category. Now, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers have found success with a new approach. By tapping into a cellular garbage disposal function, researchers found they could eliminate STAT5 from cell cultures and mice, setting the stage for potential development as a cancer…
– no desalination required. Researchers have developed a cheaper and more energy-efficient way to make hydrogen directly from seawater, in a critical step towards a truly viable green hydrogen industry. The new method from RMIT University researchers splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen – skipping the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions. Hydrogen has long been touted as a clean future fuel and a potential solution to critical energy challenges, especially for…
Spain becomes the first country in the world to lead a global network of autonomous observatories. The BOOTES network, with seven facilities, is a pioneer in space surveillance and the study of transient cosmic phenomena, which shine briefly, intensely. “BOOTES is the result of almost twenty-five years of continuous effort, since we installed the first station in 1998 at INTA (Arenosillo, Huelva), the institution that initially supported the project. The complete deployment represents a scientific milestone since it is the…
In our solar system, everything seems to be in order: The smaller rocky planets, such as Venus, Earth or Mars, orbit relatively close to our star. The large gas and ice giants, such as Jupiter, Saturn or Neptune, on the other hand, move in wide orbits around the sun. In two studies published in the scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers from the Universities of Bern and Geneva and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS show that…
Control of specific gene-expression pathways could spur better treatment of many diseases. Rice University scientists have enlisted widely used cancer therapy systems to control gene expression in mammalian cells, a feat of synthetic biology that could change how diseases are treated. The lab of chemical and biomolecular engineer Xue Sherry Gao discovered a way to further tap the therapeutic potential of proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs), small molecules that are used as effective tools for treating cancer, immune disorders, viral infections and neurodegenerative diseases. Gao…
… moves closer to 2025 launch. SwRI leads payload management of mission to study the boundary of the solar system. NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft has completed the Mission Critical Design Review and is on track to meet its scheduled 2025 launch. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is managing the payload office, providing the scientific instrument Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment (CoDICE) and is participating on other instrument teams for the mission, which will study the interaction between…
Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have removed a major roadblock to better understanding of mpox (formerly, monkeypox). They developed a mouse model of the disease and used it to demonstrate clear differences in virulence among the major genetic groups (clades) of mpox virus (MPXV). The research, appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, was led by Bernard Moss, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Genetic Engineering…
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