Japan is in the midst of a major push to revive its chip sector, but its latest investments show how Tokyo is being pulled into helping the US build up its own semiconductor industry.
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Advanced AI tool estimates biological age and predicts cancer survival from face photos
Researchers are using AI tools to analyze simple facial photographs to determine key indicators of a person’s health. Mass General Brigham researchers built FAHR-Face (Foundation Artificial Intelligence for Health Recognition), a large AI foundation model trained on over 40 million face images.
Rutgers And IBM Demonstrate Real-Time Control Across 100 Qubits
PRESS RELEASE — Researchers from Rutgers, IBM and collaborating institutions have shown that a quantum computer can check what is happening inside it and respond while it is running, repeatedly resetting parts of the system to bring chaotic behavior under control.
The advance is a critical step toward building larger, more reliable quantum computers.
Today’s quantum computers operate according to the unusual rules governing atoms and other extremely small particles. They could one day solve problems beyond the reach of conventional computers — designing better batteries and cleaner industrial catalysts, simulating molecules and materials too complex for today’s computers, and running certain artificial intelligence programs.
A powerful framework for analysing solid materials
To analyse that compound theoretically, Kusunose applied the concept of multipoles, which are useful for describing arrangements of electric charge or magnetic poles in space. The simplest multipole is a monopole; a single electric charge, such as a proton or an electron, is an example of a monopole. A dipole describes two equal but opposite charges; the north and south poles of a magnet are an example of a dipole, where the electric charge is replaced with a magnetic charge. Going up the multipole hierarchy adds increasing complexity. Any arrangement of electric charges or magnetic poles can be approximated by using a certain combination of multipoles — known as a multipole expansion.
Kusunose then embarked on an ambitious project to develop a truly comprehensive analysis framework of solids based on multipoles. That required quantum-mechanical expressions of four types of multipoles: electric multipoles, magnetic multipoles, and their vortex-like pattern, or toroidal, equivalents.
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A Stubborn Question Answered: New Research Reveals How the Milky Way’s Disk Formed
Figuring out how the Milky Way’s thin and thick disks formed is a tough question in astronomy. It relies on determining individual stellar ages accurately. Gaia was pretty good at that, and new research based on its data may have found the answer.
Using thousands of AI agents to uncover new leads in biological data
AI agents just uncovered promising new leads for neurodegenerative disease research—in just 32 minutes.
Here’s what thousands of GPT-Rosalind agents accomplished by working in parallel:
- Analyzed millions of mouse brain cells — Connected gene disruptions to findings in scientific literature — Identified unexpected biological mechanisms — Uncovered a potential link between cholesterol metabolism and neurodegeneration.
Research that could take human scientists months—or even a year—to carry out was completed in roughly half an hour.
The bigger story isn’t just speed. It’s how AI agents could help researchers uncover biological connections that might otherwise take far longer to find.
These are promising research leads, not yet confirmed discoveries—but they point to an exciting new role for AI in scientific discovery.
M2 receptors are required for spatiotemporal sequence learning in mouse primary visual cortex
Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that plays a variety of roles in the central nervous system. It was previously shown that blocking muscarinic receptors with a nonselective antagonist prevents a form of experience-dependent plasticity termed “spatiotemporal sequence learning” in the mouse primary visual cortex (V1). Muscarinic signaling is a complex process involving the combined activities of five different G protein-coupled receptors, M1–M5, all of which are expressed in the murine brain but differ from each other functionally and in anatomical localization. Here we present electrophysiological evidence that M2, but not M1, receptors are required for spatiotemporal sequence learning in mouse V1. We show in male mice that M2 is highly expressed in the neuropil in V1, especially in thalamorecipient layer 4, and colocalizes with the soma in a subset of somatostatin-expressing neurons in deep layers. We also show that expression of M2 receptors is higher in the monocular region of V1 than it is in the binocular region but that the amount of experience-dependent sequence potentiation is similar in both regions and that blocking muscarinic signaling after visual stimulation does not prevent plasticity. This work establishes a new functional role for M2-type receptors in processing temporal information and demonstrates that monocular circuits are modified by experience in a manner similar to binocular circuits. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors are required for multiple forms of plasticity in the brain and support perceptual functions, but the precise role of the five subtypes (M1–M5) are unclear. Here we show that the M2 receptor is specifically required to encode experience-dependent representations of spatiotemporal relationships in both monocular and binocular regions of mouse V1. This work identifies a novel functional role for M2 receptors in coding temporal information into cortical circuits.
New Gene-Editing Method, ‘Prime Assembly,’ Corrects Multiple Mutations at Once
Approach builds on prime editing, advances journey toward universal gene therapies
White House S&T Strategy Reframes National Security Tech
Chuck Brooks is the president of Brooks Consulting International and one of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Experts.
The White House’s strategy prioritizes science and technology for national security. US success will depend on its ability to translate advances in AI, quantum computing, biotechnology, space and other critical fields into resilient, deployable capabilities faster than its competitors.