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Evidence that gamma rhythm stimulation can treat neurological disorders is emerging

A surprising MIT study published in Nature at the end of 2016 helped to spur interest in the possibility that light flickering at the frequency of a particular gamma-band brain rhythm could produce meaningful therapeutic effects for people with Alzheimer’s disease. In a new review paper in the Journal of Internal Medicine, the lab that led those studies takes stock of what a growing number of scientists worldwide have been finding out since then in dozens of clinical and lab benchtop studies.

Brain rhythms (also called brain “waves” or “oscillations”) arise from the synchronized network activity of brain cells and circuits as they coordinate to enable brain functions such as perception or cognition. Lower-range gamma-frequency rhythms, those around 40 cycles a second, or hertz (Hz), are particularly important for memory processes, and MIT’s research has shown that they are also associated with specific changes at the cellular and molecular level. The 2016 study and many others since then have produced evidence, initially in animals and more recently in humans, that various noninvasive means of enhancing the power and synchrony of 40Hz gamma rhythms helps to reduce Alzheimer’s pathology and its consequences.

“What started in 2016 with optogenetic and visual stimulation in mice has expanded to a multitude of stimulation paradigms, a wide range of human clinical studies with promising results, and is narrowing in on the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon,” write the authors including Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT.

Brain changes detect Alzheimer’s seven years before plaques appear

A new study reports that measurable brain changes — such as altered functional connectivity, synaptic activity, or metabolic patterns — can appear up to seven years before amyloid-beta plaques become detectable in Alzheimer’s disease. These early alterations may serve as preclinical biomarkers, enabling earlier diagnosis and opening a critical window for intervention before irreversible neurodegeneration occurs. The findings suggest that Alzheimer’s pathology begins years before plaque formation and support shifting detection and treatment strategies to this pre-plaque stage.

A new study suggests that Alzheimer’s disease may be detected by brain imaging more than seven years earlier than previously assumed. Researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo led the study, published in Nature Neuroscience.

The study suggests that the gold standard for imaging in Alzheimer’s disease (amyloid-PET) has not been sensitive enough to detect early brain processes associated with the disease, such as the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain. The researchers found signs of Alzheimer’s at least seven years before plaques become visible.

“We found that structural changes in the brain occur many years before high levels of plaque are seen on PET scans, which is the brain scan currently used to identify the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease,” says James Michael Roe.

Blood-clotting protein may be SARS-CoV-2’s hidden accomplice, helping it hide from antibodies and reach blood vessels

Fibrinogen, the abundant plasma protein best known for forming blood clots, may play a second and far less benign role during SARS-CoV-2 infection: acting as a molecular bridge that simultaneously hides the virus from neutralizing antibodies and delivers it to the cells lining blood vessels.

That is the hypothesis put forward by Saroj Kumar Panda (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Arlington), Shashi Singh, and Parth Sarthi Sen Gupta (School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, D Y Patil International University, Pune) in a Viewpoint article published in ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science.

The proposal offers a single mechanistic explanation for two features of COVID-19 that have long been treated as separate problems: the virus’s ability to evade immunity and the vascular damage, microclotting and inflammation that characterize severe disease and long COVID.

Vacuum-fluctuation-enhanced superconductivity demonstrated for the first time

In a study published in Nature on Aug. 19, a research team has enhanced superconductivity through vacuum fluctuations for the first time. The achievement marks a significant advance in controlling quantum states of matter.

Space free of matter is not truly empty. A vacuum is not a void. In quantum electrodynamics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle implies that, even in the ground state, there is irreducible activity, with the continual creation and annihilation of virtual particles.

Thus, a vacuum contains a dynamic “sea” of quantum fluctuations. Several celebrated phenomena, including the Lamb shift, spontaneous emission and the Casimir effect, provide compelling experimental evidence for their existence.

How fusion reactions can survive flaws—up to a point

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have found that implosions designed for inertial fusion energy (IFE) can tolerate significant imperfections before performance abruptly declines, a finding that could inform the design of fuel targets for future fusion power plants.

The findings were detailed in a paper titled “Robustness of inertial fusion energy relevant implosions to low-mode asymmetries,” recently published in Physics of Plasmas and selected for the journal’s cover. The study was led by LLNL physicist Timothy Johnson, who directed the research and analysis, along with coauthors Daniel Casey, Chris Weber, Omar Hurricane, Ryan Nora and Seth Davidovits.

Supersized quantum sensors make faint photons easier to catch

Our everyday life is flooded with photons, the quantum building blocks of light. For cutting-edge technology, from quantum computing to deep-tissue imaging, detecting every single photon counts.

“Photons carry information,” said Kristen Parzuchowski, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. “Whenever a photon comes into your measurement system, you need to be able to detect it.”

Photons can transmit data in quantum networks or across deep-space communication links. Catching and analyzing photons lets scientists build biomedical images and search the universe for dark matter.

Molecular trick opens the door to a new generation of glass

Researchers at TU Dortmund University, Paderborn University, the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the University of Oxford have developed a new method for selectively modifying the internal structure of specific types of glass. The study, published in the journal Nature Materials, shows how adding an organic molecule during melting causes the chemical bonds in the material to rearrange. The process reduces the required processing temperature, prevents the substance from decomposing, and allows the magnetic and optical properties to be precisely tuned. These specialized glasses are used, among other things, in gas storage, batteries, optical applications and catalysis.

“We have found a way to chemically modify the structure of glasses derived from so-called metal-organic framework compounds—or MOFs for short—right during the manufacturing process,” explains Dr. Sebastian Henke from TU Dortmund University, who led the study.

To achieve this, the experts used 1,10-phenanthroline. The molecule lowers the melting point while simultaneously altering how the metal atoms in the glass are bonded together. The major advantage is that researchers could develop glasses with magnetic or light-emitting properties that were previously impossible to achieve without destroying the material through extreme heat.

Deuterium enables chip waveguides to generate broadband light from infrared pulses

A research team from Singapore, led by Associate Professor Dawn Tan of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Dr. Luo Xianshu, head of the Silicon Photonics Department at the A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (A*STAR IME), has developed a low-loss silicon nitride waveguide that generates broadband light on a chip. By replacing hydrogen with its heavier isotope, deuterium, the team fabricated the low-loss SiN waveguide on an 8-inch wafer using a low-temperature process, demonstrating its potential for large-scale manufacturing and integration with CMOS-compatible semiconductor processes.

Published in Optics Express, the paper “Octave-spanning supercontinuum generation in a wafer-scale, low loss deuterated silicon nitride waveguide” demonstrates a chip-scale waveguide that stretches infrared laser pulses into a spectrum running from visible red to deep into the infrared.

Lasers are prized for their color purity because they emit light in a single color, but many of the most demanding technologies require a beam that spans an enormous sweep of the spectrum at once. This so-called supercontinuum light underpins high-resolution medical imaging, precision measurement and the frequency combs that keep optical clocks ticking without error.

A 4-star system caught eclipsing itself in a way never seen before

Astronomers have found a four-star system doing something that has never been confirmed before. The system, TIC 433545934, has two close pairs of stars orbiting each other. While each pair eclipses its own two stars, as usual, only one pair eclipses the other. A paper outlining the properties of this unique system was submitted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 13. It has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

New study reveals how space rocks become meteorites

What happens to a space rock as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere and becomes a meteorite? By studying 75 meteorite falls captured on video and in photographs, researchers identified seven distinct phases in the journey from space rock to meteorite. Their findings show that melting and fragmentation, rather than simply evaporation and “burning up,” control how a rock loses mass, slows down and ultimately reaches the ground. The journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science published these findings.

“We used to think that solid rocks would evaporate from the enormous heat and brilliant light generated in collisions with air,” said meteor astronomer and lead author Dr. Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center. “We found instead that first melting and then fragmentation control how a rock loses mass.”

The team found that a fireball goes through seven stages as it moves through Earth’s atmosphere. Each stage is shaped by different physical processes.

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