In a single experiment, physicists have measured the “excess” emission of high-energy gamma rays from more than a dozen heavy, unstable atomic nuclei. Mapping the gamma-ray emissions of so many isotopes produced in nuclear fission marks an important step toward a better understanding of one of the key phenomena in modern nuclear physics: the fission process itself.
Why do excited heavy nuclei produced in fission appear to emit excessive amounts of particularly energetic gamma radiation? New clues to this long-standing question have emerged from an international experiment conducted at the GANIL accelerator facility in Caen, northern France. Here, a beryllium-9 target was bombarded with uranium-238 ions, producing unstable curium-247 nuclei that rapidly underwent fission into two lighter fragments.
By combining unique experimental techniques, researchers were able—for the first time within a single experiment—to collect data on high-energy gamma-ray emissions from more than a dozen heavy, unstable isotopes. The first results of the experiment, to which the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Krakow made a significant contribution, have just been published in Physics Letters B.
A neuroprosthetic system has helped a man with paralysis move his hand and feel touch again following a spinal cord injury, reports research published in Nature Medicine. Some of the system’s benefits continued even when the device was turned off, suggesting that it may support longer-term recovery as well as help movement in real time.
Spinal cord injury is a leading cause of paralysis, and more than half of cases involve tetraplegia, in which movement of the arms and legs is affected. Complete spinal cord injuries, in which there is no voluntary movement or feeling below the level of the injury, are particularly difficult to treat. Previous brain–computer interface systems have helped restore some movement but have not yet restored a sense of touch or supported longer-term recovery.
Chad Bouton and colleagues developed a “double neural bypass” system that reads brain signals linked to a person’s intention to move. It then uses these signals to help control a person’s own hand by delivering targeted stimulation to the spinal cord and the part of the brain involved in touch, the primary somatosensory cortex.
Out today in @sciencemagazine, Doudna lab researchers Petr Skopintsev, Isabel Esain Garcia, and alum Evan DeTurk describe a new #AI-assisted method for designing genome editors beyond those found in nature, with the potential for designing custom editors with specific properties. They tested close to 2,000 of the AI-generated variants in lab, with many showing similar or improved editing ability relative to conventional #CRISPR enzymes, across bacterial, plant, and human cells. 💡… #biotech #innovation #GenomeEditing @ucberkeleyofficial
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Lila is betting that science, not the internet, is the last untapped source of training data. We went to find out what that actually looks like in a room full of robots.