Molecular profiling can aid in diagnosing cancer or predicting an individual’s risk of developing cancer. After obtaining a specimen from a pat | Cancer
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Cannabinoid modulation of central amygdala population dynamics during threat investigation
Neural mechanisms underlying cannabinoids’ anxiogenic effects are not fully understood. Here authors show that cannabinoids dose-dependently increased spontaneous activity of central amygdala (CeA) neurons expressing somatostatin (SOM), altered CeA activity patterns during threat processing, and enhanced defensive behavior. Ex vivo studies in brain slices further showed that cannabinoids reduce inhibitory input from neighboring neurons, releasing a “brake” on SOM activity.
Partial Vision Restored in Some Blind Patients With New Experimental Treatment
Night vision often fades first, followed by a narrowing of peripheral vision. In retinitis pigmentosa, this progressive loss can eventually lead to blindness.
An experimental treatment has now helped some patients recover limited visual abilities.
The approach combines a gene injection with special goggles. In a small trial involving 10 people with profound vision loss in both eyes, some participants became better able to detect objects, locate them, and reach toward them while using the device.
Gravity and quantum information linked through a derivation of Einstein’s equations
Recent research shows that gravity and quantum information are deeply connected and that the shape of spacetime can be traced back to the way information is stored in quantum fields.
Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes gravity as the curvature of space and time caused by matter and energy. Quantum theory, on the other hand, describes the microscopic world. Uniting the two is one of the biggest open problems in physics.
In 1995, the physicist Ted Jacobson showed that Einstein’s equations can be derived from thermodynamics, the physics of heat and entropy, much like the laws governing a gas emerge from the motion of its molecules. This suggested that gravity might not be fundamental but could emerge from something deeper.
Webb spots possible early-universe supernova just days after it happened
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected a possible supernova in the early universe just days after the star exploded. Called AT 2026abck, the transient lies in a star-forming galaxy at a redshift of 5.017 and was found without the help of gravitational lensing. JWST observations suggest the event was caught only about four to 10 days after the explosion. The paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 29.
Supernovae in the early universe offer a direct view of how massive stars lived and died when galaxies were young, metal-poor and forming stars in bursts. Their rate also gives an independent measure of the cosmic star-formation history. But they are difficult to observe because the light they emit gets stretched and redshifted to infrared wavelengths by the time it reaches us.
The James Webb Space Telescope, with its exceptional infrared vision, has made it possible to detect over 200 potential supernova events with host galaxy redshifts out to around 6. Beyond redshift 4 (when the universe’s age was 1.5 billion years), most candidates have been observed only once or a few times, and few have been caught within days of exploding. At redshifts greater than 5, only one supernova has been confirmed based on its spectra, and only because it was gravitationally magnified up to 30 times by a galaxy cluster.