This is a short summary talk by Ivan Kroupin (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XjxueRYAAAAJ&hl=en) and Tian Chen Zeng (https://www.researchgate.net/…
Science students and academics wrote papers about the mathematics and physics of Ringworld after it was published. Larry Niven discusses whether this would happen if Ringworld was published today.
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A new study shows that our ability to recall details about familiar objects—like a banana’s typical color—depends on strong connections between visual and language-processing areas of the brain.
A team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, made small tweaks to the molecular structure of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to see if it could be turned into an effective brain-healing treatment for patients that suffer from conditions like schizophrenia — without risking a potentially disastrous acid trip.
As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, the researchers created a new compound called JRT by shifting the position of just two atoms of the psychedelic’s molecular structure.
With the two atoms flipped, the new drug could still stimulate brain cell growth and repair damaged neural connections, while simultaneously minimizing psychedelic effects, in mice.
Our brains don’t just remember what we see and hear, they fuse the two into cohesive memories.
Nitrous oxide, a commonly used analgesic gas, temporarily improved the opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to allow gene therapy delivery in mouse models using focused ultrasound (FUS), UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in a new study. Their findings, published in Gene Therapy, could eventually lead to new ways to treat a variety of brain diseases and disorders.
“The approach we explored in this study has the potential to advance care for diseases of the brain that can be treated by targeted therapeutic delivery,” said study leader Bhavya R. Shah, M.D., Associate Professor of Radiology, Neurological Surgery, and in the Advanced Imaging Research Center at UT Southwestern. He’s also an Investigator in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and a member of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. Deepshikha Bhardwaj, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate at UTSW, was the study’s first author.
The BBB is a highly selective border of semipermeable cells that line tiny blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. It is thought to have developed during evolution to protect the brain from toxins and infections in the blood. However, the BBB also impedes the delivery of drugs that could be used to treat neurologic or neuropsychiatric conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or brain tumors. Consequently, researchers have worked for decades to develop solutions that can temporarily open the BBB to allow treatments to enter.
In a discovery that’s already turning heads in the scientific world, a team of physicists has achieved what was once thought impossible: they’ve measured the actual shape of a moving electron. This leap forward could not only reshape how we understand matter at the smallest scale—it might also unlock a new era of smarter, faster, and more energy-efficient electronics.
A Petahertz Quantum Transistor built from graphene and laser pulses could redefine computing, a million times faster than today’s best chips.
We also simulated “open-system” dynamics, where the molecule interacts with its environment. This is typically a much harder problem for classical computers.
By injecting controlled noise into the ion’s environment, we replicated how real molecules lose energy. This showed environmental complexity can also be captured by quantum simulation.
Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s chief scientist since 2024, believes artificial intelligence models will soon be capable of producing original research and making measurable economic impacts. In a conversation with Nature, Pachocki outlined how he sees the field evolving — and how OpenAI plans to balance innovation with safety concerns.
Pachocki, who joined OpenAI in 2017 after a career in theoretical computer science and competitive programming, now leads the firm’s development of its most advanced AI systems. These systems are designed to tackle complex tasks across science, mathematics, and engineering, moving far beyond the chatbot functions that made ChatGPT a household name in 2022.