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Brain-mapping framework reveals shifts in information flow during pain and movie watching

In the brain, information travels among distributed networks, groups of interconnected regions that work together and contribute to specific behaviors, feelings or thoughts. To study how information travels through these networks under different conditions, many neuroscientists rely on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a noninvasive imaging technique that measures blood-oxygen changes indirectly linked to neural activity.

While this method can help derive statistical relationships between activity in different brain areas, conventional approaches for analyzing fMRI scans do not establish which regions influence others.

Researchers at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea, Sungkyunkwan University and other institutions recently developed a new neuroimaging analysis framework that could also be used to estimate how activity in one area of the brain influences activity in another.

Engineered probiotic bacteria produce cancer drugs inside tumors

E. coli in uncooked meat can cause diarrhea and food poisoning. Scientists, however, have found a way to turn the bacterium into a delivery agent that takes drugs straight to a tumor and transforms it into a tiny cancer drug dispensary.

E. coli has a natural tendency to travel through the body and specifically colonize and grow inside tumor cores. A recent study by researchers from Columbia University harnessed this trait and genetically engineered a probiotic strain of the bacterium to produce an enzyme called cytosine deaminase (CD) that anchors to tumor tissue. This allows it to convert 5-FC, a nontoxic prodrug that remains harmless in the body until activated, into 5-FU, a powerful cancer-killing chemotherapy drug, directly inside the tumor.

The cancer-fighting abilities of the engineered bacteria didn’t end there. The researchers also got the bacteria to co-produce two additional immune-modulating molecules directly inside the tumor microenvironment: an IL-15 superagonist and a PD-L1-blocking nanobody. One activates antitumor immune cells inside the tumor, while the other blocks PD-L1 signals that cancer cells use to hide from immune attack.

Kevin Kelly on Wisdom and Excellent Advice for Living

2009, almost nobody in the singularity crowd wanted to talk about wisdom. The conversation was all about how and when. Rarely why.

Back in 2023, I sat down with Kevin Kelly for the third time. Co-founder of Wired, co-chair of The Long Now Foundation, and the most stubborn optimist I know. He had just written Excellent Advice for Living, 450 proverbs he wished someone had handed him earlier.

I brought him the question that still bothers me most: our power keeps growing faster than our #wisdom. What happens when that gap gets wide enough to swallow us?

Kevin has a definition of wisdom I haven’t been able to shake. It turns on time, and on how many people you’re willing to take into account.

From there we went everywhere. Christianity and creationism. Selfies, Zoom and narcissism. The cult of personality in the East versus the West. Whether #AI, nuclear weapons, or climate change really qualify as existential risks. I won’t tell you where a radical optimist lands on that one.

Three years later, with AI moving faster than anyone’s ethics, the conversation feels less like #futurism and more like a to-do list.

Continue reading “Kevin Kelly on Wisdom and Excellent Advice for Living” | >

AI finds hidden human proteins and their function

New research shows how artificial intelligence, combined with advanced experimental science, can help find “hidden” and unexplored proteins in the human body and reveal what they actually do, according to a new study published in Nature.

The discovery suggests a new way to study how cells communicate, survive stress and possibly support disease.

Researchers used AI to compare the shapes of more than 214 million predicted proteins. Instead of looking only at genetic sequence, they searched by three-dimensional form and found hidden members of the G protein-coupled receptor, or GPCR, family, a group that helps cells sense and respond to extracellular signals.

Older adults with higher polyphenol intake were less likely to have mild cognitive impairment

In a cross-sectional study of 92 older Italian memory-clinic patients, higher habitual intake of total dietary (poly)phenols and several specific subclasses was associated with a lower likelihood of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Total (poly)phenol intake was not associated with cognitive test performance or circulating inflammatory biomarkers, and the authors cautioned that the small observational study cannot establish causality.

Scientists create a needle-thin brain implant that can do three jobs at once

A new needle-thin brain implant can record neural activity, deliver drugs, and stimulate multiple brain regions using a single flexible fiber. Successful tests in mice suggest it could give scientists a more precise, less invasive way to study the brain and may eventually help treat neurological disorders such as epilepsy.

Stem cells reverse stroke damage and restore movement in mice

Stem cell transplants may be able to repair damage caused by stroke, according to researchers at the University of Zurich. In experiments with mice, the treatment helped generate new neurons, restore movement, and trigger several other forms of brain repair, offering a promising step toward regenerative treatments for neurological damage.

Stroke is extremely common, affecting about one in four adults over a lifetime. Roughly half of those who experience one are left with lasting problems such as paralysis or difficulty speaking.

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