OpenAI and Retro Biosciences achieve 50x increase in expressing stem cell reprogramming markers.
Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.
A new genetic link to pain provides a promising drug target
Chronic pain is life-changing and considered one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, making daily life difficult for millions of people around the world, and exacerbating personal and economic burdens. Despite established theories about the molecular mechanisms behind it, scientists have been unable to identify the specific processes in the body responsible, until now.
In an exciting collaboration, a team led by NDCN’s Professor David Bennett, and Professor Simon Newstead in the Department of Biochemistry and Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery, have identified a new genetic link to pain, determined the structure of the molecular transporter that this gene encodes, and linked its function to pain.
The findings of the research offers a promising, new, specific target against which to develop a drug to alleviate chronic pain. The paper “SLC45A4 is a pain gene encoding a neuronal polyamine transporter” is published in Nature.
Measuring a previously mysterious imaginary component of wave scattering
Inside the system, the light wave’s velocity typically changes; such a system is called a “dispersive medium.” In particular, the scattering matrix for a dispersive medium can provide the time delay of the wave’s transition from incoming to outgoing—how long the wave stays in the system.
The time delay, in turn, provides scientists, engineers and technicians with parameters such as the phase evolution of quantum waves, the delay of a wave group in a fiber optic cable and the group delay in waveguides, among other quantities.
But what to make of the imaginary parts of the scattering matrix? In a 2016 paper in Nature Communications by lead author M. Asano of Japan, a group of scientists from several countries around the world recognized that for light pulses that meet certain requirements, the imaginary part of the scattering matrix—more precisely, the real number before “i,” the square root of-1—represented the “frequency shift” of the transitioning wave due to its passage through the scattering system. In particular, it represents the shift of the frequency in the center of the pulse (shaped as a Bell curve, a Gaussian distribution) of the incoming light pulse.
Psychedelic therapy may trigger visual imagery in people with aphantasia
UNSW Sydney and Macquarie University psychology researchers have written an article warning that psychedelic therapies may switch on visual mental imagery in people with aphantasia and could raise the risk of intrusive thoughts, while calling for more detailed informed consent.
Known as a blind mind’s eye, people with aphantasia recall personal memories with fewer details and vividness. Visual mental imagery is absent. People with aphantasia cannot visualize objects, people, places, or memories, and they also recall personal memories with fewer details and vividness.
Recent reports, including one published case study and one pre-print along with anecdotal accounts, describe individuals with aphantasia gaining a new capacity to visualize after a single dose of ayahuasca or psilocybin, with positive self-reported outcomes during and after the experience, including within a year post-experience.
Effortful pastimes are perceived as more meaningful than those requiring minimal effort, study finds
Past studies suggest that how people spend their time outside of work or academic endeavors can contribute to their overall well-being and life satisfaction. Yet how humans perceive different leisure activities that they engage in and the extent to which they feel that these activities contribute to their life’s purpose has not yet been extensively investigated.
Researchers at the University of Toronto recently carried out a study aimed at exploring how effort, specifically in the context of leisure activities or pastimes, relates to meaning and purpose. Their findings, published in Communications Psychology, suggest that activities that require more effort, such as Sudoku puzzles or other mentally challenging games, are perceived as more meaningful than less demanding activities, such as watching videos on social media—yet they can be equally enjoyable.
“The paper was inspired largely by some recent work from us and others looking at the seemingly paradoxical nature of effort,” Aidan Campbell, first author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “It’s something people tend to minimize and almost universally experience as frustrating or unpleasant, but at the same time, many actively seek it out or view effort as this virtuous thing which enhances the value of one’s actions.
Depression shown to be both cause and consequence of poor health
A large international study led by researchers at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, shows that major depressive disorder (MDD) not only increases risk for a wide range of diseases and social problems, but is also partly driven by factors such as loneliness, obesity, smoking, and chronic pain.
The study, published in Nature Mental Health, applied genetic methods to systematically test which traits are causes, and which are consequences, of depression. The findings highlight the double burden of MDD: it both arises from and contributes to poor health, making prevention and treatment particularly urgent.
“We show that depression sits at the center of a web of health problems,” says Joëlle Pasman, research associate at Amsterdam UMC and Karolinska Institutet, who led the study. “It is not only a debilitating condition in itself but also increases the risk of many diseases, while at the same time being triggered by social, behavioral, and medical factors.”
Social experiments assess ‘artificial’ altruism displayed by large language models
Altruism, the tendency to behave in ways that benefit others even if it comes at a cost to oneself, is a valuable human quality that can facilitate cooperation with others and promote meaningful social relationships. Behavioral scientists have been studying human altruism for decades, typically using tasks or games rooted in economics.
Two researchers based at Willamette University and the Laureate Institute for Brain Research recently set out to explore the possibility that large language models (LLMs), such as the model underpinning the functioning of the conversational platform ChatGPT, can simulate the altruistic behavior observed in humans. Their findings, published in Nature Human Behavior, suggest that LLMs do in fact simulate altruism in specific social experiments, offering a possible explanation for this.
“My paper with Nick Obradovich emerged from my longstanding interest in altruism and cooperation,” Tim Johnson, co-author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. “Over the course of my career, I have used computer simulation to study models in which agents in a population interact with each other and can incur a cost to benefit another party. In parallel, I have studied how people make decisions about altruism and cooperation in laboratory settings.
Scorpion-inspired pressure sensors let robots feel their surroundings
Nature, the master engineer, is coming to our rescue again. Inspired by scorpions, scientists have created new pressure sensors that are both highly sensitive and able to work across a wide variety of pressures.
Pressure sensors are key components in an array of applications, from medical devices and industrial control systems to robotics and human-machine interfaces. Silicon-based piezoresistive sensors are among the most common types used today, but they have a significant limitation. They can’t be super sensitive to changes and work well across a range of pressures at the same time. Often, you have to choose one over the other.
Smart microrobots learn to communicate and collaborate in water
In a major step toward intelligent and collaborative microrobotic systems, researchers at the Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes (MAIN) at Chemnitz University of Technology have developed a new generation of autonomous microrobots—termed smartlets—that can communicate, respond, and work together in aqueous environments.
These tiny devices, each just a millimeter in size, are fully integrated with onboard electronics, sensors, actuators, and energy systems. They are able to receive and transmit optical signals, respond to stimuli with motion, and exchange information with other microrobots in their vicinity.
The findings are published in Science Robotics, in a paper titled “Si chiplet–controlled 3D modular microrobots with smart communication in natural aqueous environments.”
Hydroxyl adsorption identified as key factor in electrocatalytic ammonia production
Compared with the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process, renewable energy-driven electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NO3−RR) provides a low-carbon route for ammonia synthesis under mild conditions. Using nitrate from wastewater as the nitrogen source and water as the hydrogen source, this route has the potential to produce ammonia sustainably while mitigating water pollution.
Copper (Cu)-based catalysts show a good performance for NO3−RR to ammonia. However, they suffer from issues including high overpotential, competing nitrite (NO2–) formation, and low overall energy efficiency.
In a study published in ACS Catalysis, a team led by Prof. Bao Xinhe and Prof. Gao Dunfeng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with Prof. Wang Guoxiong from Fudan University, proposed hydroxyl (*OH) adsorption as a selectivity descriptor for ammonia synthesis via NO3−RR over Cu catalysts.