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BCI robotic hand control reaches new finger-level milestone

As detailed in a new study in Nature Communications, He’s lab brings noninvasive EEG-based BCI one step closer to everyday use by demonstrating real-time brain decoding of individual finger movement intentions and control of a dexterous robotic hand at the finger level.

“Improving hand function is a top priority for both impaired and able-bodied individuals, as even small gains can meaningfully enhance ability and quality of life,” explained Bin He, professor of biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “However, real-time decoding of dexterous individual finger movements using noninvasive brain signals has remained an elusive goal, largely due to the limited spatial resolution of EEG.”

Dark dwarfs lurking at the center of our galaxy might hint at the nature of dark matter

Celestial objects known as dark dwarfs may be hiding at the center of our galaxy and could offer key clues to uncover the nature of one of the most mysterious and fundamental phenomena in contemporary cosmology: dark matter.

A paper published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics by a team of researchers based in the UK and Hawaii describes these objects for the first time and proposes how to verify their existence using current observational tools such as the James Webb Space Telescope. The paper is titled “Dark Dwarfs: Dark Matter-Powered Sub-Stellar Objects Awaiting Discovery at the Galactic Center.”

The Anglo-U.S. team behind the study named them dark dwarfs. Not because they are dark bodies—on the contrary—but because of their special link with dark matter, one of the most central topics in current cosmology and astrophysics research.

Deus Ex Could Be a Command & Conquer RPG — John Romero Saved The Game

Spector originally pitched the project under the working title Troubleshooter at his former studio, Origin Systems. He wanted to create something truly new, saying he was tired of space marines, aliens, and wizards in hats.

The main character of Troubleshooter was meant to be Jake Shooter, a super-cop called in by secret agencies for high-risk missions.

“Deus Ex was part shooter, part stealth game, part RPG. I mean, how do you sell that? The argument I got from the Thief folks was that if you give players a gun, they won’t sneak. I was also asked, ‘Why don’t you just make a shooter?’ I learned the power of the word ‘no’ when pitching Deus Ex, let me tell you,” said Spector.

Functional Features of Senescent Cells and Implications for Therapy

Cellular senescence is a key mechanism of aging. Senescent cells negatively affect the function of tissues and organs, significantly contributimg to the aging of the organism. Functional and structural characteristics of senescent cells, such as genomic changes and cell cycle arrest, lysosome and mitochondrial dysfunction, and production of SASP factors, are promising therapeutic targets in the context of healthy longevity. The present review was designed to characterize the features of senescent cells in order to discuss current methods and problems of geroprotective therapy and perspective factors for the development of new strategies of anti-aging treatment. Publications were searched based on the analysis of articles containing the keywords “senescent cells, aging, senolytic therapy, SASP, mitochondrial dysfunction” in the PubMed and Scopus databases up to March 2025.

Danish trial reveals how structured exercise and guidance affect life with chronic conditions

A large multicenter trial found that a 12-week personalized exercise therapy and self-management support program produced a small but statistically significant improvement in health-related quality of life for adults with multimorbidity. The intervention was safe, but its clinical relevance remains uncertain, as only self-rated health showed a significant benefit over usual care.

Chinese scientists find genetics shapes brain’s balance linked to mental ability

There is extensive evidence that brain criticality – the balance between neural excitation and inhibition – enhances its information processing capabilities.

But despite the significance of brain criticality and its potential influence on neurological and psychiatric disorders, the genetic basis of this state had been “largely unexplored”, according to researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ biophysics and automation institutes. “We demonstrate that genetic factors significantly influence brain criticality across various scales, from specific brain regions to large-scale networks,” the team said in their paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month.

They also established a link between criticality and cognitive functions, suggesting a shared genetic foundation.

“These findings position brain criticality as a biological phenotype, opening broad avenues for exploring its implications in brain function and potential dysfunctions,” the team wrote.

Brain criticality is characterised by neuronal avalanches, or cascading bursts of neuron activity in brain networks.

“At the critical state, the brain exhibits scale-free dynamics, with avalanches observed across various scales ranging from local networks of individual neurons to the global network of interacting brain areas,” the paper said.

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