Unusual clusters on neurons are calcium-signaling “hotspots” that activate gene transcription, allowing neurons to produce crucial proteins.
For 30 years, mysterious clusters of proteins found on the cell body of neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain, both intrigued and baffled James Trimmer.
Now, the distinguished professor of physiology and membrane biology at the UC Davis School of Medicine may finally have an answer. In a new study published in PNAS, Trimmer and his colleagues reveal these protein clusters are calcium signaling “hotspots” in the neuron that play a crucial role in activating gene transcription.
With advancements in the field of robotics, scientists have created smart soft robots that can mimic any animal in terms of movement and behaviour. This may be the future of robotics since any kind of animals, whether it’s a robot dog, cat or fish can easily be built to perform complex movements and actions to help researchers and people in need of a social companion or pet.
Soft robotics is the specific sub-field of robotics dealing with constructing robots from highly compliant materials, similar to those found in living organisms. Soft robotics draws heavily from the way in which living organisms move and adapt to their surroundings. In contrast to robots built from rigid materials, soft robots allow for increased flexibility and adaptability for accomplishing tasks, as well as improved safety when working around humans. These characteristics allow for its potential use in the fields of medicine and manufacturing. –
If you enjoyed this video, please consider rating this video and subscribing to our channel for more frequent uploads. Thank you! smile – TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 How Robots have gotten more real. 00:48 Current robotic companions. 02:45 What are these new “Soft Robots”? 04:34 What these new Robots can accomplish. 06:55 Last Words. – #robots #robotics #animals
The TechCrunch Global Affairs Project examines the increasingly intertwined relationship between the tech sector and global politics.
Criminals have a long history of conducting cyber espionage on China’s behalf. Protected from prosecution by their affiliation with China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), criminals turned government hackers conduct many of China’s espionage operations. Alarming as it may sound, this is not a new phenomenon. An indictment issued by the U.S. Department of Justice last year, for example, indicated that the simultaneous criminal-espionage activity of two Chinese hackers went back as far as 2009. In another case, FireEye, a cybersecurity company, alleges that APT41, a separate cohort of MSS hackers, began as a criminal outfit in 2012 and transitioned to concurrently conducting state espionage from 2014 onward. But there’s reason to believe that since then, China has been laying the groundwork for change.
A spate of policies beginning in 2015 put China in a position to replace contracted criminals with new blood from universities. The CCP’s first effort in 2015 was to standardize university cybersecurity degrees by taking inspiration from the United States’ National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education — a NIST framework for improving the U.S. talent pipeline. One year later, China announced the construction of a new National Cybersecurity Talent and Innovation Base in Wuhan. Including all of the Base’s components, it is capable of training and certifying 70,000 people a year in cybersecurity.
Pfizer has pledged a shipment of its experimental antiviral COVID-19 pill to Israel, according to a Saturday television report, a week after the US drugmaker said it was engaged in “active discussion” with 90 countries regarding the coronavirus medication.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz reached an agreement with the drug company for tens of thousands of doses, Channel 12 news reported. The shipment will be despatched as soon as Pfizer receives FDA approval for the pill, the TV report said.
PM and health minister reach agreement with drug company for ‘tens of thousands of doses’; initial data shows almost 90% efficacy.
The company has its hands in a lot of technology pies, from advanced robotics to autonomous cars, planes, chips, advanced AI, and even medical research. This week it offered a glimpse of an avatar-dominated collaboration metaverse.
Summary: A newly developed AI algorithm can directly predict eye position and movement during an MRI scan. The technology could provide new diagnostics for neurological disorders that manifest in changes in eye-movement patterns.
Source: Max Planck Institute.
A large amount of information constantly flows into our brain via the eyes. Scientists can measure the resulting brain activity using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The precise measurement of eye movements during an MRI scan can tell scientists a great deal about our thoughts, memories and current goals, but also about diseases of the brain.
Since the early 2000s, private companies, governments, and research labs have been developing prosthesis that are a lot more advanced than previous designs. WIRED talked with Easton LaChapelle, founder and CEO of Unlimited Tomorrow, to understand how he designed, tested, and adopted his prosthetic arm.
The movie GENERATION IMPACT: THE INVENTOR, follows 25-year old innovator Easton LaChappelle, who developed the world’s lightest weight and most affordable bionic limb. GENERATION IMPACT: THE INVENTOR, can be viewed on HP.com’s digital hub, the Garage (http://hp.com/generation-impact) and YouTube.
Papers referenced in the video: Metformin induces muscle atrophy by transcriptional regulation of myostatin via HDAC6 and FoxO3a. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34725961/
Metformin blunts muscle hypertrophy in response to progressive resistance exercise training in older adults: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial: The MASTERS trial. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31557380/
Phase 3 clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are currently underway in the USA, Canada, and Israel.
These trials, led by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), are the last step in figuring out if this treatment is safe and effective enough for MDMA to be legally prescribed to treat PTSD.
If there’s a positive result from the trials, this could happen in the USA as soon as 2022.
