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Hard-to-detect colorectal pre-cancerous lesions known as serrated polyps, and the aggressive tumors that develop from them, depend heavily on the ramped-up production of cholesterol, according to a preclinical study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding points to the possibility of using cholesterol-lowering drugs to prevent or treat such tumors.

In the study, published Oct. 13 in Nature Communications, the researchers analyzed mice that develop serrated polyps and tumors, detailing the chain of molecular events in these tissues that leads to increased cholesterol production.

They confirmed their findings in analyses of human serrated polyps and tumors, and showed in mouse models that replicate the human cancer that blocking cholesterol production prevented the progression of these types of intestinal tumors.

Scientists have discovered a new way to destroy cancer cells. Stimulating aminocyanine molecules with near-infrared light caused them to vibrate in sync, enough to break apart the membranes of cancer cells.

Aminocyanine molecules are already used in bioimaging as synthetic dyes. Commonly used in low doses to detect cancer, they stay stable in water and are very good at attaching themselves to the outside of cells.

The research team from Rice University, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas, says the new approach is a marked improvement over another kind of cancer-killing molecular machine previously developed, called Feringa-type motors, which could also break the structures of problematic cells.

Highly transmissible and dubbed the Zombie Deer disease, scientists are closely monitoring this new infection as they fear it will spread to humans.

To effectively assist humans in real-world settings, robots should be able to learn new skills and adapt their actions based on what users require them to do at different times. One way to achieve this would be to design computational approaches that allow robots to learn from human demonstrations, for instance observing videos of a person washing dishes and learning to repeat the same sequence of actions.

Researchers at University of British Columbia, Carnegie Mellon University, Monash University and University of Victoria recently set out to gather more reliable data to train robots via demonstrations. Their paper, posted to the arXiv preprint server, shows that the data they gathered can significantly improve the efficiency with which robots learn from the demonstrations of human users.

“Robots can build cars, gather the items for shopping orders in busy warehouses, vacuum floors, and keep the hospital shelves stocked with supplies,” Maram Sakr, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore. “Traditional robot programming systems require an expert programmer to develop a robot controller that is capable of such tasks while responding to any situation the robot may face.”

Large language models (LLMs) are advanced deep learning algorithms that can process written or spoken prompts and generate texts in response to these prompts. These models have recently become increasingly popular and are now helping many users to create summaries of long documents, gain inspiration for brand names, find quick answers to simple queries, and generate various other types of texts.

Researchers at the University of Georgia and Mayo Clinic recently set out to assess the biological knowledge and reasoning skills of different LLMs. Their paper, pre-published on the arXiv server, suggests that OpenAI’s model GPT-4 performs better than the other predominant LLMs on the market on reasoning biology problems.

“Our recent publication is a testament to the significant impact of AI on biological research,” Zhengliang Liu, co-author of the recent paper, told Tech Xplore. “This study was born out of the rapid adoption and evolution of LLMs, especially following the notable introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022. These advancements, perceived as critical steps towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), marked a shift from traditional biotechnological approaches to an AI-focused methodology in the realm of biology.”

Researchers are working to unlock the immense potential of terahertz waves for applications ranging from medical imaging to wireless communications. However, efficiently controlling the polarization state of these high-frequency electromagnetic waves has remained an enduring challenge.

Conventional approaches relying on natural birefringent crystals or dielectric waveplates are hampered by narrow operational bandwidths, bulky hardware, and susceptibility to damage. These limitations have throttled progress towards commercially viable terahertz systems that fully exploit the information encoded in electromagnetic wave polarization.

Recent advances in metamaterials – artificial structures engineered with properties unattainable in nature – have brought fresh hope. Carefully designed metamaterial arrays allow researchers to overcome the constraints of natural materials and exercise unprecedented control over terahertz wave propagation.

In theory, the immune system can recognize cancer cells as foreign and destroy them. In practice, this is often difficult, particularly after a tumor has become established in the body.

And even when immune cells, especially certain killer T cells, make it into a tumor, they face a hostile environment. This can include molecules that can disable T cells, low oxygen, and a lack of nutrients for energy. The end result is often a dysfunctional state known as T-cell exhaustion.

Now, a new study has confirmed the existence of yet another way that tumors can thwart T cells. In some tumors, a subset of cancer cells can act like a thief siphoning fuel from a car’s gas tank: they drain mitochondria —the tiny structures within cells that produce energy—from T cells and use them for their own energy needs.

Quanta Magazine’s coverage of biology in 2023, including important research progress into the nature of consciousness, the origins of our microbiomes and the timekeeping mechanisms that govern our lives and development.\
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Read about more breakthroughs from 2023 at Quanta Magazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-bi…\
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00:05 The Investigation of Consciousness\
Our minds are constantly taking in new external information while also creating their own internal imagery and narratives. How do we distinguish reality from fantasy? This year, researchers discovered that the brain has a “reality threshold” against which it constantly evaluates processed signals. \
- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: https://www.quantamagazine.org/is-it–…\
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04:30 Microbiomes Evolve With Us\
This year, scientists provided clear evidence that the organisms in our microbiome —the collection of bacteria and other cells that live in our guts and elsewhere on our body — spread between people, especially those with whom we spend the most time. This raises the intriguing possibility that some illnesses that aren’t usually considered communicable might be.\
– Original story with links to research papers can be found here: https://www.quantamagazine.org/global…\
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08:43 How Life Keeps Time\
The rate at which an embryo develops and the timing of when its tissues mature vary dramatically between species. What controls the ticking of this developmental clock that determines an animal’s final form? This year, a series of careful experiments suggest that mitochondria may very well serve dual roles as both the timekeeper and power source for complex cells.\
- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-m…\
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Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/

Surveys from business leaders show that they are now doing mass layoffs due to adoption of AI.

A recent survey of 750 business leaders reveals a growing trend: AI replacing jobs. In 2023, 37% of these leaders acknowledged AI-induced layoffs, with 44% expecting more in 2024. Major companies like Paytm and Google are at the forefront, integrating AI to enhance efficiency but at the cost of human jobs. Paytm’s recent layoffs post AI implementation and Google’s potential restructuring of its ad sales unit due to AI advancements highlight this shift.\
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#ai #job #layoffs \
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