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Direct serotonin release in humans shapes aversive learning and inhibition

Increasing serotonin can change how people learn from negative information, as well as improving how they respond to it, according to a new study published in the leading journal Nature Communications.

The study by scientists at the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry and the National…


Serotonin is involved in aversive processing, but how serotonin shapes behavior remains unclear. Here, the authors show that directly enhancing synaptic serotonin in humans reduces outcome sensitivity and increases behavioral inhibition in aversive contexts.

Towards high quality transferred barium titanate ferroelectric hybrid integrated modulator on silicon

Future optical communication and signal processing systems will require high-volume optical links, wherein photonic integrated devices play a key role. Si photonics is currently among the most advanced techniques for realizing low-cost PIC. However, despite their enormous potential, there remain basic restraints on light modulation in SOI waveguides. The absence of a linear EO coefficient is challenging because of the crystal structure of Si.

Your future air conditioner might act like a battery

New cooling technologies that incorporate energy storage could help by charging themselves when renewable electricity is available and demand is low, and still providing cooling services when the grid is stressed.

“We say, take the problem, and turn it into a solution,” says Yaron Ben Nun, founder and chief technology officer of Nostromo Energy.

One of Nostromo Energy’s systems, which it calls an IceBrick, is basically a massive ice cube tray. It cools down a solution made of water and glycol that’s used to freeze individual capsules filled with water. One IceBrick can be made up of thousands of these containers, which each hold about a half-gallon, or roughly two liters, of water.