Summary: Researchers have identified how the brain’s default mode network (DMN) collaborates with other regions to produce creative thought. By using advanced brain imaging techniques, they tracked real-time brain activity during creative tasks.
This study reveals that the DMN initiates creative ideas, which are then evaluated by other brain regions. Understanding this process could lead to interventions that enhance creativity and aid mental health treatments.
How and to what degree we respond emotionally to the real world is handled by a region at the back of the brain called the occipital temporal cortex.
Scientists reveal how brain activity predicts a person’s response — normal or abnormal — to an emotionally charged image
The artificial intelligence startup and Menlo Ventures are launching a $100 million fund on Wednesday to back early-stage startups, and get them using the AI company’s technology. Menlo will put up the cash to invest in the startups, while Anthropic will give founders $25,000 in credits that go toward using its large language models.
The launch of the Anthology Fund mirrors a partnership between Apple and venture firm Kleiner Perkins. The joint venture, called the iFund, was introduced in 2008, a year after the iPhone hit the market, to support developers on Apple’s mobile platforms. It initially started with $100 million in 2008, and doubled to $200 million two years later.
Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures and a former partner at Kleiner Perkins, said the iFund was the inspiration for this launch.
“This new planet supports the theory that high eccentricity migration should account for some fraction of hot Jupiters,” said Dr. Sarah Millholland.
How do exoplanets evolve throughout their lifetimes, specifically those known as “hot Jupiters”, which have been found to orbit extremely close to their parent stars? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated the highly eccentric orbit of TIC 241,249,530 b, which is a Jupiter-sized exoplanet located approximately 1,100 light-years from Earth. This study holds the potential to help astronomers better understand the formation of exoplanets like hot Jupiters and how their orbits evolve over time.
Now, TIC 241,249,530 b could help astronomers piece together the evolution of hot Jupiters given the exoplanet’s highly eccentric orbit, meaning it travels very close to its parent star at certain points followed by swinging back out to well beyond the parent star, completing one orbit in 167 days. Astronomers hypothesize this could mean that hot Jupiters initially begin as cold Jupiters in highly eccentric orbits only to slowly become more circular and closer to its parent star over time.
For the study, the researchers used computer models to simulate long-term orbits of TIC 241,249,530 b, whose star also orbits another star, making it a binary system. After modeling the gravitational relationship between TIC 241,249,530 b, its host star, and the second star, the team determined that TIC 241,249,530 b will eventually become a hot Jupiter several billion years from now. Additionally, they discovered that TIC 241,249,530 b started out as a cold Jupiter but whose orbit was stretched over time resulting from the gravity between its orbit and the binary star system.
Pablo viñas martínez, esperanza lópez, and alejandro bermudez.
Instituto de Física Teórica, UAM-CSIC, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28,049 Madrid, Spain.
Get full text pdfRead on arXiv VanityComment on Fermat’s library.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to examine tiny structures, such as bacteria and genes, with reduced damage compared to traditional light sources.
The new technique involves spectroscopy, which is the study of how matter absorbs and emits light and other forms of radiation, and it takes advantage of quantum mechanics to study the structure and dynamics of molecules in ways that are not possible using conventional light sources.
“This research examined a quantum light spectroscopy technique called entangled two-photon absorption (ETPA) that takes advantage of entanglement to reveal the structures of molecules and how ETPA acts at ultrafast speeds to determine properties that cannot be seen with classical spectroscopy,” said study senior author Theodore Goodson, U-M professor of chemistry and of macromolecular science and engineering.
The space environment is harsh and full of extreme radiation. Scientists designing spacecraft and satellites need materials that can withstand these conditions.
In a paper published in January 2024, my team of materials researchers demonstrated that a next-generation semiconductor material called metal-halide perovskite can actually recover and heal itself from radiation damage.
Various forms of hopping robots have crept into development for use in different space exploration missions. We’ve reported on their use on asteroids and even our own moon. But a study funded by NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) in 2018 planned a mission to a type of world where hopping may not be as noticeable an advantage—Europa.
HarmonyOS Next, on the other hand, is an Android-free variant of HarmonyOS. The new operating system doesn’t use AOSP libraries, can’t run.apk files, and is a significant step towards complete independence from US-based software for the vendor. HarmonyOS Next is not currently shipping with Huawei products but is available as a developer sandbox to develop and test apps for native HarmonyOS use. HarmonyOS Next hasn’t yet arrived on PC, but recent leaks suggest it soon will, paving the way for a new Chinese homegrown desktop OS.
Images of HarmonyOS Next for PC suggest an operating system taking design cues from MacOS. The system has a familiar status bar and dock bar combo on the top and bottom. The fullscreen/minimize/close buttons live on the right-hand side of programs, mirroring MacOS’s traffic light system.
Huawei’s recent strategy for HarmonyOS has publicly been phones-first. With HarmonyOS being open-source, much like Android, widespread adoption across the Chinese market and beyond outside of Huawei phones is possible and a big goal for Huawei. HarmonyOS already makes up 16% of the Chinese phone market, which is expected to grow in the coming years.
