Bach was a musical master of mathematical manipulation.
An AI tool has made a step forward in translating the language proteins use to dictate whether they form sticky clumps similar to those linked to Alzheimer’s disease and around fifty other types of human disease. In a departure from typical “black-box” AI models, the new tool, CANYA, was designed to be able to explain its decisions, revealing the specific chemical patterns that drive or prevent harmful protein folding.
The discovery, published in the journal Science Advances, was possible thanks to the largest-ever dataset on protein aggregation created to date. The study gives new insights about the molecular mechanisms underpinning sticky proteins, which are linked to diseases affecting half a billion people worldwide.
Protein clumping, or amyloid aggregation, is a health hazard that disrupts normal cell function. When certain patches in proteins stick to each other, proteins grow into dense fibrous masses that have pathological consequences.
Lightweight lithium metal is a heavy-hitting critical mineral, serving as the key ingredient in the rechargeable batteries that power phones, laptops, electric vehicles and more. As ubiquitous as lithium is in modern technology, extracting the metal is complex and expensive. A new method, developed by researchers at Penn State and recently granted patent rights, enables high-efficiency lithium extraction—in minutes, not hours—using low temperatures and simple water-based leaching.
“Lithium powers the technologies that define our modern lives—from smartphones to electric vehicles—and has applications in grid energy storage, ceramics, glass, lubricants, and even medical and nuclear technologies,” said Mohammad Rezaee, the Centennial Career Development Professor in Mining Engineering at Penn State, who led the team that published their approach in Chemical Engineering Journal.
“But its extraction must also be environmentally responsible. Our research shows that we can extract lithium, and other critical minerals, more efficiently while drastically reducing energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and waste that’s difficult to manage or dispose of.”
The discovery of the new species of crocodile sheds fresh light on the need for conservation efforts.
An interest in understanding the role that the Milky Way played in Egyptian culture and religion has led University of Portsmouth Associate Professor of Astrophysics, Dr. Or Graur to uncover what he thinks may be the ancient Egyptian visual depiction of the Milky Way.
Various Egyptian gods are either associated with, symbolize, or directly embody certain celestial objects. In his study, Dr. Graur reviewed 125 images of the sky-goddess Nut (pronounced “Noot”), found among 555 ancient Egyptian coffins dating back nearly 5,000 years.
Combining astronomy with Egyptology, he analyzed whether she could be linked to the Milky Way and his findings are now published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.
Over billions of years, the universe has transformed from a simpler state into an intricate cosmic web, but new research hints that the growth of cosmic structures may not have unfolded exactly as predicted.
Using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, scientists compared ancient cosmic light with the modern distribution of galaxies, essentially creating a multidimensional cosmic timeline. Their findings reveal a slight but intriguing discrepancy: matter appears to be a bit less “clumpy” today than early models anticipated. While not definitive enough to rewrite physics, this subtle irregularity opens exciting possibilities about the mysterious forces, like dark energy, that could be subtly reshaping the universe.
The Cosmic Dance of Matter.
A new crowd-trained way to develop LLMs over the internet could shake up the AI industry with a giant 100 billion-parameter model later this year.
A hidden world beneath Albania’s surface has just been unveiled, and it’s more extraordinary than anyone imagined. This underground lake could hold secrets that will reshape our understanding of Earth’s mysteries.
Substance use disorders (SUDs) accelerate biological aging in the brain through substance-specific molecular mechanisms.
