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Oct 30, 2024

Machine Learning Meets Nanotech: Caltech’s Breakthrough in Mass Spectrometry

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology, robotics/AI

Caltech scientists have introduced a revolutionary machine-learning-driven technique for accurately measuring the mass of individual particles using advanced nanoscale devices.

This method could dramatically enhance our understanding of proteomes by allowing for the mass measurement of proteins in their native forms, thus offering new insights into biological processes and disease mechanisms.

Caltech scientists have developed a machine-learning-powered method that enables precise measurement of individual particles and molecules using advanced nanoscale devices. This breakthrough could lead to the use of various devices for mass measurement, which is key to identifying proteins. It also holds the potential to map the complete proteome—the full set of proteins in an organism.

Oct 30, 2024

The Hidden Math Behind All Living Systems

Posted by in categories: biological, mathematics, neuroscience, robotics/AI

Dr. Sanjeev Namjoshi, a machine learning engineer who recently submitted a book on Active Inference to MIT Press, discusses the theoretical foundations and practical applications of Active Inference, the Free Energy Principle (FEP), and Bayesian mechanics. He explains how these frameworks describe how biological and artificial systems maintain stability by minimizing uncertainty about their environment.

Namjoshi traces the evolution of these fields from early 2000s neuroscience research to current developments, highlighting how Active Inference provides a unified framework for perception and action through variational free energy minimization. He contrasts this with traditional machine learning approaches, emphasizing Active Inference’s natural capacity for exploration and curiosity through epistemic value.

Continue reading “The Hidden Math Behind All Living Systems” »

Oct 30, 2024

With ‘electro-agriculture,’ plants can produce food in the dark and with 94% less land, bioengineers say

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, energy, food, genetics

The acetate would then be used to feed plants that are grown hydroponically. The method could also be used to grow other food-producing organisms, since acetate is naturally used by mushrooms, yeast, and algae.

“The whole point of this new process to try to boost the efficiency of photosynthesis,” says senior author Feng Jiao, an electrochemist at Washington University in St. Louis. “Right now, we are at about 4% efficiency, which is already four times higher than for photosynthesis, and because everything is more efficient with this method, the CO2 footprint associated with the production of food becomes much smaller.”

To genetically engineer acetate-eating plants, the researchers are taking advantage of a metabolic pathway that germinating plants use to break down food stored in their seeds. This pathway is switched off once plants become capable of photosynthesis, but switching it back on would enable them to use acetate as a source of energy and carbon.

Oct 30, 2024

Bergen Engines to Power World’s Largest Hydrogen Ferries

Posted by in category: sustainability

“Scheduled for delivery in 2026, these new ferries will be powered with a hybrid mix of 85% hydrogen fuel cells and 15% biofuel from Bergen’s C25:33 engines.”


Norwegian power solutions supplier Bergen Engines has been selected to provide four generating sets to support the world’s largest hydrogen ferries, operating on Norway’s longest ferry connection from Bodø to Lofoten.

The C25:33L8A generating sets will be fueled by low carbon Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) and will serve as support power to the hydrogen fuel cells onboard, which act as the vessel’s main propulsion power.

Oct 30, 2024

Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18 b

Posted by in category: space

A new investigation with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide.

Oct 30, 2024

Geologists Crack 134-Million-Year-Old Mystery of Amethyst Geode Formation

Posted by in categories: economics, innovation

New research from the University of Göttingen reveals that amethyst geodes in Uruguay formed at low temperatures from groundwater-like fluids, proposing a new model for their formation based on extensive geological surveys and innovative analytical methods.

Amethyst, the violet variety of quartz, has been used as a gemstone for centuries and is a key economic resource in northern Uruguay. Geodes are hollow rock formations often with quartz crystals, such as amethyst, inside.

In Uruguay, amethyst geodes have been found in cooled lava flows dating back to the original breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana approximately 134 million years ago. However, their formation has remained a mystery.

Oct 30, 2024

Proof-of-concept design shrinks quantum rotation sensor to micron scale

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Most of the current atom interferometers are large instruments, occupying buildings and requiring towers that can reach tens of meters in height. Now, University of Michigan physicists have developed a design for a quantum rotation sensor with a core size that is barely visible to the human eye.

The proof-of-concept design could help bring atom interferometer-based out of the laboratory and into the world, according to lead author and U-M doctoral student Bineet Dash.

Scientists could use atom interferometers in quests ranging from the continual hunt for the tiny ripples in the fabric of our universe caused by gravitational waves to understanding minute, localized changes in Earth’s gravity caused by melting ice sheets in Antarctica, Dash says. But because of their size, atom interferometers are typically bound to laboratory settings. Currently, the most sensitive atom interferometers use tall towers inside buildings to shoot beams of atoms across tens of meters to gather information.

Oct 30, 2024

Breakdown of polyethylene therepthalate microplastics under saltwater conditions using engineered Vibrio natriegens

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biological, health, sustainability

Bioengineered bacteria to eat plastic in seawater:3 Which in large quantities can eat all the plastic in the ocean:3 Yay face_with_colon_three


Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a highly recyclable plastic that has been extensively used and manufactured. Like other plastics, PET resists natural degradation, thus accumulating in the environment. Several recycling strategies have been applied to PET, but these tend to result in downcycled products that eventually end up in landfills. This accumulation of landfilled PET waste contributes to the formation of microplastics, which pose a serious threat to marine life and ecosystems, and potentially to human health. To address this issue, our project leveraged synthetic biology to develop a whole-cell biocatalyst capable of depolymerizing PET in seawater environments by using the fast-growing, nonpathogenic, moderate halophile Vibrio natriegens. By leveraging a two-enzyme system—comprising a chimera of IsPETase and IsMHETase from Ideonella sakaiensis —displayed on V. natriegens, we constructed whole-cell catalysts that depolymerize PET and convert it into its monomers in salt-containing media and at a temperature of 30°C.

Oct 30, 2024

Under scrutiny, UW-Madison virus lab opens its doors

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education

Scientists studying viruses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently opened their lab door for a tour, looking to shine a light on their work after being targeted by a Republican bill.

The legislation would have prohibited some of the research that has been done in the past in Madison…


The bill would have ended all so-called “gain-of-function” research at higher education institutions in the state, and cut funding from any university that continued such experiments.

Continue reading “Under scrutiny, UW-Madison virus lab opens its doors” »

Oct 30, 2024

How a classical computer beat a quantum computer at its own game

Posted by in categories: computing, mathematics, quantum physics

Researchers explore an intriguing phenomenon in quantum systems, drawing inspiration from a recent quantum computing experiment.


Earlier this year, researchers at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ) announced that they had successfully used a classical computer and sophisticated mathematical models to thoroughly outperform a quantum computer on a task that some thought only quantum computers could solve.

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