Complex neural circuits likely arose independently in birds and mammals, suggesting that vertebrates evolved intelligence multiple times.
Concentrating light in a volume as small as the wavelength itself is a challenge that is crucial for numerous applications. Researchers from AMOLF, TU Delft, and Cornell University in the U.S. have demonstrated a new way to focus light on an extremely small scale. Their method utilizes special properties of a photonic crystal and works for a broader spectrum of wavelengths than alternative methods. The researchers published their findings in Science Advances on April 18.
I’m writing this from a laptop that’s stalling and refusing to switch between tabs because it’s gotten too warm in the early Indian summer. It’s not like I’m running a hectic workload of video and audio editing tools and multiple browsers at once: this old machine just can’t move heat away from the processor and other internals quickly enough.
That results in throttling, or reducing the clock speed at high temperatures, in order to prevent overheating and damage to the internal components. But a new finding from the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science could make that a thing of the past – with crystals.
When electronic components like the processor in your laptop are working at full tilt, they can get pretty hot. The same can be said for chips in a range of other devices, and even batteries in electric cars. Now, if these components are squashed into tight spaces, you’re going to see heat build up there and take a long time to dissipate.
One of the co-founders of Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp. is building a different kind of brain implant.
Using operando electrochemical processes, we found a way to restore oxygen-redox active materials exhibiting structural and voltage decay to their pristine state, providing a framework for the design of functional materials with zero thermal expansion.
For the first time, surgeons have successfully performed a remarkable new heart transplant in which the donor organ never skips a beat in the process, reducing the damage that can occur during such a complex operation. It ushers in a new era of more successful heart transplant surgery.
A team of surgeons at the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) in Taipei undertook the revolutionary operation, during which the donor heart continues beating between the organ removal and transplantation stages. Traditionally, the donor heart would be removed and preserved in cold storage to reduce its workload – during this stage, it’s considered “ischemic time,” or the period during which the organ is cut off from blood supply. This comes with the risk of heart damage and rejection once it’s transplanted into a recipient.
When the heart is deprived of blood, ischemia – a shortage of oxygen – can damage its muscle tissue, or myocardium, reducing function and health once it is transplanted. While an organ set for transplant rarely endures more than a few hours in ischemic time, it can still lead to myocardial damage.
The rise of large language models like ChatGPT that can churn out computer code has led to a new term — vibe coding — for people who create software by asking AI to do it for them
In a physics first, a team including scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has created a way to make beams of neutrons travel in curves. These Airy beams (named for English scientist George Airy), which the team created using a custom-built device, could enhance neutrons’ ability to reveal useful information about materials ranging from pharmaceuticals to perfumes to pesticides — in part because the beams can bend around obstacles.
“We’ve known about these strange, self-steering wave patterns for a while, but until now, no one had ever made them with neutrons,” said NIST’s Michael Huber, one of the paper’s authors. “This opens up a whole new way to control neutron beams, which could help us see inside materials or explore some big questions in physics.”
A paper announcing the findings appears today in Physical Review Letters. The team was led by the University at Buffalo’s Dusan Sarenac, and coauthors from the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo in Canada built the custom device that helped create the Airy beam. The team also includes scientists from the University of Maryland, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institut, and Germany’s Jülich Center for Neutron Science at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum.
We characterized the 3’ end sequence of the lncMN3 transcript using rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and we confirmed the existence of the annotated isoform (Appendix Fig. S1A).
The analysis of the expression profile of lncMN3 during mESCs in vitro differentiation to MNs indicated that while it is not expressed in mESCs, it starts to be present in embryoid bodies at day 5 (EB5), reaches its maximum in EBs at day 6 (EB6) and decreases in the mixed population containing MNs (DIV3) obtained after cells dissociation (Fig. 1B). The observed decrease in expression is probably caused by a dilution effect due to the experimental protocol used for MN differentiation (Wichterle and Peljto, 2008) rather than to a real down-regulation. In fact, the MN population obtained upon EBs dissociation accounts for 40% of the mixed neural cell population; moreover, in contrast to the mixed population which continues to divide, MNs are postmitotic cells and their amount is diluted as differentiation proceeds (Capauto et al, 2018).