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Stem cells created from ALS patients point to potential new target for treatment

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is an incurable neurological disorder affecting motor neurons—nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement and breathing.

Many ALS , including those testing promising drugs, have fallen short of expectations—often because the extent of the disease can vary, and patients don’t respond the same way to medications.

But a new study led by scientists at Case Western Reserve University used created from ALS patients to target a specific gene as a kind of shut-off valve for what stresses —and it worked.

Chinese researchers unveil world’s largest-scale brain-like computer Darwin Monkey

Chinese researchers unveiled on Saturday a new generation of super large-scale brain-like computer, Darwin Monkey, the world’s first neuromorphic brain-like computer based on dedicated neuromorphic chips with over 2 billion neurons, which can mimic the workings of a macaque monkey’s brain.

Developed by the State Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence at Zhejiang University in East China’s Zhejiang Province, Darwin Monkey, also known as Wukong supports over 2 billion spiking neurons and more than 100 billion synapses, with a neuron count approaching that of a macaque brain. It consumes approximately 2,000 watts of power under typical operating conditions, the Science and Technology Daily reported.

The human brain is like an extremely efficient “computer.” Brain-inspired computing applies the working principles of biological neural networks to computer system design, aiming to build computing systems that, like the brain, feature low power consumption, high parallelism, high efficiency, and intelligence.

Theories on dark matter’s origins point to ‘mirror world’ and universe’s edge

Two recent studies by Professor Stefano Profumo at the University of California, Santa Cruz, propose theories that attempt to answer one of the most fundamental open questions in modern physics: What is the particle nature of dark matter?

Science has produced overwhelming evidence that the mysterious substance, which accounts for 80% of all matter in the universe, exists. Dark matter’s presence explains what binds galaxies together and makes them rotate. Findings such as the large-scale structure of the universe and measurements of the cosmic microwave background also prove that something as-yet undetermined permeates all that darkness.

What remains unknown are the origins of dark matter, and hence, what are its particle properties? Those weighty questions primarily fall to theoretical physicists like Profumo. And in two recent papers, he approaches those questions from different directions, but both centered on the idea that dark matter might have emerged naturally from conditions in the very early universe—rather than dark matter being an exotic new particle that interacts with ordinary matter in some detectable way.

Scientists produce quantum entanglement-like results without entangled particles in new experiment

In the everyday world that humans experience, objects behave in a predictable way, explained by classical physics. One of the important aspects of classical physics is that nothing travels faster than the speed of light. Even information is subject to this rule. However, in the 1930s, scientists discovered that very small particles abide by some very different rules. One of the more mind-boggling behaviors exhibited by these particles was quantum entanglement—which Albert Einstein termed “spooky action at a distance.”

In , two particles can become entangled—meaning their properties are correlated with each other and measuring these properties will always give you opposite results (i.e., if one is oriented up, the other must be down). The strange part is that you still get correlated measurements instantaneously, even if these particles are very far away from each other.

If information cannot travel faster than the speed of light, then there should not be a way for one particle to immediately know the state of the other. This “spooky” quantum property is referred to as “nonlocality”—exhibiting effects that should not be possible at large distances in classical mechanics.

Scientists design superdiamonds with theoretically predicted hexagonal crystal structure

The brilliantly shiny diamond is more than just pretty; it’s one of the hardest minerals on Earth, with a name derived from the Greek word adámas, meaning unbreakable. Scientists have now engineered a harder form of diamond known as bulk hexagonal diamond (HD)—a crystalline structure that has been theorized for over half a century to have physical properties superior to those of conventional diamond.

In a study published in Nature, researchers from China synthesized bulk hexagonal diamond, ranging from 100-µm-sized to mm-sized, with a highly ordered structure by compressing and heating high-quality graphite under pressure conditions as uniform as possible.

The designed material, which was recoverable under ambient conditions, unveiled the previously elusive structural world of HD, opening new avenues for exploring its potential as a technologically superior material.

It’s not just how many, it’s when: People judge a potential partner’s sexual history by timing, not total number

A major international study has found that when it comes to choosing a long-term partner, people across the globe consider not just how many sexual partners someone has had, but also when those encounters took place.

This is the first time researchers have explored the timing of sexual history alongside quantity—offering a fresh perspective on human mating psychology. The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Led by Swansea University, the study surveyed more than 5,000 participants from 11 countries across five continents. It found that people were generally less willing to commit to someone with a high number of past sexual partners but were more open if those encounters had become less frequent over time, suggesting a shift away from casual sex.

New measurement of free neutron lifetime achieves world-record precision

Incorporated into every aspect of everyday life, the neutron is a fundamental particle of nature. Now, a research collaboration led by Los Alamos National Laboratory has improved the precision of free neutron lifetime measurements. The team’s results highlight the success of the UCNTau experiment’s design and previews the effectiveness of new techniques and approaches that the team is incorporating into the next generation of the experiment.

“The precise lifetime of free neutrons is at the center of still-contested physics questions,” said Steven Clayton, physicist at Los Alamos. “Understanding the neutron lifetime can be used to test the nature of the weak force, one of the fundamental forces of the universe, and can also help search for physics beyond the Standard Model.

Our results here validate the UCNtau experimental approach and point the way toward design improvements that will further enhance our understanding of the physics involved.

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