Studies of visual discrimination in rodents can confound the effects of cue salience with reward value making it difficult to determine which factor guides choice behavior. We examined this issue by testing how changes in relative salience affect decision dynamics in rats (nine females and five males) performing a two-alternative forced-choice task with visual cues associated with high or low sucrose rewards. After initial training with high-and low-luminance cues, we introduced a novel cue of intermediate luminance as a “luminance shift” test. The intermediate luminance cue substituted for either the brighter or dimmer cue and had the same reward value as the replaced cue. We found that while rats maintained a preference for the higher-value option, the introduction of a perceptually more similar cue reduced choice preference and eliminated latency differences compared with baseline.
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Scientists discover a hidden immune signal that helps spinal cords regrow
A surprising immune system signal may help explain why zebrafish can regenerate damaged spinal cords so effectively. Researchers found that certain neutrophils release Il-4, which calms harmful inflammation and allows injured nerve fibers to grow again. Without these cells, healing stalled, but adding Il-4 restored regeneration. Scientists now want to know whether the same mechanism could someday be harnessed to improve spinal cord repair in humans.
JWST finds extreme star-forming galaxies masquerading as faint quasars
A new study finds that two early-universe objects thought to be faint quasars are actually extraordinarily luminous galaxies powered by bursts of star formation. James Webb Space Telescope observations of the galaxies, seen when the universe was less than a billion years old, reveal signatures of extremely massive stars, including some potentially more than 200 times the mass of the sun. The paper outlining this discovery was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 18.
There’s a luminosity range where ultraviolet-bright galaxies and faint quasars become impossible to tell apart using standard discovery techniques. Both can show blue ultraviolet continua and prominent hydrogen Lyman-alpha emission lines, and low-sensitivity discovery spectra alone cannot distinguish which is which.
This ambiguity affects how astronomers count quasars and extremely bright, actively star-forming galaxies in the early universe. During their quasar searches, astronomers have detected a significant number of UV-bright galaxy candidates in the Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars survey (SHELLQs).
America’s Most Popular Car Colors, 1996 vs. 2025
See the most popular car colors in America in 2025 and how preferences have shifted since 1996.
Kinéis-Netmore Hybrid IoT Partnership Makes Satellite Connectivity Plug-and-Play
🛰️ Kinéis + Netmore Make Hybrid Satellite Connectivity Plug-and-Play.
Netmore has integrated Kinéis’ European satellite constellation into its LPWAN platform, delivering seamless hybrid terrestrial-satellite IoT connectivity.
The key advantage: No custom hardware engineering required. Customers can deploy hybrid connectivity immediately through the existing platform, with automatic switching between LoRaWAN and satellite.
This removes the traditional barrier that kept satellite connectivity out of reach for most industrial operators. Market projection: Hybrid IoT connectivity is expected to grow from $8.6B in 2025 to $89.4B by 2034.
🔗 Full analysis:
#SatelliteIoT #HybridConnectivity #IIoT
Sanders’ Stupid Superintelligence Ban
It’s dangerous because it makes the left look unrealistic and out-of-touch, whereas the future of AGI badly needs the left’s focus on compassion and inclusion
New insights on CRISPR/Cas9based therapy for breast Cancer Environment
CRISPR/Cas9 has revolutionized genome-editing techniques in various biological fields including human cancer research. Cancer is a multi-step process that encompasses the accumulation of mutations that result in the hallmark of the malignant state. The goal of cancer research is to identify these mutations and correlate them with the underlying tumorigenic process. Using CRISPR/Cas9 tool, specific mutations responsible for cancer initiation and/or progression could be corrected at least in animal models as a first step towards translational applications. In the present article, we review various novel strategies that employed CRISPR/Cas9 to treat breast cancer in both in vitro and in vivo systems.
Breast tissue regeneration is driven by cellmatrix interactions coordinating multilineage stem cell differentiation through DDR1 Communications
Breast tissue regeneration is driven by cell-matrix interactions coordinating multi-lineage stem cell differentiation through DDR1.
Mammary morphogenesis is a complex process. Here the authors describe how stem cells build a three-dimensional self-organizing multi-lineage tissue by showing that positional signals from the extracellular matrix through the collagen receptor DDR1 lead stem cells to differentiate into multi-lineage committed multi-layered progeny.
3D-printed tissue restores erectile function and aids reproduction in animal study
Erectile dysfunction affects over 40% of men over 40, yet our understanding of the condition remains limited. Research on this issue has mostly relied on real organs, making it difficult to study the detailed interaction between blood flow and tissue during an erection.
In a recent study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team of scientists from China, Japan and the U.S. presented a 3D printed hydrogel-based penile model complete with essential blood vessels to mimic the natural function of a penis.
Once implanted into rabbits and pigs with penile deformities, the bioengineered organ enabled them to mate and reproduce within weeks.
3Dprinted perfused models of the penis for the study of penile physiology and for restoring erectile function in rabbits and pigs Biomedical Engineering
3D-printed models of the penis can facilitate the study of penile physiology and the repair of penile defects, as shown via a reconstructed and implanted corpus cavernosum that restored erectile function and mating capacity in rabbits and pigs.