By switching out a Josephson junction for a nanobridge, researchers have designed a new type of superconducting parametric amplifier that could work in a wider range of experiments.
The results of new experiments indicate that surface-adsorbed water molecules are responsible for contact electrification in granular matter, a finding that challenges established models of this phenomenon.
When two surfaces come into contact, they can exchange electrical charge. This fundamental phenomenon is linked to some of humankind’s earliest scientific experiments—reports suggest that the ancient Greeks uncovered static electricity after rubbing various materials together. Numerous physical processes are at play when two objects touch. But the mechanism underpinning charge exchange—which is known as contact electrification—has bedeviled scientists for centuries [1]. New experiments by Galien Grosjean and Scott Waitukaitis of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria now bring welcome clarity in this field [2]. By levitating a single particle and measuring its charge after consecutive collisions with a surface, the researchers were able to uncover a connection between contact electrification and water molecules on the particle and the surface.
When large numbers of insulating particles, such as grains of sand or particles of flour, collide or rub past each other, enormous electric potentials can build up. Such potentials can have dramatic consequences, leading to spectacular discharges, such as the lightning flashes seen during a sandstorm or a volcanic-ash eruption. Closer to home, such discharges can ignite flammable dusts or disrupt powder flows [3, 4]. But a mystery surrounds this contact electrification: How can identical particles exchange charge? In other words, Why does one of the particles become a donor of charge and the other an acceptor?
Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis have complex disease mechanisms that can differ from patient to patient with the same diagnosis. This means that currently available drugs have little effect on many patients. Using so-called digital twins, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now obtained a deeper understanding of the “off and on” proteins that control these diseases. The study, which is published in Cell Reports Medicine, can lead to more personalized drug therapies.
Many patients with inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, never feel fully healthy despite being on medication. It is a problem that causes significant suffering and expense.
In an inflammatory disease, thousands of genes alter the way they interact in different organs and cell types. Moreover, the pathological process varies from one patient to another with the same diagnosis, and even within the same patient at different times.
An on-going, worldwide shortage of bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) means that many patients with a common and serious type of bladder cancer have limited access to this effective standard of care treatment. But for the first time in almost 50 years, there appears to be a viable treatment alternative.
A new study from the University of Iowa finds that a safe, inexpensive combo-chemotherapy is better tolerated than BCG and is better at preventing high-grade cancer recurrence in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).
Bladder cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the U.S., and NMIBC accounts for about 75% of bladder cancer cases. High-risk NMIBC has a significant risk of both recurrence and progression. Typical treatment for high-risk NMIBC involves surgical removal of the tumor followed by treatment with BCG.
On Monday, Snapchat announced an experimental AI-powered conversational chatbot called “My AI,” powered by ChatGPT-style technology from OpenAI. My AI will be available for $3.99 a month for Snapchat+ subscribers and is rolling out “this week,” according to a news post from Snap, Inc.
But like its GPT-powered cousins, ChatGPT and Bing Chat, Snap says that My AI is prone to “hallucinations,” which are unexpected falsehoods generated by an AI model. On this point, Snap includes a rather lengthy disclaimer in its My AI announcement post:
Christopher Wray says the FBI has “for quite some time” settled on a potential lab incident in Wuhan.
For the first time in humans, a research team has shown that, as early as the first days of infection, HIV is able to create reservoirs where it will hide and persist during antiretroviral therapy.
Until now, the scientific community did not know exactly when or how these viral reservoirs—the existence of which is a major obstacle to curing HIV—are established in human beings.
In a study published in the journal Immunity, scientists led by Nicolas Chomont, a researcher at the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) and professor at Université de Montréal, found that a small fraction of the virus integrates into the genome of CD4+ T cells in the very first weeks of infection (the acute phase), but does not replicate there. It therefore escapes the notice of the fastest diagnostic tool to date, which detects active viral replication.
Pheochromocytoma is a rare tumor, with an incidence of three to eight cases per million population per year. The work published today, Feb 28, on Rare Disease Day 2023, in Nature Communications, is the largest study on this cancers’ molecular causes and focuses on patients with metastatic pheochromocytomas, which account for 20% of all cases. Survival of patients with metastatic pheochromocytoma is 20–60% at five years.
Mercedes Robledo, head of the Hereditary Endocrine Cancer Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) and one of the two researchers who led the study, has been studying these tumors since 1996. He says, “One of the difficulties of working with rare diseases is to recruit large series of patients to reach robust conclusions. And this study stands out because the number of samples we worked with was outstanding.” The CNIO belongs to the Spanish network of Rare Diseases (CIBERER).
CNIO researcher and co-author Bruna Calsina explains, “The number of patients with metastatic disease that our study gathers corresponds to a population of 100 million people.” This has been possible thanks to the collaboration between 16 centers from six countries around the world, with which the CNIO has been collaborating for the last decade.
OAKLAND, Calif. Feb 28 (Reuters) — Intel Corp (INTC.O) on Tuesday released a software platform for developers to build quantum algorithms that can eventually run on a quantum computer that the chip giant is trying to build.
The platform, called Intel Quantum SDK, would for now allow those algorithms to run on a simulated quantum computing system, said Anne Matsuura, Intel Labs’ head of quantum applications and architecture.
Quantum computing is based on quantum physics and in theory can perform calculations quicker than conventional computers.
