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Shielded by our thick skulls and swaddled in layers of protective tissue, the human brain is extremely difficult to observe in action. Luckily, scientists can use brain organoids — pencil eraser-sized masses of cells that function like human brains but aren’t part of an organism — to look closer. How do they do it? And is it ethical? Madeline Lancaster shares how to make a brain in a lab.

Lesson by Madeline Lancaster, animation by Adam Wells.

New Study Solves Mystery on Insulator-to-Metal Transition

A study explored insulator-to-metal transitions, uncovering discrepancies in the traditional Landau-Zener formula and offering new insights into resistive switching. By using computer simulations, the research highlights the quantum mechanics involved and suggests that electronic and thermal switching can arise simultaneously, with potential applications in microelectronics and neuromorphic computing.

Looking only at their subatomic particles, most materials can be placed into one of two categories.

In a recent narrative review published in BMJ Medicine, researchers summarized the current evidence on advancements in mechanical thrombectomy (MT), a ground-breaking treatment for acute ischaemic stroke involving removal of a thrombus by recanalization of an intracranial occlusion of a large vessel via an aspiration catheter, stent retriever, or both.

Study: Advances in mechanical thrombectomy for acute ischaemic stroke. Image Credit: SewCreamStudio/Shutterstock.com.

The more we like our ideas, the faster we give them shape. But to be creative, we need to focus on out-of-the-box thinking. This is what Alizée Lopez-Persem and Emmanuelle Volle, Inserm researchers at Paris Brain Institute, showed in a new study published in American Psychologist.

Using a behavioral study and a computational model to replicate the different components of the , the researchers explain how individual preferences influence the speed of the emergence of new ideas and their degree of . These preferences also determine which ideas we choose to exploit and communicate to others.

What drives us to develop new ideas rather than settling for standard methods and processes? What triggers the desire to innovate at the risk of sacrificing time, energy, and reputation for a resounding failure? Creativity is based on complex mechanisms that we are only beginning to understand and in which motivation plays a central role. But pursuing a goal is not enough to explain why we favor some ideas over others and whether that choice benefits the success of our actions.

The tiny, floating blobs of mini-hearts were straight out of Frankenstein. Made from a mixture of human stem cells and a sprinkle of silicon nanowires, the cyborg heart organoids bizarrely pumped away as they grew inside Petri dishes.

When transplanted into rats with heart injuries they lost their spherical shape, spreading out into damaged regions and connecting with the hosts’ own heart cells. Within a month, the rats regained much of their heart function.

It’s not science fiction. A new study this month linked digital electrical components with biological cells into a cyborg organoid that, when transplanted into animal models of heart failure, melded with and repaired living, beating hearts.

J. Michael Bailey is a Northwestern University professor of psychology, researcher, and an author known for his work on sexual orientation and human sexuality.

Scientific research has had public scrutiny for a long time. But Michael’s most recent study was placed under so much pressure from upset dissidents that the journal formally retracted it. Today we get to find out just why human sexuality is such a dangerous topic to look into.

Over the past decade, scientists have made tremendous progress in generating quantum phenomena in mechanical systems. What seemed impossible only fifteen years ago has now become a reality, as researchers successfully create quantum states in macroscopic mechanical objects.

By coupling these mechanical oscillators to light photons—known as “optomechanical systems”—scientists have been able to cool them down to their lowest energy level close to the , “squeeze them” to reduce their vibrations even further, and entangle them with each other. These advancements have opened up new opportunities in , compact storage in quantum computing, fundamental tests of quantum gravity, and even in the search for dark matter.

In order to efficiently operate optomechanical systems in the quantum regime, scientists face a dilemma. On one hand, the mechanical oscillators must be properly isolated from their environment to minimize ; on the other hand, they must be well-coupled to other such as electromagnetic resonators to control them.