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New study identifies brain networks underlying psychopathy

A recent study has shed light on the brain structure differences associated with psychopathy—a condition known to be one of the strongest predictors of persistent violent behavior.

The findings are published in the journal European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.

Using advanced neuroimaging and the Julich-Brain Atlas, researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH Aachen University, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Georg August University, (Germany) and University of Pennsylvania (U.S.) have identified specific brain networks that appear to be structurally altered in individuals exhibiting . The Atlas can be freely accessed via the EBRAINS Research Infrastructure.

How changes in the central amygdala drive anxiety

Researchers at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience have discovered how loss of a gene strongly associated with autism and macrocephaly (large head size) rewires circuits and alters behavior.

Their findings, published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, reveal specific circuit changes in the amygdala resulting from PTEN loss in , providing new insights into the underlying circuit alterations that contribute to heightened fear and anxiety.

PTEN has emerged as one of the most significant autism risk genes. Variations in this gene are found in a significant proportion of people with autism who also exhibit brain overgrowth, making it a key player in understanding differences in brain function. To investigate the impact of PTEN misregulation, researchers have turned to animal models, where global reduction of PTEN results in altered sociability, repetitive behaviors, and increased anxiety that are often associated with ASD in humans.

Deeper sleep is more likely to lead to eureka moments, study indicates

“Sleeping on it,” especially dropping deeper than a doze, might help people gain insight into certain kinds of tasks, according to a study published in PLOS Biology by Anika Löwe and colleagues.

Humans sometimes find that they have a sudden “eureka” moment on a problem they’ve been working on, producing sudden insight or breakthroughs. Scientists have yet to have their own “aha” moment of insight on how it might work, though sleep appears to play a role.

To better understand how sleep might lead to insight while , the authors of this pre-registered study asked 90 people to track a series of dots across a screen. The participants were given instructions about a seemingly simple task that merely involved responding to the dots on a keyboard, but the instructions left out a trick that could make the task easier.

Nanometer thin spacer boosts blue OLEDs portability and efficiency

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have transformed display and lighting technology with their vivid colors, deep contrast, and energy efficiency. As demand grows for lighter, thinner, and more energy-saving devices—especially in wearables, foldables, and portable electronics—there’s increasing interest in OLEDs that can operate at lower voltages without compromising performance.

Magnetic chains on superconductors: New heterostructure design advances quantum technology

Magnetic-superconducting hybrid systems are key to unlocking topological superconductivity, a state that could host Majorana modes with potential applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing. However, creating stable, controllable interfaces between magnetic and superconducting materials remains a challenge.

Traditional systems often struggle with lattice mismatches, complex interfacial interactions, and disorder, which can obscure the signatures of topological states or mimic them with trivial phenomena. Achieving over at the atomic scale has been a long-standing challenge in this field.

Published in Materials Futures, the researchers developed a novel sub-monolayer CrTe2/NbSe2 heterostructure. By carefully depositing Cr and Te on NbSe2 substrate, they observed a two-stage growth process: an initial compressed Cr-Te layer forms with a lattice constant of 0.35 nm, followed by the formation of an atomically flat CrTe2 monolayer with a lattice constant of 0.39 nm. Annealing the Cr-Te layer can trigger stress-relief reconstruction, which creates stripe-like patterns with edges that host localized , effectively forming one-dimensional magnetic chains.

How harmonic mode-locked Mamyshev oscillators build up multiple laser pulses per cycle

The Mamyshev oscillator (MO) is a type of fiber laser capable of producing high-energy laser pulses at a tunable repetition rate. It is a mode-locked laser which uses light traveling within a closed-loop cavity to produce laser emission. Harmonic mode-locking (HML) is an advanced form of mode-locking process where multiple laser pulses are produced within one round trip of light. MOs employing HML are used for several advanced applications such as optical communication, frequency metrology, and micromachining.

Researcher discusses trapping single atoms and putting them to work in emerging quantum technologies

Blink and you might miss it, but if you keep your eye on the monitors in professor Sebastian Will’s lab, you’ll catch a series of single-second flashes that light up the screen. Each flash is an atom of strontium, a naturally occurring alkaline-earth metal, being briefly captured and held in place by “tweezers” made of laser light. “We can see single atoms,” says graduate student Aaron Holman. “Seeing those never gets old.”

The lab saw its first atom at the end of 2022, after two years of constructing the experimental setup—a complicated and carefully calibrated series of atomic sources, vacuum chambers, magnets, electronics, and lasers that trap and place them into custom arrangements—from scratch.

Holman, currently a 5th-year Ph.D. student in Physics, helped build the “TweeSr” project, as it’s referred to in the lab, from the ground up. A pure atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physicist at heart, he’s now working on ways to turn fundamental research on how atoms, molecules, and light interact into new technologies with collaborators at Columbia Engineering. He’s also heading toward bigger scales as part of a that is currently under construction.

Engineers Build “Universal Translator” for Quantum Computers

Silicon breakthrough may provide the foundation for a global quantum internet. UBC researchers have proposed a solution to a major challenge in quantum networking: a device that can convert microwave signals to optical signals and back again. This technology could act as a universal translator

Physicist Solves 120-Year-Old Thermodynamics Puzzle and Corrects Einstein

The paper argues that the third principle of thermodynamics follows from the second principle, rather than being a separate or independent concept. Professor José María Martín-Olalla of the University of Seville has published a paper addressing a thermodynamics problem that has remained unresolve