Lifeboat Foundation

To an untrained observer, the electrical storm that takes place over the brain’s neural network seems a chaotic flurry of activity. But as neuroscientists understand it, the millions of neurons are actually engaged in a sort of tightly choreographed dance, a tango of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. How is this precise balance that makes normal function possible achieved during development? And how does it go wrong in diseases like epilepsy when brain activity goes out of control?

Focusing on the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain controlling thought, sensory awareness, and motor function, a group of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (SCRB), led by Assistant Professor Paola Arlotta, has discovered that excitatory neurons control the positioning of inhibitory neurons in a process that is critically important for generating balanced circuitry and proper cortical response.

Professor Takao Hensch, a collaborator on the study in the Harvard Center for Brain Science, Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology (MCB), had previously shown that the maturation of this circuit balance triggers critical periods of brain development. Certain inhibitory cells appear particularly vulnerable to genetic or environmental factors in early life, contributing to mental illness, such as schizophrenia or autism spectrum disorders.

The cerebral cortex, which controls higher processes such as perception, thought and cognition, is the most complex structure in the mammalian central nervous system. Although much is known about the intricate structure of this brain region, the processes governing its formation remain uncertain. Research led by Carina Hanashima from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology has now uncovered how feedback between cells, as well as molecular factors, helps shape cortical development during mouse embryogenesis.

The cortex is made up of layers of interconnecting cells that are produced in a particular order from progenitor cells. The relatively cell-sparse outer layer is formed first, then the dense deep layer, and finally the tightly packed upper layer. Hanashima and her colleagues were interested to discover exactly how the various layers form, so they created a mouse model that enabled them to control the expression of a particular protein, Foxg1, known to be involved in cortical development.

The Foxg1 gene, if switched on toward the end of embryogenesis after the outer layer of neurons has formed, triggers the production of deep-layer neurons, followed by upper-layer neurons (Fig. 1). The researchers found that it does this by repressing the activity of another gene, called Tbr1, in the outer-layer neurons.

A team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University have devised a new quantum algorithm to compute the lowest energies of molecules at specific configurations during chemical reactions, including when their chemical bonds are broken. As described in Physical Review Research, compared to similar existing algorithms, including the team’s previous method, the new algorithm will significantly improve scientists’ ability to accurately and reliably calculate the potential energy surface in reacting molecules.

For this work, Deyu Lu, a Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) physicist at Brookhaven Lab, worked with Tzu-Chieh Wei, an associate professor specializing in quantum information science at the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University, Qin Wu, a theorist at CFN, and Hongye Yu, a Ph.D. student at Stony Brook.

“Understanding the quantum mechanics of a molecule, how it behaves at an atomic level, can provide key insight into its chemical properties, like its stability and reactivity,” said Lu.

On this explainer, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice break down Big Bang skepticism and what’s going on at the frontier of astrophysics.

What are the core tenets of the Big Bang Theory? We explore the frontier of scientific research and what ideas are being contested. We also walk through the scientific process and experimentations. Could the Big Bang just be a small piece of a bigger theory? Learn about Vulcan, the hypothetical planet pulling on Mercury that was invented to save Newton’s Laws. When Einstein’s relativity came along, why didn’t Newtonian physics go away?

Continue reading “YouTube: Are we rethinking the Big Bang?” »

In our common experience, you can’t get something for nothing. In the quantum realm, something really can emerge from nothing.

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Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about new updates from James Webb Space Telescope.
Links:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.11658
https://webb.nasa.gov/

https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.14990

Continue reading “More Major Updates From James Webb Telescope and Cool Discoveries” »

“We put nanotubes inside of bacteria,” says Professor Ardemis Boghossian at EPFL’s School of Basic Sciences. “That doesn’t sound very exciting on the surface, but it’s actually a big deal. Researchers have been putting nanotubes in mammalian cells that use mechanisms like endocytosis, that are specific to those kinds of cells. Bacteria, on the other hand, don’t have these mechanisms and face additional challenges in getting particles through their tough exterior. Despite these barriers, we’ve managed to do it, and this has very exciting implications in terms of applications.”

Boghossian’s research focuses on interfacing artificial nanomaterials with biological constructs, including living cells. The resulting “nanobionic” technologies combine the advantages of both the living and non-living worlds. For years, her group has worked on the nanomaterial applications of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), tubes of carbon atoms with fascinating mechanical and optical properties.

These properties make SWCNTs ideal for many novel applications in the field of nanobiotechnology. For example, SWCNTs have been placed inside mammalian cells to monitor their metabolisms using near-infrared imaging. The insertion of SWCNTs in mammalian cells has also led to new technologies for delivering therapeutic drugs to their intracellular targets, while in plant cells they have been used for genome editing. SWCNTs have also been implanted in living mice to demonstrate their ability to image biological tissue deep inside the body.

A review paper by scientists at Zhejiang University summarized the development of continuum robots from the aspects of design, actuation, modeling and control. The new review paper, published on Jul. 26 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, provided an overview of the classic and advanced technologies of continuum robots, along with some prospects urgently to be solved.

“Some small-scale continuum robots with new actuation methods are being widely investigated in the field of interventional surgical treatment or endoscopy, however, the characterization of mechanical properties of them is still different problem,” explained study author Haojian Lu, a professor at the Zhejiang University.

In order to realize the miniaturization of continuum robots, many cutting-edge materials have been developed and used to realize the actuation of robots, showing unique advantages. The continuum robots embedded with micromagnet or made of ferromagnetic composite material have accurate steering ability under an external controllable magnetic field; Magnetically soft continuum robots, on the other hand, can achieve small diameters, up to the micron scale, which ensures their ability to conduct targeted therapy in bronchi or in cerebral vessels.

A brain-building genetic mutation might have helped give us an intellectual leg up on other hominins. Plus, why NASA’s Artemis Moon launch is delayed and all about an affirmative-action strategy to boost female faculty numbers.