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Can immune cells stave off devastating neurodegenerative diseases? Scientists aim to find out

An evolving form of therapy to treat devastating neurodegenerative disorders by injecting fresh immune cells—microglia—directly into the brain, promises a new lease on health by slowing the progression of mind-robbing conditions.

The research, underway in China, is in the pre-clinical phase of investigation and is aimed at protecting vital neurons, while at the same time, combating the early hallmarks of neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

So far, the transplants have been performed in animal models, but they have ameliorated symptoms of neurological disease.

Plasma group publishes new framework to advance fusion energy research

Scientists pursuing magnetically-confined nuclear fusion as a clean energy source grapple with the “core-edge challenge,” the need to integrate the core of the reactor, where plasma must be 10 times hotter than the sun, with the reactor’s edge. The edge must sustain a lower temperature to avoid melting of the material containing the plasma and extracting its energy to produce power.

How to build larger, more reliable quantum computers, even with imperfect links between chips

While quantum computers are already being used for research in chemistry, material science, and data security, most are still too small to be useful for large-scale applications. A study led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, now shows how “scalable” quantum architectures—systems made up of many small chips working together as one powerful unit—can be made.

Wearable sweat sensor can detect responses to physical, emotional and pharmacological stress

Most people are well aware of the effects of chronic stress in the modern world. While some stress can be a good thing, like the type of stress your body feels during an intense workout, prolonged or chronic stress can lead to a myriad of health problems, including anxiety, heart disease, and inflammation. And, at a larger scale, the high prevalence of chronic stress in the population increases the burden on public health systems.

Tracking stress responses could help people better understand and manage stress, but stress can be difficult to measure and monitor in an objective and precise manner. Stress hormones fluctuate throughout the day, but current stress assessment methods rely on subjective self-reports, heart rate, or wearable sensors that only measure cortisol in a non-continuous manner. It is difficult to get a full picture of a person’s and its long-term effects with these current methods.

However, scientists have recently developed a device called the “Stressomic,” a wearable biosensor that can continuously monitor cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine in sweat—which might just pave the way for better stress management. The device was recently tested in a study published in Science Advances. They claim that it’s capable of distinguishing between acute and and can be worn as a simple biocompatible patch placed on the skin.

Meta’s new ultra-thin flat-panel display could change the future of screens

Meta has developed a new flat ultra-thin panel laser display that could lead to lighter, more immersive augmented reality (AR) glasses and improve the picture quality of smartphones, tablets and televisions. The new display is only two millimeters thick and produces bright, high-resolution images.

Flat-panel displays, particularly those illuminated by LEDs, are ubiquitous, seen in everything from smartphones and televisions to laptops and computer monitors. But no matter how good the current technology is, the search for better is always ongoing. Lasers promise superior brightness and the possibility of making the technology smaller and more energy efficient by replacing bulky and power-hungry components with compact -based ones.

However, current laser displays still need large, complex optical systems to shine light onto screens. Previous attempts at making flat-panel laser displays have come up short as they required complex setups or were too difficult to manufacture in large quantities.

Strangers whose brains respond alike to movie clips often become friends later, study finds

People often bond with strangers over the books they read or the movies they watch and build friendships that last. Scientists may now have some insight into why this happens. A study published in Nature Human Behaviour found that participants who responded similarly to the same movie clips even before meeting were more likely to become friends later.

As part of the experiment, MRI brain scans were taken of 41 graduate students who had never met each other before, while they were shown clips of movies based on science, food, sports, environment, and .

A total of 214 were analyzed—200 cortical regions associated with functions, such as movement, perception, and sensory processing, and 14 subcortical regions that control movement, autonomic functions, and emotions.

Braided magnetic flux ropes found at both human and light year scales

The new equilibrium, called a double helix, applies not only to the but also to much larger astrophysical configurations such as the Double Helix Nebula located near the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

The study is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Solar corona structures such as flares often have the form of magnetic ropes: twisted tubes of plasma-containing magnetic fields. Such a rope can be visualized as a plasma-filled garden hose with a stripe wrapped around it in a helical pattern. An electric current flows along the length of the hose, and the helical stripe corresponds to the twisted magnetic field. Because it is charged, plasma conducts and is attached, or “frozen,” into magnetic fields.

Toward improved desalination: Characterizing membranes in wet vs. dry states reveals dramatic differences

A joint study by researchers from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Texas at Austin sheds new light on the structure of membranes used in water desalination. Published in ACS Nano, the study was selected as the journal’s cover article.

First absolute superconducting switch developed in a magnetic device

The University of Jyväskylä, Finland, has been involved as part of an international collaboration that has identified a way to completely suppress superconductivity in superconducting and ferromagnetic junctions. The results published in Nature Communications are key to the development of non-volatile superconducting random access memories and could enable more energy-efficient information and communication technologies.

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