Draft presentation of a paper coauthored with Timothy Eastman and Ruth Kastner, which you can read here: https://open.substack.com/pub/footnotes2plato/p/on-t…
Iv often thought of this possibility myself.
Working memory is the information we need to access to complete the tasks we’re engaged in right now, and scientists think it may be closely entwined with consciousness.
Advanced magnetic memory and spintronic devices rely on the ability to control magnetic states using electricity. Today, such technologies work by manipulating relatively simple magnetic structures found in ferromagnets, where all the magnetic moments point the same way. However, researchers are becoming increasingly interested in controlling more complex magnetic systems because these could offer higher information density and improved efficiency.
Helimagnets are a prime example of such systems. In these materials, the magnetic moments form spiral or helical patterns that wind through the material. The direction in which these magnetic patterns propagate plays an important role in determining the material’s electrical and magnetic behavior.
However, researchers had not established a reliable way to reversibly control the orientation of helical magnetic structures using an electric current, and current-driven techniques developed for ferromagnets do not directly carry over to helimagnetic systems.
Stars like our sun are formed from the collapse of stellar objects called prestellar cores, cold and dense concentrations of gas and dust held together by gravity. While many questions remain about the exact mechanisms of star formation, advanced radio telescopes have given researchers new insights into the inner workings of infant stars.
Now, publishing in Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers from Kyushu University and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have, for the first time, detected a phenomenon known as ambipolar diffusion occurring in a prestellar core. This phenomenon weakens the magnetic support of the core, leading to gravitational collapse to form an infant star called a protostar.
These findings provide further insight into the key processes of early star formation and, by extension, how stellar systems are created.
Some people find it useful to talk through their problems—but language isn’t necessary for logical reasoning, cognitive neuroscientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research say.
In research published in the journal PNAS, researchers led by MIT associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences Evelina Fedorenko have shown that people can perform well on tasks that require logical reasoning even if their language abilities are severely impaired. What’s more, brain imaging shows that language-processing parts of the brain are not called on for logical reasoning.
Philosophers, linguists and cognitive scientists have debated the relationship between language and thought for thousands of years, with many arguing that we use language to think. There are good reasons to suspect a close relationship between logic and language, acknowledges Hope Kean, a postdoctoral researcher and former K. Lisa Yang, Integrative Computational Neuroscience (ICoN) Center graduate fellow in Fedorenko’s lab.
Physicists at the University of California, Irvine, have developed an artificial intelligence system that can autonomously design theoretical physics models, a task traditionally carried out by human theorists. The approach allows researchers to explore large, uncharted areas of particle physics theory, helping identify promising new explanations for the behavior of neutrinos.
The system is called Autonomous Model Builder (AMBer), and was developed by a research team led by UC Irvine doctoral candidates Victoria Knapp-Pérez and Jake Rudolph in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The work is published in Communications Physics.
AMBer uses reinforcement learning, a form of artificial intelligence that learns through trial and error rather than by following predefined instructions. As it explores possible particle physics theories, the system evaluates its own choices and improves over time.
Modern life depends on quantum physics. It makes technologies such as GPS navigation, MRI scanners and computer chips possible. Now, the same science may also lead to a new way to test the health of our eyes. A University at Buffalo-led team has used a technique from quantum optics to make a little-known visual pattern produced inside the eye easier to see—potentially opening the door to a new way to test retinal health.
Known as Boehm’s brushes, these faint, two-lobed, bowtie-shaped patterns sometimes appear in peripheral vision when polarized light scatters off structures in the retina. Because people with retinal disease may be less likely to perceive them, scientists have long wondered whether they could serve as a biomarker of retinal health.
However, Boehm’s brushes are often too hard to see, even for people with healthy eyes, to be useful in clinical practice.
A team of researchers at the University of Ottawa and its Nexus for Quantum Technologies Institute, in collaboration with researchers from Federico II University in Italy, has developed a programmable quantum simulator that shapes a beam of light to replicate how particles move through complex materials, avoiding the need for ever-larger electronic hardware.