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Vagus nerve’s right branch plays a key role in digestive signaling

After years of work, cognition and neuroscience doctoral student Hailey Welch is—for the first time—the lead author of a study published in an academic journal, a paper appearing in Cell Reports, which examined the role of the vagus nerve’s branches in digestive signaling.

The goal of Welch’s research is to learn more about the ’s role in the forming of dietary habits. The vagus nerve includes left and right branches. Earlier research in the Motor and Habit Learning Lab of Dr. Catherine Thorn, associate professor of neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and the corresponding author of the Cell Reports study, indicates that those two sides have different functions.

“We know that the vagus nerve transmits information about the nutritional and reward aspects of food from the gut to the brain,” Welch said. “What we are discovering is that such reward signaling is lateralized—mainly right-sided.”

Quantifying the intensity of emotional response to sound, images and touch through skin conductance

When we listen to a moving piece of music or feel the gentle pulse of a haptic vibration, our bodies react before we consciously register the feeling. The heart may quicken and palms may sweat, resulting in subtle electrical resistance variations in the skin. These changes, though often imperceptible, reflect the brain’s engagement with the world.

A recent study by researchers at NYU Tandon and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in PLOS Mental Health explores how such physiological signals can reveal cognitive arousal—the level of mental alertness and emotional activation—without the need for subjective reporting.

The researchers, led by Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Rose Faghih at NYU Tandon, focused on skin conductance, a well-established indicator of autonomic nervous system activity. When are stimulated, even minutely, the skin’s ability to conduct electricity changes.

Algorithms reveal how propane becomes propylene for everyday products

Countless everyday products, from plastic squeeze bottles to outdoor furniture, are derived by first turning propane into propylene.

A 2021 study in Science demonstrated that chemists could use tandem nanoscale catalysts to integrate multiple steps of the process into a single reaction—a way for companies to increase yield and save money. But it was unclear what was happening at the , making it difficult to apply the technique to other key industrial processes.

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed algorithms that show the key atomic features driving the complex chemistry when the nanoscale catalysts turn propane into propylene.

Tabletop particle accelerator could transform medicine and materials science

A particle accelerator that produces intense X-rays could be squeezed into a device that fits on a table, my colleagues and I have found in a new research project.

The way that intense X-rays are currently produced is through a facility called a . These are used to study materials, drug molecules and biological tissues. Even the smallest existing synchrotrons, however, are about the size of a football stadium.

Our research, which is published in the journal Physical Review Letters, shows how tiny structures called carbon nanotubes and could generate brilliant X-rays on a microchip. Although the device is still at the concept stage, the development has the potential to transform medicine, and other disciplines.

Unified model may explain vibrational anomalies in solids

Phonons are sound particles or quantized vibrations of atoms in solid materials. The Debye model, a theory introduced by physicist Peter Debye in 1912, describes the contribution of phonons to the specific heat of materials and explains why the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of solids drops sharply at low temperatures.

The Debye model assumes that are continuously distributed in a solid material. Past studies, however, found that when phonons have particularly short wavelengths, some anomalies can emerge.

The first of these reported anomalies, the so-called Van Hove singularity (VHS), is characterized by sharp features in the vibrational density of states (DOS) observed in crystals. The second, known as a boson peak, entails a significant excess in the DOS in amorphous solids or glasses.

Heavy atomic nuclei are not as symmetric as previously thought, physicists find

Many heavy atomic nuclei are shaped more or less like squashed rugby balls than fully inflated ones, according to a theoretical study by RIKEN nuclear physicists published in The European Physical Journal A. This unexpected finding overturns the consensus held for more than half a century.

Illustrations of atoms often depict the nucleus as a round blob made up of neutrons and protons. Physicists initially assumed that nuclei were spherical like soccer balls. But in the 1950s, Aage Bohr and Ben Mottelson developed a theory that predicted that many are elongated in one direction, being shaped like a ball.

Following in the footsteps of his father Niels Bohr, who was awarded the 1922 Nobel prize in physics for his model of the structure of atoms, Aage Bohr shared the 1975 Nobel prize for physics for this discovery.

Physicists unveil system to solve long-standing barrier to new generation of supercomputers

The dream of creating game-changing quantum computers—supermachines that encode information in single atoms rather than conventional bits—has been hampered by the formidable challenge known as quantum error correction.

In a paper published Monday in Nature, Harvard researchers demonstrated a new system capable of detecting and removing errors below a key performance threshold, potentially providing a workable solution to the problem.

“For the first time, we combined all essential elements for a scalable, error-corrected quantum computation in an integrated architecture,” said Mikhail Lukin, co-director of the Quantum Science and Engineering Initiative, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor, and senior author of the new paper. “These experiments—by several measures the most advanced that have been done on any quantum platform to date—create the scientific foundation for practical large-scale quantum computation.”

Reactor-grade fusion plasma: First high-precision measurement of potential dynamics

Nuclear fusion, which operates on the same principle that powers the sun, is expected to become a sustainable energy source for the future. To achieve fusion power generation, it is essential to confine plasma at temperatures exceeding one hundred million degrees using a magnetic field and to maintain this high-energy state stably.

A key factor in accomplishing this is the inside the plasma. This potential governs the transport of particles and energy within the plasma and plays a crucial role in establishing a state in which energy is effectively confined and prevented from escaping. Therefore, accurately measuring the internal plasma potential is essential for improving the performance of future fusion reactors.

A non-contact diagnostic technique called the heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) is used to measure plasma potential directly. In this method, negatively charged (Au⁻) are accelerated and injected into the plasma.

How sound and light act alike—and not—at the smallest scale

A world-famous light experiment from 1801 has now been carried out with sound for the first time. Research by physicists in Leiden has produced new insights that could be applied in 5G devices and the emerging field of quantum acoustics. The study is published in the journal Optics Letters.

Ph.D. student Thomas Steenbergen says, “We saw that in materials behave in the same way as light, but also slightly differently. With a mathematical model, we can now explain and predict this behavior.”

Scientists Develop More Efficient Way To Extract Rare Earth Elements Amid Global Trade Tensions

Researchers at UT Austin have created artificial membrane channels that mimic nature’s precision to selectively extract key rare earth elements. A team of scientists at The University of Texas at Austin has created a cleaner and more efficient way to extract rare earth elements, which are vital f

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