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Australian scientists have created the most detailed map ever of the communication links between the hippocampus, the brain’s memory control center, and the rest of the brain, potentially revolutionizing our understanding of human memory.

“We were surprised to find fewer connections between the hippocampus and frontal cortical areas, and more connections with early visual processing areas than we expected to see,” said Dr. Marshall Dalton, a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. “Although, this makes sense considering the hippocampus plays an important role not only in memory but also imagination and our ability to construct mental images in our mind’s eye.”

Located within the brain, the hippocampus is a complex structure that resembles a seahorse. It is essential for the brain and plays a crucial role in memory formation as well as the transfer of memories from short-term to long-term storage. In addition to these functions, the hippocampus also plays a role in navigation, the ability to imagine future or fictitious experiences, the creation of mental imagery, and even in visual perception and decision-making.

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It’s all part of an in-space manufacturing initiative that could drastically reduce costs for future space missions.

A new experiment does away with one of the biggest hindrances manufacturers face here on Earth — Gravity.

MIT scientists are collaborating with NASA to build test parts in space as part of a research program aimed at unleashing the full potential of microgravity manufacturing.

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Though OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said it would be “a mistake” to use ChatGPT for anything important.

Microsoft aims to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot into its Bing search engine in order to boost its user count and rival Google, as per a report from The Information.

Could OpenAI enhance Microsoft’s search engine credibility?

Picture alliance/Getty Images.

Continue reading “Microsoft aims to boost its search engine with OpenAI’s ChatGPT to rival Google” | >

Just like the distant galaxies, the deep seas continue to bring us wonder and awe.

Beyond every shoreline lies a sea, a seemingly uniform body of water with turbulent, ceaseless movement that joins the coastlines into a continuous whole, showing no sign of the borders and labels we set upon it. In many ways, these large bodies of water are as mysterious to us as the distant galaxies and stars in the cosmos. But they are also right here, in the midst of our own world and interacting with our planet’s atmosphere as a realm of hidden objects, shadowy dreams, and deep sea creatures.

Do you ever think about the creatures that lie deep below the seas?

EXTREME-PHOTOGRAPHER/iStock.

Continue reading “Deep sea creatures: the amazing under-explored part of the world” | >

“This research signifies an extraordinary advance in knowledge about the origin and evolution of CRISPR-Cas systems.”

An international research team reconstructed the CRISPR-Cas system for the first time, dating back to 26 billion years ago. Their findings imply that the revived systems are functional and more adaptable than the previous iterations.

Led by teams from the Spanish National Research Council, the University of Alicante, the Rare Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Center (CIBERER), the Ramón y Cajal Hospital-IRYCIS, and other national and international institutions are working with Ikerbasque research professor Rául Pérez-Jiménez of CIC nanoGUNE.

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Bridge did not appear until roughly 35,700 years ago, fewer than 10,000 years before the last ice age peaked.

It is thought humans arrived in the Americas for the first time through the Bering Land Bridge. Now, researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz claim that Bering Land Bridge formed surprisingly late during the last ice age.

“Last Glacial Maximum grew after 46,000 years ago”

Getty Images.

Continue reading “People may have crossed the Beringia much earlier than thought, new study claims” | >

He was also a physicist and a night fighter pilot.

Walter Cunningham, NASA astronaut who flew on Apollo 7, an 11-day mission manned mission in 1968 that paved the way for the first human landing on the Moon, has died at the age of 90, NASA said on its website. Cunningham died of natural causes at a hospital in Houston on Tuesday.

Born in 1932, Walter Cunningham joined the U.S. Navy in 1951, where he served in the U.S. Marine Corps and flew 54 missions as a night fighter pilot In Korea before retiring at the rank of a colonel. He then graduated with Honors in Physics in 1960 and followed it up with a distinction in Physics a year later at the University of California at Los Angeles. astronaut Walter Cunningham, who flew into space on Apollo 7, the first flight with crew in NASA’s Apollo Program, died early Tuesday morning in Houston. He was 90 years old.

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In 2021, one of the record years in biotechnology investments, about 50 drugs were approved by the FDA. 36 of these were small molecules. In my opinion, only about 5 of these were truly innovative targeting novel mechanisms and novel targets. The 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) contained 55,000 codes for diseases, injuries and conditions. Even if we assume that there are only 10,000 diseases, 50 FDA approvals per year seems to be an extraordinarily small number.

The reason for this small number of innovative and effective therapeutics is the long time, high cost, and low probability of success of drug discovery and development. On average, this process takes 12 years, costs over $2 Billion dollars and fails over 90% of the time. The most innovative therapeutics with novel targets have even higher probability of failure. To get these 50 drugs approved in 2021, the pharmaceutical companies globally spent over $100 Billion and over a decade.

The biotechnology industry is very different from any other industry and it is important to understand how it works, and the role China plays in delivering safe and effective medicines to suffering patients worldwide. Sharing risk, expenses, and infrastructure will result in acceleration of global biotechnology and increase the number of innovative drug approvals. Closer collaboration between the US and China in biotechnology would allow investors to share huge risks and returns while benefiting everyone on the planet and making this world a much better place.

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