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Summary: Study reveals a signaling pathway that controls the formation of synapses between pyramidal neurons and inhibitory neurons expressing the parvalbumin protein.

Source: King’s College London.

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has demonstrated that brain wiring requires the control of local protein synthesis at the level of specific synapse types.

A threat actor associated with cyberespionage operations since at least 2017 has been luring victims with fake VPN software for Android that is a trojanized version of legitimate software SoftVPN and OpenVPN.

Researchers say that the campaign was “highly targeted” and aimed at stealing contact and call data, device location, as well as messages from multiple apps.

A study in a virtual reality environment found that action video game players have better implicit temporal skills than non-gamers. They are better at preparing to time their reactions in tasks that require quick reactions and they do it automatically, without consciously working on it. The paper was published in Communications Biology.

Many research studies have shown that playing video games enhances cognition. These include increased ability to learn on the fly and improved control of attention. The extent of these improvements is unclear and it also depends on gameplay.

Success in action video games depends on the players’ skill in making precise responses at just the right time. Players benefit from practice during which they refine their time-related expectations of in-game developments, even when they are unaware of it. This largely unconscious process of processing time and preparing to react in a timely manner based on expectations of how the situation the person is in will develop is called incidental temporal processing.

A programmer is suing Microsoft, GitHub and OpenAI over artificial intelligence technology that generates its own computer code.

Magnetic fields are all around us. They exist whenever there is electric current and have been used in various aspects of medicine for decades. Today, magnetic fields are used in applications including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), bone fracture repair, wound healing and pain reduction.

Taking things a step further, US startup EMulate Therapeutics has developed a unique magnetic field technology that has been shown to replicate the effect of drugs in humans and animal models – all without the presence of chemicals. Having spun-out companies in cancer, pain management and beyond, the company is seeking partners for longevity applications of its technology.

Longevity. Technology: The concept behind EMulate’s approach is mind-boggling. The company “records” the electromagnetic signature of specific molecules and is then able to use those recordings to effect changes in cellular behaviour, without using chemicals. In its most advanced programme, EMulate’s technology has completed feasibility clinical trials for adults and children with terminal brain cancer, using a recording derived from chemotherapy drug paclitaxel. We caught up with EMulate’s CEO Chris Rivera to find out more.

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Mathematics and sex are deeply intertwined. From using mathematics to reveal patterns in our sex lives, to using sex to prime our brain for certain types of problems, to understanding them both in terms of the evolutionary roots of our brain, Dr Clio Cresswell shares her insight into it all.

Continue reading “Mathematics and sex | Clio Cresswell | TEDxSydney” »

For something that emits no light that we can detect, black holes just love to cloak themselves in radiance.

Some of the brightest light in the Universe comes from supermassive black holes, in fact. Well, not actually the black holes themselves; it’s the material around them as they actively slurp down vast amounts of matter from their immediate surroundings.

Among the brightest of these maelstroms of swirling hot material are galaxies known as blazars. Not only do they glow with the heat of a swirling coat, but they also channel material into ‘blazing’ beams that zoom through the cosmos, shedding electromagnetic radiation at energies that are hard to fathom.

A new cancer treatment which destroys tissue non-invasively is being trialled, and, if it gains regulatory approval, it could change the way that cancers are treated in hospitals.

Histotripsy is a type of focused ultrasound which, unlike heat and radiation based treatments, is more precise – which makes it a more appealing treatment option for smaller and widespread tumours.

Continue reading “Could this new ultrasound change the way cancer is treated? — BBC News” »

Researchers have developed an energy-efficient soft robot that can swim more than four times faster than previous swimming soft robots by taking inspiration from the biomechanics of the manta ray. Developed at North Carolina State University.

Founded in 1,887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, North Carolina State University (also referred to as NCSU, NC State, or just State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. It forms one of the corners of the Research Triangle together with Duke University in Durham and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.