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In Episode 10 we explore the Matrioshka Brain, a nested Layer type of Dyson Sphere designed to turn stars in to giant computers, and conclude our look at Dyson Spheres and other types of Stellar Engines.

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Listen or Download the audio of this episode from Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/ms10-matrioshka-brains.

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Original Paper on Matrioshka Brains by RJ Bradbury:
https://www.gwern.net/docs/1999-bradbury-matrioshkabrains.pdf.

More art by Jakub Grygier:

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Human beings can sometimes experience dissociative states, moments in which they feel disconnected from their body and the world around them. While these states have been linked to many psychiatric conditions, they can also be elicited by the intake of some legal and illegal drugs.

One of the most renowned dissociation-inducing drugs is ketamine, an anesthetic commonly used to sedate patients or reduce pain resulting from medical procedures. In recent years, ketamine has also been found to be a potentially valuable treatment for some cases of depression.

While several studies have investigated the therapeutic effects of this strong anesthetic, so far very little is known about the cellular and neuronal mechanisms behind the dissociative states it produces. A paper by a team of researchers at University of Pennsylvania, recently published in Nature Neuroscience, might shed some light on these so far elusive processes.

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Dark matter makes up about 27% of the matter and energy budget in the universe, but scientists do not know much about it. They do know that it is cold, meaning that the particles that make up dark matter are slow-moving. It is also difficult to detect dark matter directly because it does not interact with light. However, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) have discovered a way to use quantum computers to look for dark matter.

Aaron Chou, a senior scientist at Fermilab, works on detecting dark matter through quantum science. As part of DOE’s Office of High Energy Physics QuantISED program, he has developed a way to use qubits, the main component of quantum computing.

Performing computation using quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement.

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Nerve cells can regulate their sensitivity to incoming signals autonomously. A new study led by the University of Bonn has now discovered a mechanism that does just that. The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior were involved in the work. The results have now been published in the journal Cell Reports.

Anyone who has ever sent a voice message with a knows how much the volume matters: Shouting into the microphone results in a distorted and unclear recording. But whispering is not a good idea either—then the result is too quiet and also difficult to understand. That is why sound engineers ensure the perfect sound at every concert and talk show: They regulate each microphone’s gain to match the input signal.

The neurons in the brain can also fine-tune their sensitivity, and even do so autonomously. A new study led by the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn shows how they do this. For this purpose, the participants investigated nerve cell networks that also play a role in vision, hearing and touch. The stimulus first travels to the so-called thalamus, a structure deep in the center of the brain. From there, it is then conducted to the , where it is further processed.

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University of Central Florida researchers have created unique technology for treating osteoporosis that uses nanobubbles to deliver treatment to targeted areas of a person’s body.

The new technology was developed by Mehdi Razavi, an assistant professor in UCF’s College of Medicine and a member of the Biionix Cluster at UCF, and UCF biomedical sciences student Angela Shar at the Biomaterials and Nanomedicine Lab, as part of the lab’s focus on developing tools for diagnostics and therapeutics.

Osteoporosis is a disease marked by an imbalance between the body’s ability to form new , or ossification, and break down, or remove, old , known as resorption.

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Adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle might prevent up to 60% of inflammatory bowel disease cases—Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis—finds a large international study, published online in the journal Gut.

The findings prompt the study authors to suggest that subject to further research, particularly in those at high risk of developing these conditions, may be a feasible option for future preventive strategies.

Inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD for short, affects an estimated 3 million adults in the U.S. and another 1.3 million in Europe, and diagnoses have been increasing, particularly in newly industrialized countries.

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