Recent discoveries of glymphatics and meningeal lymphatics have redefined our understanding of CNS immunosurveillance. Kim and Kipnis illustrate how the clearance of brain-derived antigens creates an “immune code” that, when presented by meningeal antigen-presenting cells, instructs T cells to safeguard neural homeostasis. They review how inflammation, aging, and neurodegeneration disrupt this finely tuned process and highlight emerging therapeutic opportunities.
An innovative way to image atoms in cold gases could provide deeper insights into the atoms’ quantum correlations.
The macroscopic properties of objects that we encounter in everyday life are ultimately determined by the behavior of these objects’ microscopic constituents. For instance, the way that atoms move is key to understanding the pressure of the gas in our tires or the flow of our morning coffee into a cup. However, equally important is how the positions of these particles are correlated—how the particles “dance” together. This dance has already been imaged in highly confined systems in which particles can move only between discrete sites [1]. Now three separate experimental groups, one from École Normale Supérieure in Paris and two from MIT, have imaged the positions of individual atoms in a cold, uniform gas, exposing the atoms’ quantum correlations [2– 4].
The fundamental quantum nature of particles leads to counterintuitive behavior in a collection of particles, even if there are no forces acting between them. Because quantum particles are indistinguishable, the probability of detecting one at a particular position is independent of which particle is observed. This feature implies that there are two classes of particle: bosons, which can change places without affecting the system’s quantum state; and fermions, which flip the sign of the state upon their exchange. The result is that photons and other bosons tend to bunch together, whereas electrons and other fermions tend to avoid each other.
Ever since general relativity pointed to the existence of black holes, the scientific community has been wary of one peculiar feature: the singularity at the center—a point, hidden behind the event horizon, where the laws of physics that govern the rest of the universe appear to break down completely. For some time now, researchers have been working on alternative models that are free of singularities.
A new paper published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, the outcome of work carried out at the Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IFPU) in Trieste, reviews the state of the art in this area. It describes two alternative models, proposes observational tests, and explores how this line of research could also contribute to the development of a theory of quantum gravity.
“Hic sunt leones,” remarks Stefano Liberati, one of the authors of the paper and director of IFPU. The phrase refers to the hypothetical singularity predicted at the center of standard black holes —those described by solutions to Einstein’s field equations. To understand what this means, a brief historical recap is helpful.
A team of engineers at the University of California San Diego is making it easier for researchers from a broad range of backgrounds to understand how different species are evolutionarily related, and support the transformative biological and medical applications that rely on these species trees. The researchers developed a scalable, automated and user-friendly tool called ROADIES that allows scientists to infer species trees directly from raw genome data, with less reliance on the domain expertise and computational resources currently required.
Species trees are critical to solidifying our understanding of how species evolved on a broad scale, but can also help find functional regions of the genome that could serve as drug targets; link physical traits to genomic changes; predict and respond to zoonotic outbreaks; and even guide conservation efforts.
In a new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 2, the researchers, led by UC San Diego electrical and computer engineering professor Yatish Turakhia, showed that ROADIES infers species trees that are comparable in quality with the state-of-the-art studies, but in a fraction of the time and effort. This paper focused on four diverse life forms— placental mammals, pomace flies, birds and budding yeasts—though ROADIES can be used for any species.
From birth to the last moments of life, the human brain is known to change and evolve significantly, both in terms of its physical organization (i.e., structural connectivity) and the coordination between different brain regions (i.e., functional connectivity). Mapping and understanding the brain’s evolution over time is of crucial importance, as it could also shed light on differences in the brains of individuals who develop various mental health disorders or experience an aging-related cognitive decline.
Researchers at Beijing Normal University and other institutes in China recently carried out a large-scale study to gather new insights into how the brain’s functional connectivity of humans worldwide changes over the course of their lifespan. Their paper, published in Nature Neuroscience, unveils patterns in the evolution of the brain that could inform future research focusing on a wide range of neuropsychiatric and cognitive disorders.
“Functional connectivity of the human brain changes through life,” wrote Lianglong Sun, Tengda Zhao and their colleagues in their paper. “We assemble task-free functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging data from 33,250 individuals at 32 weeks of postmenstrual age to 80 years from 132 global sites.”
Many behavioral studies suggest that using landmarks to navigate through large-scale spaces—known as map-based navigation—is not established until around age 12.
A neuroscience study at Emory University counters that assumption. Through experiments combining brain scans and a virtual environment the researchers dubbed Tiny Town, they showed that five-year-olds have a brain system that supports map-based navigation.
The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published the finding, the first neural evidence that this cognitive ability is in place in such young children.
Protons are the basis of bioenergetics. The ability to move them through biological systems is essential for life. A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows for the first time that proton transfer is directly influenced by the spin of electrons when measured in chiral biological environments such as proteins. In other words, proton movement in living systems is not purely chemical; it is also a quantum process involving electron spin and molecular chirality.
The quantum process directly affects the small movements of the biological environment that support proton transfer. This discovery suggests that energy and information transfer in life is more controlled, selective, and potentially tunable than previously believed, bridging quantum physics with biological chemistry and opening new doors for understanding life at its deepest level—and for designing technologies that can mimic or control biological processes.
The work, led by a team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem collaborating with Prof. Ron Naaman from Weizmann Institute of Science and Prof. Nurit Ashkenasy from Ben Gurion University, reveals a surprising connection between the movement of electrons and protons in biological systems.
Getting a timely diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is a major challenge, but new research from York University shows that how young adults—and potentially children—grasp objects could offer a simpler way to diagnose someone on the autism spectrum.
The work is published in the journal Autism Research.
The team, part of an international collaboration, used machine learning to analyze naturalistic hand movements—specifically, finger motions during grasping—in autistic and non-autistic individuals.
Though they don’t orbit around our sun, sub-Neptunes are the most common type of exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system, that have been observed in our galaxy. These small, gassy planets are shrouded in mystery…and often, a lot of haze. Now, by observing exoplanet TOI-421 b, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is helping scientists understand sub-Neptunes in a way that was not possible prior to the telescope’s launch.
“I had been waiting my entire career for Webb so that we could meaningfully characterize the atmospheres of these smaller planets,” said principal investigator Eliza Kempton of the University of Maryland, College Park. “By studying their atmospheres, we’re getting a better understanding of how sub-Neptunes formed and evolved, and part of that is understanding why they don’t exist in our solar system.”
The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Mind blanking, when the mind temporarily goes blank, is a distinct, common mental state influenced by attention, arousal, and brain activity patterns. Mind blanking is a common but poorly defined mental phenomenon, encompassing experiences that range from mild drowsiness to a complete loss of con