One of the new buildings is planned to have a 2.14 million-square-foot footprint.
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High-speed microscopy reveals electrical activity across the brain
Within the brain, neurons compute by generating electrical impulses. These signals travel throughout neurons, which are in turn connected in vast networks that control brain functions such as sensory perception, memory formation, and control of movement.
In an advance that could help neuroscientists map those neural networks, leading to a better understanding of how neural activity underlies behavior and other brain functions, MIT engineers have invented a new microscope that can image electrical activity in neurons distributed across the brain of an entire organism, the experimental model Danio rerio (zebrafish).
Using a microscope that they adapted for fast, high-volumetric rate imaging, the researchers were able to track electrical activity across the brain on the scale of milliseconds. This method revealed patterns of neural activity from neurons throughout the brain that were activated in response to ultraviolet light.
A unifying mechanism for cancer-driving mutations
A family of mutations seen in about 20% of human cancers drives malignancy by changing the accessibility of genes to a particular regulatory protein, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings suggest new therapeutic strategies for a variety of cancer types.
The study, published Oct. 28 in Nature, focused on a protein complex called the BAF complex, which regulates gene activity in the nucleus. Mutations in genes that encode subunits of this complex are found in tumors as different as lymphoma, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and liver cancer, but the common mechanism underlying this broad connection to cancers has been elusive. In the study, the scientists showed that these BAF mutations effectively allow the three-dimensional architecture of DNA to be reshaped extensively by a protein called CTCF. This shifts gene activity in a direction that promotes malignancy, but deleting CTCF in an animal model reverses the effect.
“These findings help us establish a unifying mechanism for one of the most common classes of cancer mutations, and identify CTCF and its partner proteins as candidate therapeutic targets in these cancers,” said study co-corresponding author Darko Barisic, an assistant professor of cancer biology in medicine and a member of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.
These extreme cosmic explosions are breaking physics
Astronomers are finally figuring out what powers mysterious gamma-ray bursts
We should not exist — but two researchers have solved the mystery of why we are here after all
When the Big Bang took place 13.8 billion years ago, exactly equal quantities of matter and antimatter ought to have formed, cancelling each other out into pure energy.
The cosmos should have ended up as radiation, yet here we are, surrounded by stars, galaxies, and planets made of pure matter.
Two physicists now believe to have found out how that is possible.
Physicists created a tiny universe and watched time emerge without a clock
Scientists have created a miniature universe in the laboratory that could help answer one of the biggest mysteries in physics: What is time, and where does it come from? Using 24,000 ultracold atoms, a University of Birmingham researcher built an isolated quantum system that repeatedly expands and contracts, mimicking the Big Bang and a possible Big Crunch. Remarkably, the experiment showed that time could emerge from changes happening inside the system, without relying on an external clock.
Was This Body Preserved Correctly?
Cryonics is one of the most misunderstood ideas in science today: most people think it means “freezing dead people.” It doesn’t. Follow Tomorrow.bio to under…
Armored caterpillars offer robot designers lessons in crossing slippery glass
Animals have long been one of the primary sources of inspiration for robotics researchers. This is because they rely on sophisticated biological mechanisms and locomotion strategies that could be artificially reproduced in robots to equip them with desired capabilities.
Caterpillars, the wormlike larvae that later develop into butterflies or moths, have also attracted the attention of many roboticists. Their elastic bodies and their ability to stick onto many types of surfaces allow them to move in complex natural environments and squeeze through narrow openings.
Caterpillars adapt their movements based on what they are crawling on, as they might not always adhere perfectly to each surface. Researchers at the University of Naples Federico II and the University of Palermo recently assessed how well caterpillars moved on wood, steel, slate and glass, observing how they coped with more challenging conditions.