Summary: A newly developed technique dubbed NeuroPAL is helping researchers investigate the dynamics of neural networks in the nervous system of microscopic worms.
Source: Columbia University.
The human brain contains approximately 86 billion neurons, or nerve cells, woven together by an estimated 100 trillion connections, or synapses. Each cell has a role that helps us to move muscles, process our environment, form memories, and much more.
O,.o circa 2019.
The latest from NASA’s X-plane series could make Concorde-style supersonic commercial flights a reality again without the deafening sonic boom noise.
Circa 2014
A NASA study has recently concluded that the “Cannae Drive,” a disruptive new method of space propulsion, can produce small amounts of thrust without the use of propellant, in apparent discordance with Newton’s third law. According to its inventor, the device can harness microwave radiation inside a resonator, turning electricity into a net thrust. If further verified and perfected, the advance could revolutionize the space industry, dramatically cutting costs for both missions in deep space and satellites in Earth orbit.
The basic principle behind space propulsion is very simple: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Use a rocket engine to throw mass one way, get propelled the other way. And according to the law of conservation of momentum, the more mass you throw behind you and the faster you throw it, the stronger your forward thrust will be.
One consequence for space travel is that, to counter Earth’s gravity and reach orbital velocity, rockets need to carry a very large amount of propellant: For instance, in the now-retired Space Shuttle, the mass of the fuel was almost twenty times greater than the payload itself. In satellites the impact is smaller, but still very significant: for geostationary satellites, fuel can make up as much as half the launch weight, and that makes them more expensive to launch and operate.
Since we last explored the Brown Mountain Lights (March/April 1995), new scientific research teams were formed, the Burke County Tourism Authority offered sold-out symposia, the lights were featured in a National Geographic show and more.
Erik Rintamaki was searching for rocks on a Michigan beach last summer when he made what he calls a “mind blowing” discovery. Resting among the thousands of pebbles covering the Lake Superior beach, Rintamaki saw a glowing rock.
Farms that grow metal-rich plants are cropping up around the world and promise a greener, less destructive alternative to mining for rare minerals.
Moonshot Thinking For Aging, Mental Health, And Drug Re-Purposing — Dr. Tim R. Peterson.
Washington University in St. Louis.
Dr. Tim R. Peterson PhD. is Assistant Professor, in the Department of Medicine, at Washington University in St. Louis.
Smartwatches and other battery-powered electronics would be even smarter if they could run AI algorithms. But efforts to build AI-capable chips for mobile devices have so far hit a wall—the so-called “memory wall” that separates data processing and memory chips that must work together to meet the massive and continually growing computational demands imposed by AI.
“Transactions between processors and memory can consume 95 percent of the energy needed to do machine learning and AI, and that severely limits battery life,” said computer scientist Subhasish Mitra, senior author of a new study published in Nature Electronics.
Now, a team that includes Stanford computer scientist Mary Wootters and electrical engineer H.-S. Philip Wong has designed a system that can run AI tasks faster, and with less energy, by harnessing eight hybrid chips, each with its own data processor built right next to its own memory storage.
Very interesting.
Patients with severe COVID-19 disease have significantly shorter telomeres, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) in collaboration with the COVID-IFEMA Field Hospital, published in the journal Aging. The study, led by Maria A. Blasco and whose first authors are Raúl Sánchez and Ana Guío-Carrión, postulates that telomere shortening as a consequence of the viral infection impedes tissue regeneration and that this is why a significant number of patients suffer prolonged sequelae.
Blasco was already developing a therapy to regenerate lung tissue in pulmonary fibrosis patients; she now believes that this treatment — which should still take at least a year and a half to become available — could also help those who have lung lesions remaining after overcoming COVID-19.
Telomeres and tissue regeneration
The Telomeres and Telomerase Group, led by Blasco at the CNIO, has been researching the role of telomeres in tissue regeneration for decades. Telomeres are structures that protect the chromosomes within each cell of the organism. It is known that telomere length is an indicator of ageing: each time a cell divides, its telomeres shorten until they can no longer perform their protective function and the cell, which now becomes damaged, stops dividing. Throughout life, cells are constantly dividing to regenerate tissues, and when they stop doing so because the telomeres are too short, the body ages.
