Astronauts lose bone and muscle mass on long-duration missions, but a new treatment administered to mice in space could prevent that from happening, a new study finds.
Even quantum computers make mistakes. Their computing ability is extraordinary, exceeding that of classical computers by far. This is because circuits in quantum computers are based on qubits that can represent not only zeroes or ones, but also superpositions of both states by using the principles of quantum mechanics. Despite their great potential, qubits are extremely fragile and prone to errors due to the interactions with the external environment.
To solve this crucial issue, an international research group developed and implemented a new protocol that protects fragile quantum information and corrects errors due to qubit loss. This research group published the results of their study in Nature.
“Developing a fully functioning quantum processor still represents a great challenge for scientists across the world,” explains Davide Vodola who is one of the authors of the study as well as a researcher at the University of Bologna. “This research allowed us, for the first time, to implement a protocol that can detect and, at the same time, correct errors due to qubit loss. This ability could prove to be essential for the future development of large-scale quantum computers.”
People who were children when their parents were divorced showed lower levels of oxytocin — the so-called “love hormone” — when they were adults than those whose parents remained married, according to a study led by Baylor University. That lower level may play a role in having trouble forming attachments when they are grown.
Oxytocin — secreted in the brain and released during bonding experiences such as delivery of a baby or sexual interaction or nursing, even being hugged by a romantic partner — has been shown in previous research to be important for social behavior and emotional attachments in early life. The oxytocin system also has been linked to parenting, attachment and anxiety.
The new study, published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, delves into an area that has not been well researched — a link between oxytocin, early experience and adult outcomes.
Continue reading “People who were children when their parents divorced have less ‘love hormone’” »
Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Stanford University have pinpointed the circuit in the brain that is responsible for sleepless nights in times of stress—and it turns out that circuit does more than make you toss and turn. Their study, done in mice, ties the same neuronal connections that trigger insomnia to stress-induced changes in the immune system, which weaken the body’s defenses against a host of threats.
The study, reported September 9, 2020, in the journal Science Advances, connects and explains two familiar problems, says CSHL Assistant Professor Jeremy Borniger. “This sort of stress-induced insomnia is well known among anybody that’s tried to get to sleep with a looming deadline or something the next day,” he says. “And in the clinical world, it’s been known for a long time that chronically stressed patients typically do worse on a variety of different treatments and across a variety of different diseases.”
Like many aspects of the body’s stress response, these effects are thought to be driven by the stress hormone cortisol. Working in the Stanford lab of Luis de Lecea, where Borniger completed a postdoctoral fellowship prior to joining CSHL, the research team found a direct connection between stress-sensitive neurons in the brain that trigger cortisol’s release and nearby neurons that promote insomnia.
Continue reading “The neurons that connect stress, insomnia, and the immune system” »
Lucid has finally fully unveiled the production version of its first car: the Lucid Air, a luxury electric sedan.
For those of you who have been following our coverage over the past few months, there won’t be many surprises since Lucid has gradually leaked the most important information. But it’s still worth diving a little deeper with all the final details.
As you get older, key genes that maintain life are no longer activated. George Church is focused on turning youth-boosting genes back on.
His company, Rejuvenate Bio, has begun clinical trials in old dogs. This will help us determine which ages of humans would best benefit. George believes they will be able to help people who are already quite old and show signs of decline. They are looking at extending absolute lifespan. Extending human lifespan will take years to get reliable results.
They have published results on three genes. Those genes already helped reverse osteoarthritis, high-fat obesity and diabetes, heart damage, and kidney disease. They will soon add cancer and neurodegenerative diseases to the list of reversible conditions.
O,.o circa 2018.
Characteristics of mysterious time crystals have been found in the most unexpected place you’d ever think to look — a compound found in fertiliser and those crystal-growing kits you can buy for kids.
That compound is monoammonium phosphate (MAP), and the physicists from Yale who made the discovery are now scratching their heads, because this raises questions about how time crystals even form in the first place.
GPT-3, an advanced language generator developed by OpenAI, wrote a frighteningly humanlike essay for The Guardian on how humanity shouldn’t fear AI.
Astronomers at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii say they have found the most distant galaxy yet. Its name is z8_GND_5296, and it is churning out new stars at an astounding rate. The remarkable z8_GND_5296 is believed to be about 30 billion light years away, and continues to gain distance. Scientists are hoping it can provide clues to what happened right after the Big Bang.
The Keck research team determined how far away z8_GND_5296 is by measuring precisely the redness of its light. Since the galaxy is moving away, its light waves are stretched, which makes it appear redder than it truly is. Astronomers call this phenomena redshift. This galaxy holds the redshift record at 7.51, beating the now second furthest galaxy by exactly 0.3. According to Nature, an international weekly science journal, only five known galaxies have a mathematically tested and confirmed redshift “in excess of 7.”
With regard to producing new stars, z8_GND_5296 is unusually productive. Nature says it puts out “about 330 new solar masses per year, which is which is more than a factor of 100 greater than that seen in the Milky Way.” This is even more impressive if one considers z8_GND_5296’s diminutive size. The powerhouse star-producer is only about 1–2% the size of our galaxy. Of the recorded galaxies with redshifts exceeding 7, only one other has a high star-formation rate.
