Lifeboat Foundation

A trove of DNA sequences from 141,456 people — and counting — offers researchers an unparalleled look at genetic variation across the general population^1,2. The resource has been helping researchers to identify variants that contribute to autism since it was released online about four years ago^3,4.

The genomes of autistic people harbor hundreds of potentially harmful mutations. But to firmly connect a specific variant to the condition, researchers need to see if it is common among typical people — a sign that that variant may actually be benign.

In 2014, researchers debuted one of the first tools to probe the prevalence of a mutation in the general population. Known as the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC), it contained 60,000 sequences of exomes — the protein-coding regions of the genome⁵.

The National Weather Service in Melbourne has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for southeastern St. Lucie County and northeastern Martin County until 10 p.m.

At 9:18 p.m., a severe thunderstorm was located 7 miles north of Indiantown, moving northeast at 15 mph.

Locations impacted include Port Saint Lucie, Walton, Stuart, Palm City and Saint Lucie Nuclear Power Plant.

R. Abbott ¹, T. D. Abbott ², S. Abraham ³, F. Acernese ^4,5, K. Ackley ⁶, C. Adams ⁷, R. X. Adhikari ¹, V. B. Adya ⁸, C. Affeldt ^9,10, M. Agathos ^11,12, K. Agatsuma¹³, N. Aggarwal ¹⁴, O. D. Aguiar ¹⁵, A. Aich ¹⁶, L. Aiello ^17,18, A. Ain ³, P. Ajith ¹⁹, S. Akcay ^11,20, G. Allen ²¹, A. Allocca ²², P. A. Altin ⁸, A. Amato ²³, S. Anand ¹, A. Ananyeva ¹, S. B. Anderson ¹, W. G. Anderson ²⁴, S. V. Angelova ²⁵, S. Ansoldi ^26,27, S. Antier ²⁸, S.

Among the different platforms for quantum information processing, individual electron spins in semiconductor quantum dots stand out for their long coherence times and potential for scalable fabrication. The past years have witnessed substantial progress in the capabilities of spin qubits. However, coupling between distant electron spins, which is required for quantum error correction, presents a challenge, and this goal remains the focus of intense research. Quantum teleportation is a canonical method to transmit qubit states, but it has not been implemented in quantum-dot spin qubits. Here, we present evidence for quantum teleportation of electron spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots. Although we have not performed quantum state tomography to definitively assess the teleportation fidelity, our data are consistent with conditional teleportation of spin eigenstates, entanglement swapping, and gate teleportation. Such evidence for all-matter spin-state teleportation underscores the capabilities of exchange-coupled spin qubits for quantum-information transfer.

Complex behavioral phenotyping techniques are becoming more prevalent in the field of behavioral neuroscience, and thus methods for manipulating neuronal activity must be adapted to fit into such paradigms. Here, we present a head-mounted, magnetically activated device for wireless optogenetic manipulation that is compact, simple to construct, and suitable for use in group-living mice in an enriched semi-natural arena over several days. Using this device, we demonstrate that repeated activation of oxytocin neurons in male mice can have different effects on pro-social and agonistic behaviors, depending on the social context. Our findings support the social salience hypothesis of oxytocin and emphasize the importance of the environment in the study of social neuromodulators. Our wireless optogenetic device can be easily adapted for use in a variety of behavioral paradigms, which are normally hindered by tethered light delivery or a limited environment.

How does the neural activity evoked by visual stimuli support visual awareness? In this paper we report on an individual with a rare type of neural degeneration as a window into the neural responses underlying visual awareness. When presented with stimuli containing faces and target words—regardless of whether the patient was aware of their presence—the neurophysiological responses were indistinguishable. These data support the possibility that extensive visual processing, up to and including activation of identity, can occur without resulting in visual awareness of the stimuli.

Visual awareness is thought to result from integration of low- and high-level processing; instances of integration failure provide a crucial window into the cognitive and neural bases of awareness. We present neurophysiological evidence of complex cognitive processing in the absence of awareness, raising questions about the conditions necessary for visual awareness. We describe an individual with a neurodegenerative disease who exhibits impaired visual awareness for the digits 2 to 9, and stimuli presented in close proximity to these digits, due to perceptual distortion. We identified robust event-related potential responses indicating 1) face detection with the component and 2) task-dependent target-word detection with the P3b component, despite no awareness of the presence of faces or target words.

Researchers at EPFL’s Advanced Quantum Architecture Laboratory and the Wision Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a technique for building crystal-clear images of moving subjects. The team will present its paper at the prestigious SIGGRAPH 2020 conference in August.

Astronomers investigating gamma ray emissions have discovered that certain active galaxies seem to be giving off bursts in regular patterns. This, the team says, could be an indication of galaxies harboring two supermassive black holes in their centers.

Conventional thinking says that lurking at the heart of most galaxies is a supermassive black hole. The Milky Way is the perfect example – Sagittarius A lies about 26,000 light-years from Earth and has a mass about 4 million times that of the Sun.

While it’s generally thought that galaxies would only host one supermassive black hole, the idea that some could have two has been theoretically possible. And now, an international team of researchers has found what could be the first evidence of this scenario.

What does a 1.1-sec, 0–60 mph acceleration even look like? A graphic artist tried to visualize what a Tesla Roadster with SpaceX thruster looks like when accelerating in 1.1 seconds.

When first unveiling the vehicle, Tesla claimed a list of insanely impressive specs for the new Roadster, including 0–60 mph in 1.9 sec, 620 miles of range, and more.

However, the CEO quickly added that the insane specs announced in 2017 for the new electric hypercars are only “the base specs.”