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Though serotonin is well known as a brain neurotransmitter, it is estimated that 90 percent of the body’s serotonin is made in the digestive tract. In fact, altered levels of this peripheral serotonin have been linked to diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis. New research at Caltech, published in the April 9 issue of the journal Cell, shows that certain bacteria in the gut are important for the production of peripheral serotonin.

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Holographic quantum matter exhibits an intriguing connection between quantum black holes and more conventional (albeit strongly interacting) quantum many-body systems. This connection is manifested in the study of their thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and many-body quantum chaos. In this Review, we discuss these connections, focusing on the most promising example of holographic quantum systems to date – the family of Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) models. The SYK models are simple quantum mechanical models that have the potential to holographically realize quantum black holes. We examine various proposals for the experimental realizations of SYK models, including ultracold gases, graphene flakes, semiconductor quantum wires and 3D topological insulators. These approaches offer the exciting prospect of accessing black hole physics and thus addressing many important questions regarding quantum gravity in the laboratory.