Wu tied the plan to land and water cooperation as TSMC enters 2nm mass production. He also flagged robotics and optical communications.
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Rare Parkinson’s Case Highlights Platelets as a Source of Biomarkers
A study found shared platelet gene-expression changes in a rare genetic case and patients with early-onset sporadic Parkinson’s, suggesting possible common molecular mechanisms.
Why Does India Need Its Own GPS? NVS-03 Launch and NavIC’s Fourth Satellite
India’s own GPS has been one satellite short. NavIC, developed by ISRO, needs four working satellites for independent positioning, and before this launch it had only three. On 30 October 2026, India launched NVS-03 aboard the GSLV-F18 rocket to take NavIC to the four it needs. ISRO has completed the first orbit-raising manoeuvre, and the satellite still has to reach its final orbit and become operational.
Every time you use GPS, you are relying on technology controlled by a foreign government. NavIC is India’s own regional satellite navigation system, designed to serve the country and an area extending 1,500 km beyond its borders. NVS-03 also carries an Indian-made atomic clock and an additional navigation signal designed to work with more navigation devices.
Ever physically had to stop yourself from eating a fourteenth slice of cake? Congratulations
Ever physically had to stop yourself from eating a fourteenth slice of cake? Congratulations, you used your basal ganglia! This structure sits deep in the front of your brain and is one of the main players in inhibitory control, the brakes on your impulses. It also helps you learn habits and skills like riding a bike or playing piano, with a big assist from the dopamine neurons of the substantia nigra. This is a closeup of the basal ganglia as it appears in Self Reflected, and in mine at least it is constantly at war vs peanut butter cups. P.S. Something new is coming to Self Reflected on 10 November, and my mailing list sees it first. Link in bio. #brainart #sciart #neuroscience #neurology #SelfReflected
Scientists use sound waves to deliver a new attack on deadly brain cancer
Scientists at the University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a promising experimental strategy for treating glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor in adults. The new approach could help overcome some of the biggest obstacles that have limited the effectiveness of existing brain cancer treatments.
The research team, led by UVA’s Roger Abounader, MD, PhD, identified tiny genetic molecules known as “microRNAs” that can interfere with several genes responsible for the development and growth of glioblastoma. To deliver these molecules into the brain, the researchers combined specialized nanoparticles, focused ultrasound and microscopic bubbles. Together, these technologies offer a way to temporarily cross the brain’s protective barrier, which normally prevents many treatments from reaching brain tumors and other neurological conditions.
Single molecules could provide the building blocks for future quantum networks
Quantum computers rely on qubits as their units of information. To connect them into a larger network across long distances, they need to transmit quantum information using light.
Scientists are developing ways to do this using tiny defects in diamond crystals and other semiconductor materials that can act as qubits. However, there is a major problem. Unwanted defects and trapped electrical charges can cause fluctuations that change the frequency of light emitted by the qubits, making it harder to establish reliable quantum connections.
In new research published in the journal Nature, scientists have demonstrated a promising way to get around this instability problem by using a custom-designed molecular system that contains a stable qubit.
Gut immune cells sustain pain even without inflammation through newly identified signaling pathway
People with inflammatory bowel conditions such as ulcerative colitis often suffer from severe, long-lasting gut pain that lingers even after signs of inflammation are gone. Such abdominal pain can significantly affect one’s quality of life, but unfortunately there are few treatment options. Uncertainty about the underlying mechanisms that drive this type of pain is responsible for the lack of effective treatments.
To clarify these mechanisms, researchers investigated how chronic gut pain is triggered and sustained in conditions like ulcerative colitis, focusing on the behavior of immune cells. They wanted to see if immune cells could directly feel physical pressure and trigger pain via nerve sensitization.
With the help of genetically engineered mice with ulcerative colitis-like inflammation, the researchers examined whether gut-wall immune cells called tissue-resident CX3CR1⁺ macrophages carry the mechanosensitive channel Piezo1. They then traced how tissue stiffness sets off a molecular chain reaction through this channel and the role it plays in pain pathways.
Tracing the online networks behind AI-generated nude images
As Domestic Violence Awareness Month comes to a close this week, one University of Florida researcher is examining the roots of nudification apps, online platforms that use AI to turn images of clothed people—easily and convincingly—into nude images.
“There’s a strong link between nonconsensual intimate imagery and domestic violence,” said Kevin R. B. Butler.
There have been legislative and legal responses to the creation and distribution of these images, which are more correctly known as synthetic nonconsensual intimate imagery, or SNCII. In the United States, the TAKE IT DOWN Act was passed in 2025, criminalizing the creation and distribution of such imagery and making it easier to remove once posted.
We Are Slowly Evolving into Celestial Beings
Explore the evolution of humanity as we move away from supernatural beliefs, drawing on concepts like Evolutionary Humanism and the ideas of Transhumans and Posthumans. I invite you to read these insights on how evolutionary and ideological shifts together shape our identity as a species.
How do we grow up as a species and jettison supernatural beliefs, with reference to Evolutionary Humanism, Transhumans, Posthumans et al?
We might finally know what came before the Big Bang
The Universe may not have begun with a Big Bang, but instead with a Big Bounce, according to a new theory about how the Universe expands