The Zen of Technology & Scientific Discovery! (& Robots)

[Jundo]

Our first baby steps ...

A new study demonstrates how the pelvis evolved for upright walking.

If evolutionary biologist Terence D. Capellini were to rank the body parts that define us as human, the pelvis would be towards the top.

After all, thanks to its design, humans can walk upright on two legs (unlike our primate cousins) and mothers can give birth to children with huge heads (therefore big brains). The pelvis is anatomically well-understood, but when it comes to how and when this very essential structure takes form throughout development, our understanding begins to falter.

... The study shows that many of the features essential for human walking and birth form around the 6- to 8-week mark during pregnancy. This includes key pelvic features unique to humans, like its curved and basin-like shape. The formation happens while bones are still cartilage so they can easily, curve, rotate, expand, and grow.

The researchers also discovered that when other cartilage in the body starts to transform into bone, the developing pelvic region remains as cartilage for a longer period of time, allowing it to mature properly.

“There appears to be a stalling that happens and this stalling allows the cartilage to still grow, which was pretty interesting to find and surprising,” Capellini said. “I call it a zone of protection.”

The researchers used RNA sequencing to determine which genes in the area are actively triggering pelvic formation and slowing ossification, which usually converts softer cartilage to hard bone. They discovered hundreds of genes that are turned either on or off throughout the 6- to 8-week period to form the ilium in the pelvis, which is the largest and uppermost bone of the hip with blade-like structures that curve and rotate into a basin to support walking on two legs.

Compared to chimpanzees and gorillas, the shorter and wider reorientation of our pelvic blades makes it so humans don’t have to shift the mass of our weight forward and use our knuckles to walk or balance more comfortably. It also helps increase the size of the birth canal. Apes on the other hand have much narrower birth canals and more elongated ilium bones.

https://scitechdaily.com/why-do-huma...al-the-secret/

And a fascinating look at our stellar face, and its changes ...

NASA’s NEOWISE Space Telescope Takes 12-Year Time-Lapse Movie of Entire Sky

NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or NEOWISE, spacecraft completes one trip halfway around the Sun every six months, taking images in all directions. Once stitched together, those images form an “all-sky” map showing the location and brightness of hundreds of millions of objects. Using 18 all-sky maps produced by the spacecraft (with the 19th and 20th to be released in March 2023), astronomers have constructed what is essentially a time-lapse movie of the sky, revealing changes that span a decade.

Each all-sky map is a tremendously valuable resource for astronomers by itself. However, when viewed in sequence as a time-lapse, they serve as an even more powerful tool for attempting to unlock the secrets of the universe. Comparing the maps can reveal distant objects that have changed position or brightness over time. This is known as time-domain astronomy.

https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-neowi...of-entire-sky/

https://youtu.be/CaVpmMLE0BU

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Our common root with mice and elephants ...

Scientists Reconstruct the Genome of the 180-Million-Year-Old Common Ancestor of All Mammals

From a platypus to a blue whale, all living mammals today are descended from a common ancestor that existed some 180 million years ago. Although we don’t know a lot about this animal, a global team of experts has recently computationally reconstructed the organization of its genome. The findings were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Our results have important implications for understanding the evolution of mammals and for conservation efforts,” said Harris Lewin, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, and senior author on the paper. ... The researchers identified 1,215 blocks of genes that appear on the same chromosome in the same order across all 32 genomes. Damas said that these building blocks of all mammal genomes include genes that are essential for the development of a normal embryo. ... “This remarkable finding shows the evolutionary stability of the order and orientation of genes on chromosomes over an extended evolutionary timeframe of more than 320 million years,” Lewin said.

In contrast, regions between these conserved blocks contained more repetitive sequences and were more prone to breakages, rearrangements, and sequence duplications, which are major drivers of genome evolution. ... The researchers were able to follow the ancestral chromosomes forward in time from the common ancestor. They found that the rate of chromosome rearrangement differed between mammal lineages. For example, in the ruminant lineage (leading to modern cattle, sheep, and deer) there was an acceleration in rearrangement 66 million years ago when an asteroid impact killed off the dinosaurs and led to the rise of mammals.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-reconstruct-the-genome-of-the-180-million-year-old-common-ancestor-of-all-mammals/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Using our brains ... or parts of them anyway ...

Watch Live Human Brain Cells in a Dish Learn To Play Pong

Scientists have shown for the first time that 800,000 brain cells living in a dish can perform goal-directed tasks. In this case, they played the simple tennis-like computer game, Pong. The results of the Melbourne-led study are published today (October 12) in the journal Neuron. ... “We have shown we can interact with living biological neurons in such a way that compels them to modify their activity, leading to something that resembles intelligence,” says lead author Dr. Brett Kagan. ... Although researchers have been able to mount neurons on multi-electrode arrays and read their activity for some time now, this is the first time that cells have been stimulated in a structured and meaningful way. “In the past, models of the brain have been developed according to how computer scientists think the brain might work,” Kagan says. “That is usually based on our current understanding of information technology, such as silicon computing.

“But in truth, we don’t really understand how the brain works.”

By constructing a living model brain from basic structures in this way, scientists will be able to experiment using real brain function rather than flawed analogous models such as a computer.

For example, Kagan and his team will next experiment to see what effect alcohol has when introduced to DishBrain.

“We’re trying to create a dose-response curve with ethanol – basically get them ‘drunk’ and see if they play the game more poorly, just as when people drink,” says Kagan. “This new capacity to teach cell cultures to perform a task in which they exhibit sentience – by controlling the paddle to return the ball via sensing – opens up new discovery possibilities which will have far-reaching consequences for technology, health, and society,” ...

... Electrodes on the left or right of one array were fired to tell Dishbrain which side the ball was on, while the distance from the paddle was indicated by the frequency of signals. Feedback from the electrodes taught DishBrain how to return the ball, by making the cells act as if they themselves were the paddle.

“We’ve never before been able to see how the cells act in a virtual environment,” says Kagan. “We managed to build a closed-loop environment that can read what’s happening in the cells, stimulate them with meaningful information and then change the cells in an interactive way so they can actually alter each other.”

https://scitechdaily.com/watch-live-human-brain-cells-in-a-dish-learn-to-play-pong/

[Below is a visual representation of the simulated Pong environment where neuron activity is reflected in the tiles growing in height.]

... and ... people sometimes think like rats ... and rats now think like people ...

Human ‘mini-brains’ implanted in rats prompt excitement — and concern

Miniature human brain-like structures transplanted into rats can send signals and respond to environmental cues picked up by the rats’ whiskers, according to a study1. This demonstration that neurons grown from human stem cells can interface with nerve cells in live rodents could lead to a way to test therapies for human brain disorders. ...

... neuroscientist Sergiu Pasca at Stanford University in California and his colleagues grew the structures from human stem cells and then injected them into the brains of newborn rat pups, with the expectation that the human cells would grow along with the rats’ own cells. The team placed the organoids in a brain region called the somatosensory cerebral cortex, which receives signals from the rats’ whiskers and other sensory organs and then passes them along to other brain regions that interpret the signals. Human brain cells mature much more slowly than rat cells, so the researchers had to wait for more than six months for the organoids to become fully integrated into the rat brains. But when they examined the animals’ brains at the end of that time, they saw that the integration had been so successful that it was almost like adding “another transistor to a circuit”, Pasca said at a 10 October press conference. ...

... In their report, published in Nature on 12 October1, the researchers describe how they genetically engineered the neurons in the organoids to fire when stimulated with light from a fibre-optic cable embedded in the rats’ brains. The team trained the rats to lick a spout to receive water while the light was switched on. Afterwards, when the researchers shone the light on the hybrid brains, the rats were prompted to lick the spout, meaning that the human cells had become integrated well enough to help drive the animals’ behaviour. Furthermore, when the researchers tweaked the rats’ whiskers, they found that the human cells in the sensory cortex fired in response, suggesting that the cells were able to pick up sensory information. ...

... Some of the challenges are ethical. People are concerned that creating rodent–human hybrids could harm the animals, or create animals with human-like brains. Last year, a panel organized by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report concluding that human brain organoids are still too primitive to become conscious, attain human-like intelligence or acquire other abilities that might require legal regulation. Pasca says that his team’s organoid transplants didn’t cause problems such as seizures or memory deficits in the rats, and didn’t seem to change the animals’ behaviour significantly.

But Arlotta, a member of the National Academies panel, says that problems could arise as science advances. “We can’t just discuss it once and let it be,” she says. She adds that concerns about human organoids need to be weighed against the needs of people with neurological and psychiatric disorders. Brain organoids and human–animal hybrid brains could reveal the mechanisms underlying these illnesses, and allow researchers to test therapies for conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. “I think we have a responsibility as a society to do everything we can,” Arlotta says.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03238-x

[PICTURE: Researchers have transplanted a human brain organoid (bright green) into the brain of a newborn rat pup, creating hybrid brains in which the neurons interface.]

Gassho, J

[Jundo]

It is amazing what we can do with Photoshop ...

Science enthusiasts have processed the new JunoCam images of Jupiter’s icy moon, with results that are out of this world.

Citizen scientists have furnished unique perspectives of the recent close flyby of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. By processing raw images from JunoCam, the spacecraft’s public-engagement camera, members of the general public have created deep-space portraits of the Jovian moon that are not only spectacular, but also worthy of further scientific investigation.

... Europa is the solar system’s sixth-largest moon with about 90% of the equatorial diameter of Earth’s moon. Scientists are confident a salty ocean lies below a miles-thick ice shell, sparking questions about the potential habitability of the ocean. In the early 2030s, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will arrive and strive to answer these questions about Europa’s habitability. The data from the Juno flyby provides a preview of what that mission will reveal

... The images and spectra of Europa, published in the Planetary Science Journal, reveal that Europa’s crust is mainly composed of frozen water ice with non-ice materials contaminating the surface. Oliver King from the University of Leicester School of Physics and Astronomy said: “We mapped the distributions of the different materials on the surface, including sulphuric acid frost which is mainly found on the side of Europa that is most heavily bombarded by the gases surrounding Jupiter.” “The modeling found that there could be a variety of different salts present on the surface, but suggested that infrared spectroscopy alone is generally unable to identify which specific types of salt are present.” ... With this additional data about Europa’s geology, Juno’s observations will benefit future missions to the Jovian moon, including NASA’s Europa Clipper. That mission, set to launch in 2024, will study Europa’s atmosphere, surface, and interior. Its main science goal will be to determine whether there are locations below the moon’s surface that could support life.

https://scitechdaily.com/enhance-cit...om-nasas-juno/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Where our Milky Way Galaxy puts its old used stars out for recycling ...

The Milky Way galaxy has a graveyard of dead stars that stretches three times the height of the galaxy, according to new research. Astronomers found the ancient stellar remnants when they mapped this “galactic underworld” for the first time.

Our galaxy, which formed about 13 billion years ago, has been the home of billions of stars. Over time, many of these massive objects have collapsed into dense remnants.

When a star more than eight times larger than the sun burns through its elements and collapses, the outer layers of the star explode in a supernova. Meanwhile, the stellar core condenses into either a neutron star or black hole. ... The very supernova explosions that triggered the collapse of the stars actually kicked them out into interstellar space. Researchers determined that 30% of those stellar remnants have been kicked out of the galaxy completely, according to their study published in the latest issue of the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The research team was able to map where the stellar remains rest within and around our galaxy by recreating the life cycle of the ancient stars. “One of the problems for finding these ancient objects is that, until now, we had no idea where to look,” said study coauthor Peter Tuthill, professor at the School of Physics and director of the Sydney Institute for Astronomy at The University of Sydney in Australia, in a statement.

... “Almost all the remnants ever formed are still out there, sliding like ghosts through interstellar space,” Sweeney said.

The new map includes where the stars were born within the Milky Way, where they exploded and their eventual resting places.

Milky Way WITHOUT showing the "Galactic Underworld" ...

Comparing the Milky Way’s current appearance with the new model of its stellar necropolis shows striking differences. The galaxy’s characteristic spiral arms seem to disappear beneath all of the supernova kicks that wash them out.

The “galactic underworld” also appears taller and more puffy than the Milky Way because the supernova kicks pushed the remnants into a kind of halo formation around the galaxy.

Milky Way WITH the "Galactic Underworld" ...

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Good news, I would say personally ... since all composite things are impermanent, including us, but we don't want to rush things.

The DART mission successfully changed the motion of an asteroid

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test successfully changed the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos when the NASA spacecraft intentionally slammed into the space rock on September 26, according to the agency.

The DART mission, a full-scale demonstration of deflection technology, was the world’s first conducted on behalf of planetary defense. The mission was also the first time humanity intentionally changed the motion of a celestial object in space.

Prior to impact, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid Didymos. Astronomers used ground-based telescopes to measure how Dimorphos’ orbit changed after impact. Now, it takes Dimorphos 11 hours and 23 minutes to circle Didymos. The DART spacecraft changed the moonlet asteroid’s orbit by 32 minutes.

Initially, astronomers expected DART to be a success if it shortened the trajectory by 10 minutes.

“All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet. After all, it’s the only one we have,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.https://us.cnn.com/2022/10/11/world/...scn/index.html

https://youtu.be/fFkePcWUMiM

https://youtu.be/nHBuVbGkmBY

That second video from NASA makes it sound like we are getting our revenge!

Darn you asteroids! REMEMBER THE DINOSAURS! ...

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Something for those who like to ponder and wander in logic on Emptiness.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...ers-proved-it/

A very interesting interview with one of the prize-winners, explaining the history of thinking about "spooky action at a distance" aka "quantum entanglement, and these experiments which confirmed it and led to this prize award ...

A Q&A with Caltech alumnus John Clauser on his first experimental proof of quantum entanglement.

When scientists, including Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger, first discovered the phenomenon of entanglement in the 1930s, they were perplexed. Disturbingly, entanglement required two separated particles to remain connected without being in direct contact. In fact, Einstein famously called entanglement “spooky action at a distance,” because the particles seemed to be communicating faster than the speed of light.

To explain the bizarre implications of entanglement, Einstein, along with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen (EPR), argued that “hidden variables” should be added to quantum mechanics. These could be used to explain entanglement, and to restore “locality” and “causality” to the behavior of the particles. Locality states that objects are only influenced by their immediate surroundings. Causality states that an effect cannot occur before its cause, and that causal signaling cannot propagate faster than light speed. Niels Bohr famously disputed EPR’s argument, while Schrödinger and Wendell Furry, in response to EPR, independently hypothesized that entanglement vanishes with wide-particle separation.

Unfortunately, at the time, no experimental evidence for or against quantum entanglement of widely separated particles was available. Experiments have since proven that entanglement is very real and fundamental to nature. Furthermore, quantum mechanics has now been proven to work, not only at very short distances but also at very great distances. Indeed, China’s quantum-encrypted communications satellite, Micius, (part of the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) research project) relies on quantum entanglement between photons that are separated by thousands of kilometers.

https://scitechdaily.com/first-experimental-proof-that-quantum-entanglement-is-real/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Cassie, a robot built by Agility Robotics, set the Guinness World Record for the fastest 100-meter run by a bipedal robot.

https://youtu.be/64hKiuJ31a4

More on Cassie and bi-pedal robots ...

https://youtu.be/o1liRaTzG-g

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Yummy! Magne-meat!

A Better Way To Grow Meat in the Lab: Zapping Cells With a Magnet

The new technique simplifies the production process of cell-based meat.

The new process is a more environmentally friendly, cleaner, safer, and cost-effective way to make cell-based meat.
By zapping animal cells with a magnet, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have discovered a revolutionary method of producing cell-based meat. By using fewer animal products, this innovative method streamlines the production of cell-based meat and makes it safer, cleaner, and more cost-effective.

The benefits of cultured meat over traditional animal agriculture include a reduced carbon footprint and a lower chance of animal disease transmission. However, the current method of producing cultured meat needs the use of other animal products, which largely defeats the purpose, or drugs to stimulate the meat’s growth.

... The harvested secretomes can also be used for regenerative medicine. The NUS team used the secreted proteins to treat unhealthy cells and found that they help to accelerate the recovery and growth of unhealthy cells. Therefore, this method can potentially help to cure injured cells and speed up a patient’s recovery.

https://scitechdaily.com/a-better-wa...with-a-magnet/

... we are meat ...

New RNA Tool Can Illuminate Brain Circuits and Edit Specific Cells

Scientists at Duke University have developed an RNA-based editing tool that targets individual cells, rather than genes. It is capable of precisely targeting any type of cell and selectively adding any protein of interest. Researchers said the tool could enable modifying very specific cells and cell functions to manage disease.

Using an RNA-based probe, a team led by neurobiologist Z. Josh Huang, Ph.D. and postdoctoral researcher Yongjun Qian, Ph.D. demonstrated they can introduce into cells fluorescent tags to label specific types of brain tissue; a light-sensitive on/off switch to silence or activate neurons of their choosing; and even a self-destruct enzyme to precisely expunge some cells but not others. The work will be published today (October 5, 2022) in the journal Nature.

https://scitechdaily.com/new-rna-too...pecific-cells/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

All composite things are change ... a look at the future ...

New research has found that the world’s next supercontinent, Amasia, will most likely form when the Pacific Ocean closes in 200 to 300 million years.

A Curtin University-led research team used a supercomputer to simulate how a supercontinent forms. They discovered that because the Earth has been cooling for billions of years, the thickness and strength of the plates under the oceans reduce with time, making it difficult for the next supercontinent to assemble by closing the “young” oceans, such as the Atlantic or Indian oceans. The study was published recently in National Science Review

https://scitechdaily.com/behold-the-...tinent-amasia/.

... and the far past ...

Monstrous “Mega-Earthquake” Triggered by Impact That Killed the Dinosaurs

A 6-mile (10-kilometer) asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago, triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs. According to new evidence, the Chicxulub impact also triggered an earthquake that was so massive it shook the planet for weeks to months after the collision. This “mega-earthquake” released an incredible amount of energy, estimated at 1023 joules, which is about 50,000 times more energy than was released in the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra earthquake in 2004.

https://scitechdaily.com/monstrous-mega-earthquake-triggered-by-impact-that-killed-the-dinosaurs/

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Triggered Monstrous Global Tsunami With Mile-High Waves

It also triggered a monstrous tsunami with mile-high waves that scoured the ocean floor thousands of miles from the impact site on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, according to a new University of Michigan-led study that was published online on October 4 in the journal AGU Advances. ...“This tsunami was strong enough to disturb and erode sediments in ocean basins halfway around the globe, leaving either a gap in the sedimentary records or a jumble of older sediments,” said lead author Molly Range. She conducted the modeling study for a master’s thesis under U-M physical oceanographer and study co-author Brian Arbic and U-M paleoceanographer and study co-author Ted Moore.

https://scitechdaily.com/dinosaur-killing-asteroid-triggered-monstrous-global-tsunami-with-mile-high-waves/

... and the even farther far past ...

Scientists Uncover the “Chemistry Behind the Origin of Life”

Purdue University chemists have discovered a mechanism for peptide-forming reactions to occur in water — something that has baffled scientists for decades.

“This is essentially the chemistry behind the origin of life,” said Graham Cooks. He is the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry in Purdue’s College of Science. “This is the first demonstration that primordial molecules, simple amino acids, spontaneously form peptides, the building blocks of life, in droplets of pure water. This is a dramatic discovery.”

Scientists have theorized for decades that life on Earth began in the oceans. However, the chemistry behind this remained an enigma. Raw amino acids — something that meteorites delivered to early Earth daily — can react and latch together to form peptides. These are the building blocks of proteins and, eventually, life. Strangely, the process requires the loss of a water molecule, which seems exceedingly improbable in a wet, aqueous, or oceanic environment. For life to form, it required water. However, it also needed space away from the water. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/the-fountai...rigin-of-life/

... and the farther even farther far past ...

Supercomputer Simulations Reveal How a Giant Impact Could Have Formed the Moon

HOMESPACE NEWS
Supercomputer Simulations Reveal How a Giant Impact Could Have Formed the Moon
TOPICS:AstrophysicsDurham UniversityMoonPopular

By DURHAM UNIVERSITY OCTOBER 6, 2022

Supercomputer Simulation Moon's Origin
Credit: Durham University

Pioneering scientists from Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology used the most detailed supercomputer simulations yet to reveal an alternative explanation for the Moon’s origin, 4.5 billion years ago. It revealed that a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body could immediately place a Moon-like body into orbit around Earth. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/supercomputer-simulations-reveal-how-a-giant-impact-could-have-formed-the-moon/

https://youtu.be/l0xSzYCZBEQ

... and the fast and far away ...

Confirming a Decades-Old Prediction: Astronomers Discover a “Cataclysmic” Pair of Stars

The stars have the shortest orbit yet, circling each other every 51 minutes, confirming a decades-old prediction. ... A cataclysmic variable occurs when the two stars draw close, over billions of years, causing the white dwarf to start accreting, or eating material away from its partner star. This process can give off enormous, variable flashes of light that, centuries ago, astronomers assumed to be a result of some unknown cataclysm. ... ZTF J1813+4251 ... system [] resides about 3,000 light years from Earth, in the Hercules constellation.

The newly discovered system, which the team has tagged ZTF J1813+4251, is a cataclysmic variable with the shortest orbit detected to date. Unlike other such systems observed in the past, the astronomers caught this cataclysmic variable as the stars eclipsed each other multiple times, allowing the team to precisely measure properties of each star.

https://scitechdaily.com/confirming-...pair-of-stars/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Inshin]

Something for those who like to ponder and wander in logic on Emptiness.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-universe-is-not-locally-real-and-the-physics-nobel-prize-winners-proved-it/

[Jundo]

It's all connected, it is all one ...

A “Previously Unrecognized Link” – Land Plants Caused a Sudden Shift in Earth’s Composition

According to research from the University of Southampton, the Earth’s continents’ composition suddenly shifted as a result of the evolution of land plants. ... Around 430 million years ago, during the Silurian Period, when North America and Europe were connected to form the continent known as Pangaea, the evolution of land plants took place. ... Plants drastically modified Earth’s biosphere (those regions of the planet’s surface where life flourishes), laying the stage for the emergence of dinosaurs around 200 million years later.

[As well,] “Plants caused fundamental changes to river systems, bringing about more meandering rivers and muddy floodplains, as well as thicker soils,” ... “This shift was tied to the development of plant rooting systems that helped produce colossal amounts of mud (by breaking down rocks) and stabilized river channels, which locked up this mud for long periods.” ... The scientists recognized that plate tectonics connects the Earth’s surface and deep core: rivers wash mud into the oceans, and this mud is subsequently carried into the Earth’s molten interior (or mantle) at subduction zones, where it melts to produce new rocks. ... The team uncovered compelling evidence for a dramatic shift in the composition of rocks making up Earth’s continents, which coincides almost precisely with the onset of land plants. ... “It is amazing to think that the greening of the continents was felt in the deep Earth,” concludes Dr. Spencer.

https://scitechdaily.com/a-previousl...s-composition/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Where self-consciousness arises ... and why we are a feedback loop ...

Where Does Consciousness Reside in the Brain? New Discovery Helps Pinpoint Its Location

Jun Kitazono, a corresponding author of the study and project researcher at the Department of General Systems Studies at the University of Tokyo, conducted the study, which was published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

“Where in the brain consciousness resides has been one of the biggest questions in science,” said Associate Professor Masafumi Oizumi, corresponding author and head of the lab conducting the study. “Although we have not reached a conclusive answer, much empirical evidence has been accumulated in the course of searching for the minimal mechanisms sufficient for conscious experience, or the neural correlates of consciousness.” ...

... It has been suggested that the part of the brain network supporting consciousness brain regions should be bidirectionally connected because both feed-forward and feedback processes are necessary for conscious experience. For example, previous studies examining visual perception have shown that conscious perception does not arise when there is only feed-forward processing, whereas it arises when there is feedback as well as feed-forward processing.

... “Feed-forward processing alone is insufficient for subjects to consciously perceive stimuli; rather, feedback is also necessary, indicating the need for bidirectional processing. The feedback component disappears not only during the loss of specific contents of consciousness in awake states, but also during unconscious states where conscious experiences are generally lost, such as general anesthesia, sleep, and vegetative states,” said Kitazono. He also explained that it does not matter if you are looking at a human, monkey, mouse, bird, or fly; the bi-directionality of processing remains essential ... “We found that the extracted complexes with the most bidirectionality were not evenly distributed among all major regions, but rather are concentrated in the cortical regions and thalamic regions,” said Kitazono. “On the other hand, regions in the other major regions have low bi-directionality. In particular, regions in the cerebellum have much lower bidirectionality.”

These findings align with where scientists have long thought consciousness resides in the brain. The cerebral cortex, located on the surface of the brain, contains sensory areas, motor areas and association areas that are thought to be essential to consciousness experience. The thalamus, located in the middle of the brain, has likewise been thought to be related to consciousness, and in particular, the interaction between the thalamus and cortical regions, called the thalamocortical loop, is considered important for consciousness. These results support the idea that the bi-directionality in the brain network is a key to identifying the place of consciousness.
https://scitechdaily.com/where-does-...-its-location/

And ... seeing the birth process of stars like our sun (and a nifty film on what makes Webb shine over Hubble) ...

Webb Space Telescope’s first images of the Orion Nebula, the richest and closest star nursery in the solar system, have just been revealed by an international team of astronomers including University of Michigan (U-M) researchers.

Located in the constellation of Orion, roughly 1,350 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is an area rich in matter where many stars are formed. Its environment is thought to be similar to the environment in which our solar system was born more than 4.5 billion years ago. Therefore, studying the Orion Nebula allows scientists to understand the conditions in which our solar system formed.
https://scitechdaily.com/webb-space-...-solar-system/

https://youtu.be/jSOxCiYhbQY

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Sometimes the big science news comes from right here in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan ...

LIQUID WATER IN RYUGU SAND COLLECTED BY HAYABUSA2: FIRST EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL COLLECTION OF LIQUID WATER - ORIGIN OF EARTH'S OCEANS?

A research team including the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will announce in the science journal Science on the 23rd that it has detected water in sand samples from the asteroid Ryugu collected by the spacecraft Hayabusa2. It is the first time in the world that liquid water was discovered in a sample collected outside the earth. It is believed that water contained in meteorites and other objects may have been the origin of the Earth's oceans, and this discovery raises that possibility.

A team of approximately 150 domestic and foreign researchers, including Professor Tomoki Nakamura of Tohoku University's Graduate School of Science, has collaborated with the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture [our local particle collider]) and the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex "J-PARC" (Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture). Village) in proceeding with the analysis.

According to Professor Nakamura, the water was carbonated water, which existed in the form of crystals of compounds of iron and sulfur, and contained salts and organic matter.

Liquid water has been found in meteorites that have fallen to Earth, but this is the first time it has been found in a sample brought back from space. During the analysis, they proceeded so as not to have contact [of the sample with] the Earth's atmosphere. The team compared and analyzed the carbonated water with water on Earth.

The surface of the sand also contained layered crystals of copper-sulphur compounds that resembled table coral (テーブルサンゴ). It seems that the structure could not have been formed without abundant water, and the team believes that an environment similar to the Earth's ocean existed inside Ryugu.

Furthermore, the hardness and density of 17 sand grains (up to 8 mm) were measured, and computer simulations were used to estimate the formation of Ryugu. According to the estimates, about 2 million years after the formation of the solar system, the original celestial body (mother body) with a diameter of about 100 kilometers containing ice was born. The maximum internal temperature was about 50 degrees Celsius, and chemical reactions with water progressed, but after that, an asteroid with a diameter of about 10 kilometers collided with it. Some of the many rocks from the broken parent body have regrouped and become Ryugu.

There was a lot of water in the parent body, but it gradually disappeared during the formation of Ryugu.

Professor Nakamura pointed out, "The liquid water is just one drop taken into a crystal, but it has a very big meaning." He said, "We have found evidence that is directly related to the origin of the earth's oceans and organic matter."

Analysis of Ryugu samples has been underway since June 2021 by six teams, including the same team investigating stone materials. It has also been found to contain amino acids, which are said to be the "source of life."

BELOW PICTURES:
(TOP) The third largest sample recovered from Ryugu. Maximum length 8.6 mm, weight 94 mg
(BOTTOM) Hexagonal iron sulfide crystals isolated from the Ryugu sample. There was liquid water in the hole on the left in the middle of the photo

Gassho, J

stlah

[Tomás ESP]

Fascinating stuff Jundo. The ants question is one I have had for some time now. I was expecting a very large number, but that is more than I thought it would be. We live in an incredible world.

Gassho, Tomás
Sat&LaH