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

[Jundo]

Mind reading on wheels ...

Not Science Fiction: Paralyzed People Can Navigate Using Mind-Controlled Wheelchairs

By translating users’ thoughts into mechanical commands, a mind-controlled wheelchair can help a paralyzed person gain new mobility. Researchers demonstrate that tetraplegic users can operate mind-controlled wheelchairs in a natural, cluttered environment after training for an extended period in a study published today (November 18) in the journal iScience. ... Millán and his colleagues recruited three tetraplegic people for the longitudinal study. Each of the participants underwent training sessions three times per week for 2 to 5 months. The participants wore a skullcap that detected their brain activities through electroencephalography (EEG), which would be converted to mechanical commands for the wheelchairs via a brain-machine interface device. The participants were asked to control the direction of the wheelchair by thinking about moving their body parts. Specifically, they needed to think about moving both hands to turn left and both feet to turn right. ...

Over the course of training, the brain-machine interface device team saw significant improvement in accuracy in participant 1, who reached an accuracy of over 95% by the end of his training. The team also observed an increase in accuracy in participant 3 to 98% halfway through his training before the team updated his device with a new algorithm.
https://scitechdaily.com/not-science...d-wheelchairs/

https://youtu.be/JyJj32MsAUo

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

In a similar vein ...

Major Implications – Scientists Have Created a “Living Blood Vessel”

This is the first time scientists have observed vessels form with such a close resemblance to the complicated structure of naturally occurring blood vessels.

An international research collaboration headed by the University of Sydney has created technology that allows for the production of materials that mirror the structure of living blood vessels, with major implications for the future of surgery.

Preclinical research showed that once the manufactured blood vessel was transplanted into mice, the body accepted it and new cells and tissue began to develop in the appropriate locations, thereby converting it into a “living blood vessel.”

While others have attempted to create blood vessels with varying degrees of success in the past, senior author Professor Anthony Weiss from the Charles Perkins Centre noted that this is the first instance where scientists have observed the vessels develop with such a high degree of similarity to the complex structure of naturally occurring blood vessels.

“Nature converts this manufactured tube over time to one that looks, behaves, and functions like a real blood vessel,” said Professor Weiss. “The technology’s ability to recreate the complex structure of biological tissues shows it has the potential to not only manufacture blood vessels to assist in surgery but also sets the scene for the future creation of other synthetic tissues such as heart valves.”

https://scitechdaily.com/major-implications-scientists-have-created-a-living-blood-vessel/

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8027[/ATTACH]

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

This blows even my spaced out mind ... each POINT of the map represents an entire GALAXY ...

New Map of the Universe Displays Span of Entire Cosmos With Pinpoint Accuracy and Sweeping Beauty

The map charts a broad expanse of the universe, from the Milky Way to ‘the edge of what can be seen.’

A new map of the universe displays the span of the entire known cosmos for the first time with pinpoint accuracy and sweeping beauty.

Compiled from data mined over two decades by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the map was created by astronomers from Johns Hopkins University. It allows the public to experience data previously only accessible to scientists.

The interactive map depicts the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. It is available online, where it can also be downloaded for free.

... The map visualizes a slice of the universe, or about 200,000 galaxies—each dot on the map is a galaxy and each galaxy contains billions of stars and planets. The Milky Way is simply one of these dots, the one at the very bottom of the map. Ménard assembled the map with the help of former Johns Hopkins computer science student Nikita Shtarkman.

https://scitechdaily.com/new-map-of-the-universe-displays-span-of-entire-cosmos-with-pinpoint-accuracy-and-sweeping-beauty/

https://youtu.be/HiEKukQfISw

Oh my.

The map is even more colorful due to the expansion of the universe. Because of this, the farther an object is, the redder it appears. The first flash of radiation emitted soon after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago is revealed at the top of the map.

“In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets,” Ménard says. “We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale.”

Oh my.

DO NOT miss this:

https://mapoftheuniverse.net/

Oh my.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Of mice and men ... and what makes us human sentient beings ...

What Makes Humans Different? A New Window Into the Brain

The human brain’s function is remarkable, driving all aspects of our creativity and thoughts. However, the neocortex, a region of the human brain responsible for these cognitive functions, has a similar overall structure to other mammals.

Researchers from The University of Queensland (UQ), The Mater Hospital, and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital have shown that changes in the structure and function of our neurons may be the cause of the human brain’s increased processing power. ...

... “We compared the electrical properties of human and rodent neocortical pyramidal neurons by making intricate simultaneous electrical recordings from their cell bodies and thin dendrites. Our research revealed that human and rodent neocortical pyramidal neurons share fundamental biophysical properties. For example, we showed that both the dendrites of human and rodent neocortical pyramidal neurons generate dendritic sodium spikes, suggesting a conservation of the machinery for integrating the many thousands of input signals that a neuron receives. However, we discovered the computational function of human neocortical pyramidal neurons is dramatically enhanced.”

Dr. Helen Gooch, a QBI postdoctoral fellow and co-author of the study, stated that the team discovered that the architecture of human neocortical pyramidal neurons’ dendritic trees—the branch-like extensions that carry electrical signals—was larger and more complex than that of other mammals, such as rodents.

“This elaboration of the dendritic tree in humans was accompanied by the generation of dendritic spikes at multiple sites, which actively spread through the neuron to drive the output signals of each neuron,” Dr. Gooch said.

“We suggest that this enhancement of distributed dendritic information processing may therefore be one factor that increases our brain’s overall processing power.”

https://scitechdaily.com/what-makes-...nto-the-brain/

So, take a look at this: monkeys saying "take a look at that." It may be something. Or maybe just nothing. Hmmm.

Chimpanzees share experiences with each other, a trait once thought to be only human

Researchers have often observed captive chimps pointing to an object they want their caregivers to give them or young chimps in the wild having tantrums to get attention from their mother.

Until now, these behaviors have only been observed when a chimpanzee wants something. Recently, however, scientists documented footage of a wild adult chimpanzee showing her mother a leaf, apparently just to share the experience with her, according to a study published Monday in the journal PNAS.

More examples of such interactions are needed to better understand the intention behind the gesture, the study’s researchers said, but the observation could demonstrate chimpanzees possess a social behavior once thought to be specific only to their human relatives.

“Critically, she didn’t seem to want her mom to do anything with the leaf. … She seems to be showing it just for the sake of showing it. It’s like, ‘look, look, this is cool, isn’t it?’ And that is very humanlike and something that we thought was fairly unique to our species,” said study coauthor Katie Slocombe, a professor of psychology at the University of York in the United Kingdom.

... Fiona had been engaged in what researchers call “leaf grooming,” a common behavior in which a chimpanzee will stroke and manipulate a leaf. The reasoning behind the behavior is a mystery, but Slocombe and her colleagues suspect it could be to inspect an ectoparasite, such as a tick, on top of the leaf. Often, surrounding chimpanzees will also become engrossed in the action, intently watching the leaf being groomed. “When Fiona was doing this, (Sutherland) didn’t really seem interested; she wasn’t watching and wasn’t giving her any attention. Fiona is then showing her the leaf to say, ‘look at it,’” Slocombe said. “She is really persistent with trying to get her mom to look at it, and it’s only when her mom really visibly dropped her whole head to orient to the leaf that (Fiona) then seems satisfied.” https://us.cnn.com/2022/11/18/world/...scn/index.html

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Here's several stories showing what modern chemistry can reveal these days ...

.. the original Oryoki ...

World’s ‘oldest meal’ discovered in 550-million-year-old fossil

An international team of scientists say they have new insight into how the very earliest animals survived after traces of what they described as the world’s oldest meal were found in a 550 million-year-old fossil.

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) analyzed ancient fossils from the Ediacaran period following their discovery in Russia in 2018. The findings were published in the journal Current Biology this week.

Some of the oldest life on Earth is referred to as the Ediacaran biota. This group is based on the earliest fossils ever discovered, providing evidence of complex, multicellular organisms.

In a fossilized specimen of the slug-like Kimberella, the team detected molecules of phytosterol preserved in the creature’s gut. The chemical product, which is found in plants, suggested it ate algae and bacteria from the ocean floor.

Study co-author Jochen Brocks, a professor at the Australian National University, said the nutrient-rich algae may have contributed to Kimberella’s growth. “The energy-rich food may explain why the organisms of the Ediacara biota were so large. Nearly all fossils that came before the Ediacaran biota were single-celled and microscopic in size,” Brocks said, according to a press release.

The palaeontologists suggested that Kimberella was likely one of the most advanced creatures of the Ediacaran era with a mouth and a gut and digested food the same way modern animals do.

“Scientists already knew Kimberella left feeding marks by scraping off algae covering the sea floor, which suggested the animal had a gut,” Brocks explained. “But it was only after analysing the molecules of Kimberella’s gut that we were able to determine what exactly it was eating and how it digested food,” he said in the news release.

https://us.cnn.com/2022/11/25/world/oldest-meal-550-million-year-old-fossil-intl-scli-scn/index.html

... what we can know from long ago, what we can know from very far away ...

New data on ‘hot Saturn’ exoplanet is a ‘game changer,’ scientists say

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a detailed molecular and chemical portrait of a faraway planet’s skies, scoring another first for the exoplanet science community.

WASP-39b, otherwise known as Bocaprins, can be found orbiting a star some 700 light-years away. It is an exoplanet — a planet outside our solar system — as massive as Saturn but much closer to its host star, making for an estimated temperature of 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit (871 degrees Celsius) emitting from its gases, according to NASA. This “hot Saturn” was one of the first exoplanets that the Webb telescope examined when it first began its regular science operations. The new readings provide a full breakdown of Bocaprins’ atmosphere, including atoms, molecules, cloud formations (which appear to be broken up, rather than a single, uniform blanket as scientists previously expected) and even signs of photochemistry caused by its host star.

“We observed the exoplanet with multiple instruments that, together, provide a broad swath of the infrared spectrum and a panoply of chemical fingerprints inaccessible until (this mission),” said Natalie Batalha, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who contributed to and helped coordinate the new research, in a NASA release. “Data like these are a game changer.”

“This is the first time we have seen concrete evidence of photochemistry — chemical reactions initiated by energetic stellar light — on exoplanets,” said Shang-Min Tsai, a researcher at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, in a NASA release. “I see this as a really promising outlook for advancing our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres.”

Other compounds detected in Bocaprins’ atmosphere include sodium, potassium and water vapor, confirming previous observations made by other space and ground-based telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope.

Having such a complete roster of chemical ingredients in an exoplanet atmosphere provides insight into how this planet — and perhaps others — formed. Bocaprins’ diverse chemical inventory suggests that multiple smaller bodies, called planetesimals, had merged to create an eventual goliath of a planet, of similar size to the second-largest planet in our solar system.

“This is just the first out of many exoplanets that are going to be studied in detail by JWST. … We are already getting very exciting results,” Nestor Espinoza, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, told CNN. “This is just the beginning.”
https://us.cnn.com/2022/11/24/world/...scn/index.html

... Then, the chemistry in our heads ...

Researchers at Scripps Research examined how the levels of various proteins in brain cells change in response to brain activity.

Scripps Research Institute scientists have created a new tool to monitor brain plasticity—the process by which our brains remodel and physically adjust when we learn and experience new things, such as viewing a movie or learning a new song or language. Their method, which examines the proteins generated by various brain cell types, has the potential to provide fundamental explanations for how the brain functions as well as provide insight into the many diseases of the brain where plasticity malfunctions.

Previous research conducted in a number of laboratories has shown how brain activity triggers changes in gene expression in neurons, an early step in plasticity. The team’s research, which was recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience, focuses on the next important stage of plasticity—the conversion of the genetic code into proteins.

“We still don’t understand all the mechanisms underlying how cells in our brain change in response to experiences, but this approach gives us a new window into the process,” says Hollis Cline, Ph.D., the Hahn Professor and Chair of Neuroscience at Scripps Research and senior author of the new work.

Two things take place when you learn something new: First, neurons in your brain immediately transmit electrical signals along new neural pathways. This eventually results in changes to the physical structure of brain cells and their connections. But for a long time, scientists have wondered what occurs between these two steps. How does the brain eventually undergo more substantial changes as a result of this electrical activity in neurons? Also, how and why does this plasticity deteriorate with aging and certain diseases? ...

https://scitechdaily.com/new-tool-re...when-we-learn/

... And let's not fail to mention ... signs of life on Mars ... (maybe) ...

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Discovers Possible Organic Compounds in Mars Crater Rocks

Analyses of multiple rocks found at the bottom of Jezero Crater on Mars, where the Perseverance rover landed in 2020, has revealed significant interaction between the rocks and liquid water. Evidence consistent with the presence of organic compounds has also been discovered in those rocks.

[However] Organic compounds (chemical compounds with carbon–hydrogen bonds) can be created through nonbiological processes, so the mere existence of these compounds is not direct evidence of life. To determine this conclusively, a future mission returning the samples to Earth would be needed.

Led by researchers at Caltech and carried out by an international team including Imperial College London researchers, the study was published on November 23 in the journal Science. ... The minerals and co-located possible organic compounds were discovered using SHERLOC, or the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals instrument.

Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC is equipped with a number of tools, including a Raman spectrometer that uses a specific type of fluorescence to search for organic compounds and also see how they are distributed in a material, providing insight into how they were preserved in that location.

https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-perse...-crater-rocks/

... and as I understand this, they might use DNA for data storage, cause it holds A LOT of data ... a kind of DNA DVD?

Scientists Have Found a Way To Manipulate Digital Data Stored in DNA

DNA can be utilized to reliably store massive amounts of digital data. However, it has hitherto proven challenging to retrieve or manipulate the specific data embedded in these molecules. Now, scientists from the CNRS and the University of Tokyo have developed the use of a novel enzyme-based technique, providing the initial clues as to how these technical obstacles may be overcome. Their research was recently published in the journal Nature.

Nature has unquestionably developed the best method for massive data storage: DNA. Based on this knowledge, DNA has been used to store digital data by translating binary (0 or 1) values into one of the four different DNA “letters” (A, T, C, or G).

But how can one search through the database of data encoded in DNA to discover a certain datum? And how is it possible to execute computations using DNA-encoded data without first transforming it into electronic form? These are the questions that research teams from the LIMMS (CNRS / University of Tokyo) and Gulliver (CNRS / ESPCI) laboratories have attempted to answer. They are experimenting with a new approach using enzymes and artificial neurons and neural networks for direct operations on DNA data. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...stored-in-dna/

And finally ... I don't even know what this is ...

New Measurements Provide a Glimpse of the Quantum Future

A multi-institutional team has created an efficient method for measuring high-dimensional qudits encoded in quantum frequency combs, a kind of photon source, on a single optical chip using already available experimental and computational resources.

Despite the fact that the word “qudit” may appear to be a typo, this less well-known relative of the qubit, or quantum bit, has the ability to carry more data and is more noise-resistant, two crucial characteristics required to enhance the performance of quantum networks, quantum key distribution systems, and eventually the quantum internet.

In contrast to traditional computer bits, which classify data as ones or zeros, qubits can hold values of one, zero, or both. This is due to superposition, a phenomenon that enables several quantum states to exist simultaneously. Qudit’s “d” refers to the variety of levels or values that may be encoded on a photon. Traditional qubits only have two levels, but by adding more levels, they become qudits.

Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, or EPFL, Purdue University, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently completed the characterization of an entangled pair of eight-level qudits that formed a 64-dimensional quantum space, quadrupling the previous record for discrete frequency modes. Their findings were recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
https://scitechdaily.com/new-measure...uantum-future/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Hubble to Webb ... for our genes ...

Unprecedented Detail: Researchers Capture How Genes Fold and Work

The new technique is “like upgrading from the Hubble to the James Webb.”

A new imaging technique captures the three-dimensional architecture of the human genome with unprecedented detail, showing how individual genes fold at the level of nucleosomes, the fundamental units constituting the genome’s three-dimensional architecture.

The technology, which was created by Barcelona-based researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), combines high-resolution microscopy with sophisticated computer modeling. It is the most comprehensive technique to date for studying the shape of genes.

The new technique allows researchers to create and digitally navigate three-dimensional models of genes, seeing not just their architecture but also information on how they move or how flexible they are.

Comparison using a conventional microscope (left) to visualize the structure of the NANOG gene, which shows up as a bright green spot vs. using MiOS (right) which can image individual genes. MiOS is roughly ten times better in resolution and also details critical aspects of the structure that are not discernible using conventional methods.

https://scitechdaily.com/unprecedent...fold-and-work/

If the universe has "on" switches, it must have "off" switches too ...

Astronomers Discover Important New Information Regarding Star Formation

An important new hint regarding how galaxies halt intense episodes of star formation has been found by astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) of the National Science Foundation. Their recent research on the nearby galaxy M33 suggests that fast cosmic ray electrons can generate winds that blow away the gas required for the formation of new stars.

As galaxies evolve over time, these winds are what cause the star formation rate to slow down. However, the primary sources of such winds have been attributed to material jets powered by black holes and shock waves from supernova explosions. Cosmic rays were assumed to be small contributors, especially in galaxies with prolific star formation, such as M33.

“We have seen galactic winds driven by cosmic rays in our own Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy, which have much weaker rates of star formation, but not before in a galaxy such as M33,” said Fatemah Tabatabaei, of the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences in Iran.

M33 is a spiral galaxy that is almost 3 million light-years distant and is a member of the Local Group of galaxies, which also contains the Milky Way. Tabatabaei and an international team of scientists made detailed, multi-wavelength VLA observations of M33. Additionally, they made use of information gathered from earlier observations made with the VLA, the German Effelsberg radio telescope, millimeter-wave, visible-light, and infrared telescopes.

Stars much larger than our Sun speed through their life cycles, eventually exploding as supernovae. Cosmic rays are produced when explosive shock waves accelerate particles almost to the speed of light. If there are enough of these cosmic rays, pressure can be created that drives winds that transport away the gas required for star formation.

https://scitechdaily.com/astronomers...tar-formation/

And a couple of important developments for differently abled folks ...

Groundbreaking New Technology Allows People To Listen to Music Through Touch

A ground-breaking prototype developed by experts from the Department of Electronics at the University of Malaga and members of the R&D group “Electronics for Instrumentation and Systems,” will allow those with hearing loss to listen to music through the sense of touch.

It consists of an audio-tactile algorithm that transforms monophonic music into tangible stimuli based on vibration utilizing “tactile illusions.” According to the researchers, “It’s like ‘hacking’ the nervous system to receive a different response to the real stimulus sent.”

“What we want to achieve in the long term is for people who do not hear to be able to ‘listen’ to music”, assures researcher Paul Remache, the main author of this paper, who insists on the power of music to influence mood, as well as its possibilities as a therapy for mental disorders and treatment of pain.

The researchers predict that this will lead to a portable terminal that may be brought to a concert since this prototype will be easily transferable to technological devices like smartphones.

https://youtu.be/Pc1JCMozsDU

https://scitechdaily.com/groundbreak...through-touch/

And, of course, legs are less important in the zero gravity of space ... and may even just get in the way sometimes ...

Disabled man joins European Space Agency's astronaut programme

- The European Space Agency on Wednesday named the first ever "parastronaut" in a major step towards allowing people with physical disabilities to work and live in space.

The 22-nation agency said it had selected former British Paralympic sprinter John McFall as part of a new generation of 17 recruits picked for astronaut training.

He will take part in a feasibility study designed to allow ESA to assess the conditions needed for people with disabilities to take part in future missions. ... ESA posted openings last year for people fully capable of passing its usual stringent psychological, cognitive and other tests who are only prevented from becoming astronauts due to the constraints of existing hardware in light of their disability. ...

"Better representation of disabled people in influential roles will really help improve attitudes and break down the barriers that many disabled people face today," the charity's Head of Communications, Alison Kerry, said.

Following a motorcycle accident that led to his right leg being amputated at the age of 19, McFall went on to win the 100-metres Bronze Medal at the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008.

The 31-year-old doctor will help ESA engineers design changes in hardware needed to open professional spaceflight to a wider group of qualified candidates, the agency said.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/europe-names-worlds-first-disabled-astronaut-2022-11-23/

https://youtu.be/SB3VrNzzEEw

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Why doesn't the news and media discuss this kind of thing more, among the big headlines___

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains what NASA's discovery means for life beyond Earth

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reacts to a discovery on Mars and what it could mean for life beyond Earth.

Short version worth a listen ...

https://us.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/11/27/space-mars-life-earth-neil-degrasse-tyson-cprog-acostanr-vpx.cnn

Long version here, including his comments on other recent discussions ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY0U-rfg65A

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

As ephemeral as a stars twinkle ...

Rare cosmic event beamed light at Earth from 8.5 billion light-years away

Mysterious Astronomical Signal Is Black Hole Jet Pointing Straight Toward Earth

An incredibly bright flash that appeared in the night sky in February was the result of a star straying too close to a supermassive black hole, meeting its untimely end there as it was ripped to shreds.

But the rare cosmic event actually occurred 8.5 billion light years away from Earth, when the universe was just a third of its current age — and it has created more questions than answers.

The signal from the luminous explosion, known as AT 2022cmc, was first picked up by the Zwicky Transient Facility at the California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Observatory on February 11.

When a star is torn apart by a black hole’s gravitational tidal forces, it’s known as a tidal disruption event. Astronomers have observed such violent events before, but AT 2022cmc is brighter than any previously discovered. It’s also the most distant ever observed.

Astronomers believe that when the black hole gobbled up the star, it released a massive amount of energy and sent a jet of material streaking across space at near the speed of light.

It’s likely that AT 2022cmc appeared so bright in our sky because the jet was pointed directly toward Earth, creating what’s known as a “Doppler-boosting” effect.

The discovery could reveal more about the growth of supermassive black holes, as well as how they snack on stars.

https://us.cnn.com/2022/11/30/world/black-hole-devours-star-scn/index.html

and

https://scitechdaily.com/mysterious-astronomical-signal-is-black-hole-jet-pointing-straight-toward-earth/https://scitechdaily.com/mysterious-astronomical-signal-is-black-hole-jet-pointing-straight-toward-earth/

This animation depicts a star experiencing spaghettification as it’s sucked in by a supermassive black hole during a ‘tidal disruption event’. In a new study, done with the help of ESO’s Very Large Telescope and ESO’s New Technology Telescope, a team of astronomers found that when a black hole devours a star, it can launch a powerful blast of material outwards.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Of interest particularly to our several members with anxiety issues ...

New Research Reveals How Fear Get Stuck in Brains

The study adds to our understanding of the processes behind anxiety-related disorders and reveals commonalities between anxiety and alcohol dependence.

A biological mechanism has been identified by researchers at Linköping University in Sweden that increases the strength with which fear memories are stored in the brain The research, conducted in rats, was published in the scientific journal Molecular Psychiatry. It provides new insights into the processes behind anxiety-related disorders and identified shared mechanisms of anxiety and alcohol dependence.

The ability to feel fear is critical for escaping life-threatening circumstances and learning how to avoid them in the future. However, in certain conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other disorders linked to anxiety, the fear reactions become excessive and continue even when they are no longer necessary. This causes intense anxiety even if no danger is present, resulting in disability for the individual afflicted. Researchers believe that some people are predisposed to developing pathological fears, which are caused by problems with how the brain processes fearful memories.

Riccardo Barchiesi and Estelle Barbier
Researchers at Linköping University, including Riccardo Barchiesi and Estelle Barbier, have discovered a biological mechanism that increases the strength with which fear memories are stored in the brain. Credit: Anna Nilsen/Linköping University

Some brain regions are especially important for processing fear-related memories. When threatened, the amygdala is activated and collaborates with parts of the frontal brain lobes, known as the “prefrontal cortex,” which are critical for emotion regulation.

“We know that the network of nerve cells that connects the frontal lobes to the amygdala is involved in fear responses. The connections between these brain structures are altered in people with PTSD and other anxiety disorders,” says Estelle Barbier, assistant professor in the Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience (CSAN), and the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV) at Linköping University, who led the study.

However, the molecular mechanisms involved have long remained unknown. The researchers in the current study have investigated a protein known as PRDM2, an epigenetic enzyme that suppresses the expression of many genes. The researchers have previously found that levels of PRDM2 are lower in alcohol dependence, and lead to exaggerated stress responses. In people, it is very common for alcohol dependence and anxiety-related conditions to be present at the same time, and the researchers suspect that this is caused by common mechanisms behind these conditions.

In order for new memories to last, they must be stabilized and preserved as long-term memories. This process is known as “consolidation”. The researchers in the current study have investigated the effects of reduced levels of PRDM2 on the way fear memories are processed.

“We have identified a mechanism in which increased activity in the network between the frontal lobes and the amygdala increases learned fear reactions. We show that down-regulation of PRDM2 increases the consolidation of fear-related memories,” says Estelle Barbier.

The researchers have also identified genes that are affected when the level of PRDM2 is reduced. It became clear that this resulted in an increase in the activity of nerve cells that connect the frontal lobes and the amygdala.

“Patients with anxiety disorders may benefit from treatments that weaken or erase fear memories. The biological mechanism that we have identified involves the down-regulation of PRDM2, and we currently do not have any way of increasing it. But the mechanism may be part of the explanation of why some individuals have a greater vulnerability to developing anxiety-related conditions. It may also explain why these conditions and alcohol dependence so often are present together,” says Estelle Barbier.

MORE HERE, including the full study: https://scitechdaily.com/new-researc...uck-in-brains/

Might Zazen also be a way to weaken or let go of fear memories? ... hmmm ...

Gassho, J

stlah

[Amelia]

I think that zazen, and just Buddhist philosophy in general have helped me immensely with my anxiety, but I am far from perfect. And even still there are times when all learned tactics go out the window and the fear is completely physical. Any strides in understanding this process scientifically will help so many people.

Gassho
Sat, lah

[Jundo]

In Zen, we drop all measure of fast and slow ... while also appreciating the slow things in life. But in computing ... fast is good!

One Million Times Faster Than Current Technology: New Optical Computing Approach Offers Ultrafast Processing

Logic gates are the basic building blocks of computer processors. Conventional logic gates are electronic, working by shuffling around electrons. However, researchers have been developing light-based optical logic gates to meet the data processing and transfer demands of next-generation computing. Aalto University scientists developed new optical chirality logic gates that operate about a million times faster than existing technologies, offering ultrafast processing speeds.

The optical chirality logic gate is made of a material that emits lights with different circular polarization depending on the chirality of the input beams.

This new approach, which is described in a paper published in the journal Science Advances, uses circularly polarized light as the input signal. The logic gates are made from crystalline materials that are sensitive to the handedness of a circularly polarized light beam – that is, the light emitted by the crystal depends on the handedness of the input beams. This serves as the basic building block for one type of logic gate (XNOR), and the remaining types of logic gates are built by adding filters or other optical components.

Additionally, the team demonstrated that a single device could contain all of their chirality logic gates operating simultaneously in parallel. This is a significant advance over existing logic gates, which can only carry out a single logic operation at a time. Simultaneous parallel logic gates could be used to build complex, multifunctional logic circuits. Finally, the team demonstrated that the chirality logic gate could be controlled and configured electronically, a necessary step for hybrid electrical/optical computing.



https://scitechdaily.com/one-million...st-processing/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Heiso]

It looks like there's been an important breakthrough on the energy generation front:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/12/politics/nuclear-fusion-energy-us-scientists-climate/index.html

Gassho,

Heiso

StLah

[Jundo]

It looks like there's been an important breakthrough on the energy generation front:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/12/politics/nuclear-fusion-energy-us-scientists-climate/index.html

Gassho,

Heiso

StLah

Yes, it is not totally confirmed yet, and still a long way to go, but here is the story ...

In a breakthrough experiment, nuclear fusion finally makes more energy than it uses

The long-awaited achievement raises hopes for developing a clean energy source

... Researchers with the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif., have ignited controlled nuclear fusion that resulted in the net production of energy. The long-awaited achievement, to be announced December 13 by U.S. Department of Energy officials, is the first time a lab has been able to reproduce the reactions in the sun in a way that leads to more energy coming out of the experiment than going in. “This is a monumental breakthrough,” says physicist Gilbert Collins of the University of Rochester in New York, who is a former NIF collaborator but was not involved with the research leading to the latest advance. “Since I started in this field, fusion was always 50 years away…. With this achievement, the landscape has changed.”

Fusion potentially provides a clean energy source. The fission reactors used to generate nuclear energy rely on heavy atoms, like uranium, to release energy when they break down into lighter atoms, including some that are radioactive. While it’s comparatively easy to generate energy with fission, it’s an environmental nightmare to deal with the leftover radioactive debris that can remain hazardous for hundreds of millenia.

Controlled nuclear fusion, on the other hand, doesn’t produce such long-lived radioactive waste, but it’s technically much harder to achieve in the first place. In nuclear fusion, light atoms fuse together to create heavier ones. In the sun, that typically occurs when a proton, the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, combines with other protons to form helium.

Getting atoms to fuse requires a combination of high pressure and temperature to squeeze the atoms tightly together. Intense gravity does much of the work in the sun.

At the National Ignition Facility, 192 lasers directed at a small pellet of fuel provided a blast of energy that did the trick instead. The result was a burst of fusion energy that, though brief, was more than the laser energy that instigated the reaction, says physicist Carolyn Kuranz of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who was not involved with the research. While the total energy released by the experiment has not been made public yet, it exceeded the 1.3 million joules of energy produced by an earlier NIF experiment that marked the first time the team managed to ignite nuclear fusion (SN: 8/18/21).

But this latest fusion burst still didn’t produce enough energy to run the laser power supplies and other systems of the NIF experiment.

“The net energy gain is with respect to the energy in the light that was shined on the target, not with respect to the energy that went into making that light,” says University of Rochester physicist Riccardo Betti, who was also not involved with the research. “Now it’s up to the scientists and engineers to see if we can turn these physics principles into useful energy.”

Despite that, it’s a potential turning point in the technology comparable to the invention of the transistor or the Wright brothers’ first flight, says Collins. “We now have a laboratory system that we can use as a compass for how to make progress very rapidly,” he says.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...through-energy

Gassho, J

stlah

[Meian]

Of interest particularly to our several members with anxiety issues ...



Might Zazen also be a way to weaken or let go of fear memories? ... hmmm ...

Gassho, J

stlah

As someone who has struggled with anxiety for most of my life (sometimes severe), and also has lived with C-PTSD for many years -- **zazen helps**. [emoji120]

It doesn't cure it, but it helps in a few ways.

My favorite practices are insta-zazen and shikantaza.

Even when the anxiety is strong, or I'm getting swept up in the mind theatre of flashbacks and old ghosts, I'll just sit with it, consciously "step back" in my mind, and think "clouds passing by" with calm, measured breathing to remind myself that the war I'm experiencing in my mind is an illusion -- it can only hurt me if I buy into the narratives. If something hangs on too much, I think 'you have spoken, now move along'.

When possible, as I observe my thoughts, sometimes I see ways to disrupt the narratives and reframe them -- and then let it go. I learned about disrupting narratives years ago from a talk by Tara Brach (sp?).

This is just my experience. It helps me, and sometimes allows me to reframe my thinking. Even with a goal-less practice. [emoji120]

I apologize for running long. [emoji120]

Gassho2 stlh

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Amelia]

Meian,

I almost posted something similar yesterday, but stopped writing midway because I was going a little off topic. Anyway, I feel the same

It's not a total cure, but it does help. In fact, today I felt a familiar twinge of oncoming panic while grocery shopping, but was able to side step complete meltdown because of my "tool kit" so to speak.

Gassho
Sat, lah