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

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  • Jundo
    Treeleaf Founder and Priest
    • Apr 2006
    • 40667

    Did you feel it as it hit us head on?

    The BOAT Event: Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst in History Puzzles Astronomers Worldwide

    On October 9, a pulse of intense radiation swept through the solar system, so exceptional that astronomers quickly dubbed it the BOAT – the brightest of all time. The source was a gamma-ray burst, or GRB – the most powerful class of explosions in the universe.

    The burst triggered detectors on numerous spacecraft, and observatories around the globe followed up. After combing through all of the data, astronomers can now characterize just how bright it was and better understand its scientific impact. ... “You would expect one of this magnitude about once in 10,000 years.” ... The signal from the gamma-ray burst, dubbed GRB 221009A, had been traveling for about 1.9 billion years before it reached Earth, making it among the closest known “long” GRBs, whose initial, or prompt, emission lasts more than two seconds. Astronomers think these bursts represent the birth cry of a black hole that formed when the core of a massive star collapsed under its own weight. As it quickly ingests the surrounding matter, the black hole blasts out jets in opposite directions containing particles accelerated to near the speed of light. These jets pierce through the star, emitting X-rays and gamma rays as they stream into space.

    ... The jets themselves were not unusually powerful, but they were exceptionally narrow – much like the jet setting of a garden hose – and one was pointed directly at Earth, Alexander explained. ...



    Gassho, J

    stlah
    Last edited by Jundo; 04-04-2023, 08:59 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

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    • Tokan
      Member
      • Oct 2016
      • 1325

      Cool!



      Gassho, Tokan (satlah)
      平道 島看 Heidou Tokan (Balanced Way Island Nurse)
      I enjoy learning from everyone, I simply hope to be a friend along the way

      Comment

      • Jundo
        Treeleaf Founder and Priest
        • Apr 2006
        • 40667

        Originally posted by Tokan
        Cool!



        Gassho, Tokan (satlah)
        The youtube I added to the post is pretty cool too ...

        Gassho, J

        stlah
        ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

        Comment

        • Mokuso
          Member
          • Mar 2020
          • 159

          Cool . Interesting .
          Gassho . Stlah .

          Comment

          • Tokan
            Member
            • Oct 2016
            • 1325

            Originally posted by Jundo
            The youtube I added to the post is pretty cool too ...

            Gassho, J

            stlah
            Not very reassuring though lol, at least it will be quick, speed of light quick! Just the universe universing as usual....

            Gassho, Tokan

            satlah
            平道 島看 Heidou Tokan (Balanced Way Island Nurse)
            I enjoy learning from everyone, I simply hope to be a friend along the way

            Comment

            • Jundo
              Treeleaf Founder and Priest
              • Apr 2006
              • 40667

              Originally posted by Tokan
              Not very reassuring though lol, at least it will be quick, speed of light quick! Just the universe universing as usual....

              Gassho, Tokan

              satlah
              Just one more reason to realize what lucky winners we are in the cosmic "lottery of all lotteries," one more thing that could have taken us out of the show (or never let us be in the show in the first place), but did us no harm ... at least so far.

              Gassho, J

              stlah
              ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

              Comment

              • Jundo
                Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                • Apr 2006
                • 40667

                This is all so funny and weird, I post the entirety. It starts about 1 minute in ...


                And, though not funny, it brings tears of joy to some of us ...


                (Now, let's also fix our problems here on earth before we just spread them in space by taking them with us ... )

                Gassho, J

                stlah
                Last edited by Jundo; 04-06-2023, 12:33 PM.
                ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

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                • Jundo
                  Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                  • Apr 2006
                  • 40667

                  Very good interview on a new book (entitled "Higher Animals") by an MIT professor on the latest in gene editing, including mRNA tech, coming benefits and risks ... quote "we are becoming higher animals in the sense that we are now able to control biology in ways we have not in 4 billion years ... "



                  Gassho, J

                  stlah
                  ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                  Comment

                  • Jundo
                    Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                    • Apr 2006
                    • 40667

                    For those too lazy to find the remote control ...

                    Mind-Controlled Robots: New Graphene Sensors Are Turning Science Fiction Into Reality

                    Researchers have designed a 3D-patterned, graphene-based, dry sensor that can measure the brain’s electrical activity without relying on conductive gels. The dry sensors are less irritating and allergenic compared to traditional “wet” sensors used in electroencephalography (EEG) to diagnose neurological disorders or control external devices through brain-machine interfaces. When incorporated into an elastic headband and used with an augmented reality headset, the dry sensors enabled hands-free control of a robot by interpreting brain signals. Although not as effective as wet sensors yet, this development marks progress toward easily implemented, non-invasive brain-machine interfaces.



                    The ECONOMIST has its own recent feature on brain-machine interfaces ...


                    Gassho, J

                    stlah
                    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                    Comment

                    • Jundo
                      Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                      • Apr 2006
                      • 40667

                      The amazing story of Adderall, its successes, overuse and now shortage:

                      It has been four years since I received my ADHD diagnosis from a psychiatrist. Only when I announced it on Facebook did my former teacher relay his side of that story to me. In the years since, I’ve taken Adderall, or its generic version, almost every day at varying dosages to help me function in a society in which any lack of productivity is seen as a moral failing. Before then, I’d been decent enough at most of the jobs I’d held, terrible at others. After I began treatment, I could actually remember what I was in the middle of doing as I was doing it. I didn’t feel the need to get up to wander the office every few minutes. I could motivate myself to start projects even when there were more promising distractions. It was a revelation.

                      ... over the last half-decade as diagnosis rates for ADHD in adults have soared. The “why” of that increase is complex and still not fully understood. Doctors and medical experts once considered ADHD a childhood disease, something that someone grew out of as the hyperactivity diminished with age. More recent research has emphasized the struggles with focus and organization, leading to rising diagnoses in adults and even seniors.

                      There’s no official nationwide tracking system for ADHD, which one 2021 study estimates as affecting “approximately 6% in children and 3% in adults” worldwide. Among the data we do have, a 2019 study found a 43% increase in the rate of adults’ being newly diagnosed with ADHD from 2007 to 2016. (Those numbers have most likely increased further in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, when the rate of stimulant prescriptions jumped significantly.) ... At the same time, it’s impossible not to wonder how much of the boost comes from the spate of self-diagnosis via TikTok and memes that have become ubiquitous. Last year, a Canadian study found that about half of the most popular ADHD-related videos it studied on TikTok were misleading. The rise of telehealth during the early pandemic also led to a surge in potentially predatory ads from companies that offered fast and easy diagnoses for ADHD. The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department have launched investigations into the practice and whether these businesses have been overprescribing controlled substances. ...

                      Whatever the reason, the surge in demand has been met in the last several months with a depletion in the supply of ADHD medications. Anecdotally, I had been hearing about the struggles my friends have had for months. I managed to avoid it for the most part, being on a high dose of the extended-release formula. But in February, my local pharmacy told me its order was backlogged. It would remain so for the next month, forcing me to dip into a supply of older low-dose instant release pills that I’d saved for just such an emergency.

                      I could tell that their effectiveness had dulled slightly by the time I reached near the end of my supply. I was fortunate enough that my pharmacy had a supply of a slightly lower dose of the extended-release formula when my next appointment with my psychiatrist came around late last month. Thousands of people around the country weren’t so lucky and were left without any backstop once their prescriptions were fully depleted. ... https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-...licy-rcna76851
                      Gassho, J

                      stlah
                      ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                      Comment

                      • Jundo
                        Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                        • Apr 2006
                        • 40667

                        Looking back, closer than ever to the start of time ...

                        Journey to the Edge of Time: James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Most Distant Galaxies

                        An international team of astronomers has discovered the earliest and most distant galaxies confirmed to date using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The telescope captured light emitted by these galaxies more than 13.4 billion years ago, which means the galaxies date back to less than 400 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 2% of its current age. ...

                        ... Coauthor Sandro Tacchella from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom added, “It is hard to understand galaxies without understanding the initial periods of their development. Much as with humans, so much of what happens later depends on the impact of these early generations of stars. So many questions about galaxies have been waiting for the transformative opportunity of Webb, and we’re thrilled to be able to play a part in revealing this story.”

                        According to Robertson, star formation in these early galaxies would have begun about 100 million years earlier than the age at which they were observed, pushing the formation of the earliest stars back to around 225 million years after the Big Bang.

                        “We are seeing evidence of star formation about as early as we could expect based on our models of galaxy formation,” he said.


                        https://scitechdaily.com/journey-to-...tant-galaxies/
                        And another ancient ancient mystery comes into focus ...

                        Unraveling the Secrets of an Invisible Galaxy

                        A mysterious and very distant object, in a universe as it was ‘just’ two billion years after the Big Bang, that hides from even the most advanced instruments. Its features have finally been described by a SISSA study published in The Astrophysical Journal.

                        An extremely remote celestial body in a still young Universe, one-sixth the size of the present one. An object so dark that it is almost invisible, even to highly sophisticated instruments. Its nature has long been the subject of debate, but by means of surveys made with the ALMA interferometer, the SISSA research group led by Prof. Andrea Lapi that conducts research into the formation and evolution of galaxies has finally succeeded in identifying its main properties. Compact, and containing large quantities of interstellar dust, it is a young galaxy, forming stars at about 1000 times the rate of the Milky Way. The description of this galaxy will be useful for revealing more about this very distant object and indicating new approaches for the study of other ‘dark’ celestial bodies. The research just published in The Astrophysical Journal will also provide new insights for developing advanced models of galaxy formation and evolution.

                        BELOW: mage of the lensed galaxy acquired with the ALMA interferometer


                        https://scitechdaily.com/dark-myster...isible-galaxy/
                        Gassho, J

                        stlah
                        ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                        Comment

                        • Jundo
                          Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                          • Apr 2006
                          • 40667

                          Two stories on robotized trash bins ... both worth a peak before discarding ...

                          These robotic trash cans were filmed to test human-robotic interactions. Watch what happened

                          A team of Cornell Tech researchers studying how people interact with roboticized objects designed remote controlled trash cans so they could roam New York's Astor Place. The compiled footage shows a wide range of reactions.

                          https://us.cnn.com/videos/business/2...j.cnn-business
                          ... and a somewhat different version for the home (sadly, hauling out the trash is the most exercise some folks get! ) ...


                          And in a different kind of "removal" from the body, I just found this elegant and inspiring ...

                          Mechanical Nanosurgery: How Precision Magnetics Is Tackling Aggressive Brain Tumors

                          Scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Toronto (U of T) have combined forces to develop a new approach to potentially treat tumor cells, called mechanical nanosurgery, even for aggressive, chemoresistant cancers.

                          Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary brain cancer. Despite various treatment options that exist, including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the median survival time for patients is only around 15 months. ... In a study published on March 29 in the journal Science Advances, Dr. Xi Huang, a Senior Scientist in the Developmental & Stem Cell Biology program at SickKids, and Dr. Yu Sun, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Robotics Institute at U of T, present a new approach to treat chemoresistant GBM using precision magnetic control in a process they call mechanical nanosurgery. ... “Through the use of nanotechnology deep inside cancer cells, mechanical nanosurgery is a ‘Trojan Horse’ approach that could allow us to destroy tumor cells from within,” says Huang, whose previous research demonstrating that brain tumor cells are mechanosensitive helped to inform the approach. “By combining our expertise in biochemistry at SickKids and engineering at U of T, we’ve developed a potential new way to treat aggressive brain cancer.”

                          ... Magnetic carbon nanotubes (mCNTs) are a form of nanomaterial – microscopic cylindrically-shaped tubes made of carbon and, in this case, filled with iron that becomes magnetized when activated by an external magnetic field. In the study, the research team coated mCNTs with an antibody that recognizes a specific protein associated with GBM tumor cells. Once injected into the tumor, the antibodies on the mCNTs cause them to seek out tumor cells and are absorbed by them. “Once the nanotubes are inside the tumor cell, we use a rotating magnetic field to mechanically mobilize the nanotubes to provide mechanical stimulation,” says Sun. “The force exerted by the nanotubes damages cellular structures and cause tumor cell death.” ...



                          Gassho, J

                          stlah
                          Last edited by Jundo; 04-12-2023, 03:20 AM.
                          ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

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                          • Jundo
                            Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                            • Apr 2006
                            • 40667

                            Looks more like a churro than a donut now ...

                            Goodbye fuzzy donut: The famous first black hole photo gets sharpened up

                            The first iconic image of a black hole looked like a fuzzy, orange donut, but now that picture has been sharpened up to a fiery ring, thanks to computer simulations and machine learning.

                            The black interior of this ring of hot gasses is an area of cosmic weirdness and such strong gravity that nothing, not even light, can escape. It looks much larger and darker in the upgraded image, according to a new report in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

                            The picture shows the M87 black hole, a large one about 55 million light years away that's thought to be 6.5 billion times more massive than the sun. This is the black hole that was observed in 2017 by a network of telescopes around the world known as the Event Horizon Telescope, which together acted as a giant radio telescope the size of the Earth.

                            Scientists have created a new version of a historic black hole image that was first unveiled back in 2019. The central black nothingness now looks larger and darker.



                            Researchers used computer simulations of black holes and machine learning to generate a revised version (right) of the famous first image of a black hole that was released back in 2019 (left).
                            Gassho, J

                            stlah
                            ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                            Comment

                            • Jundo
                              Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                              • Apr 2006
                              • 40667

                              Insight into that ball of light and heat which lets us be down here ...

                              ESA’s Solar Orbiter may have taken another step towards solving the eighty-year-old mystery of why the Sun’s outer atmosphere is so hot.

                              On March 3, 2022, just a few months into Solar Orbiter’s nominal mission, the spacecraft’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) returned data showing for the first time that a magnetic phenomenon called reconnection was taking place persistently on tiny scales. ... Magnetic reconnection occurs when a magnetic field changes itself into a more stable configuration. It is a fundamental energy release mechanism in superheated gasses known as plasmas and is believed to be the major mechanism for powering large-scale solar eruptions. This makes it the direct cause of space weather, and a prime candidate for the mysterious heating of the Sun’s outer atmosphere.... It has been known since the 1940s that the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona, is much hotter than the Sun’s surface. While the surface glows at around 5,500°C, the corona is a rarified gas of around 2 million °C. How the Sun injects energy into its atmosphere to heat it to this tremendous temperature has been a major puzzle ever since.


                              And for more ancient stars ... some galaxies are early starters ...

                              Galactic Surprise: James Webb Space Telescope Unveils Hidden Companion Galaxy

                              While analyzing data from the first images of a well-known early galaxy taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Cornell University astronomers discovered a companion galaxy previously hidden behind the light of the foreground galaxy — one that surprisingly seems to have already hosted multiple generations of stars despite its young age, estimated at 1.4 billion years old. ... Most surprising about these galaxies, considering their age and mass, was their mature metallicity – amounts of elements heavier than helium and hydrogen, such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen – which the team estimated to be similar to our sun. Compared to the sun, which is about 4 billion years old and inherited most of its metals from previous generations of stars that had roughly 8 billion years to build them up, we are observing these galaxies at a time when the universe was less than 1.5 billion years old.

                              “We are seeing the leftovers of at least a couple of generations of stars having lived and died within the first billion years of the universe’s existence, which is not what we typically see,” Vishwas said. “We speculate that the process of forming stars in these galaxies must have been very efficient and started very early in the universe, particularly to explain the measured abundance of nitrogen relative to oxygen, as this ratio is a reliable measure of how many generations of stars have lived and died.”

                              Cosmic bumper cars ...

                              Webb telescope captures glowing starburst as galaxies collide

                              A brilliant starburst feature shines in the latest image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

                              The space observatory captured a bright burst of star formation triggered by two spiral galaxies crashing into one another.

                              The colliding galaxies, known collectively as Arp 220, generated an infrared glow that contains the light of more than 1 trillion suns. For comparison, the Milky Way galaxy has a luminosity that is the equivalent of about 10 billion suns. ... Arp 220 is located 250 million light-years away in the Serpens constellation, and it’s the brightest of the three galactic mergers closest to Earth.

                              These two galaxies began colliding about 700 million years ago, and as the gas and dust combined, a tremendous flare of star birth began.https://us.cnn.com/2023/04/17/world/...scn/index.html

                              Small delay for this week's launch of the BIGGEST ROCKET EVER ...

                              ... (but there must be better ways to get up there!) ...

                              An attempt to launch the most powerful rocket ever into space has been postponed for at least 48 hours.

                              The vehicle, known as Starship, has been built by US entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX company.

                              The uncrewed mission on Monday was called off minutes before the planned launch from Boca Chica, Texas.

                              The problem appears to have been caused by a frozen "pressurant valve", Musk tweeted. But SpaceX could try to launch again later this week.

                              Starship stands nearly 120m (400ft) high and is designed to have almost double the thrust of any rocket ever.

                              The aim is to send the upper-stage of the vehicle eastward, to complete almost one circuit of the globe.



                              Elon is a Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers fan (really) ... RETRO-ROCKET! ... ART-DECO v. ARTEMUS ...


                              But small is good too ...

                              Smaller Than a Grain of Rice – Scientists Use Tiny Implantable Device To Tame Pancreatic Cancer

                              Houston Methodist nanomedicine researchers have discovered a method to control pancreatic cancer, a highly aggressive and challenging form of the disease, by administering immunotherapy directly to the tumor using a device smaller than a grain of rice.

                              A recent study published in the journal Advanced Science details the work of researchers from the Houston Methodist Research Institute who utilized an implantable nanofluidic device of their own creation to deliver CD40 monoclonal antibodies (mAb), a highly promising immunotherapeutic agent, in a sustained low dose via the nanofluidic drug-eluting seed (NDES). The results, as observed in mice models, showed a significant reduction in tumor size at a four times lower dosage compared to conventional systemic immunotherapy treatments.


                              ... and even smaller than rice grains ... a possible tool for genetic engineering ...

                              Nature’s Nano-Syringes: Harnessing Bacterial Machines for Next-Gen Medicine

                              Researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT have harnessed a natural bacterial system to develop a new protein delivery approach that works in human cells and animals. The technology, described recently in the journal Nature, can be programmed to deliver a variety of proteins, including ones for gene editing, to different cell types. The system could potentially be a safe and efficient way to deliver gene therapies and cancer therapies.

                              ... the team took advantage of a tiny syringe-like injection structure, produced by a bacterium, that naturally binds to insect cells and injects a protein payload into them. The researchers used the artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold to engineer these syringe structures to deliver a range of useful proteins to both human cells and cells in live mice. ...

                              ... Kreitz says the eCIS system is versatile, and the team has already used it to deliver a range of cargos including base editor proteins (which can make single-letter changes to DNA), proteins that are toxic to cancer cells, and Cas9, a large DNA-cutting enzyme used in many gene editing systems. ...

                              ... By reengineering another part of the complex, the scientists tricked the syringe into delivering a protein of their choosing, in some cases with remarkably high efficiency. ... The team made eCISs that targeted cancer cells expressing the EGF receptor and showed that they killed almost 100 percent of the cells, but did not affect cells without the receptor. ...

                              The researchers also used an eCIS to deliver proteins to the brain in live mice — where it didn’t provoke a detectable immune response, suggesting that eCISs could one day be used to safely deliver gene therapies to humans.




                              Programmed Photorhabdus virulence cassettes bound to a cancer cell
                              And photons are even smaller ... using light to activate proteins inside cells ... another possible tool in gene editing ...

                              This light-activation technology has potential applications in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and understanding how the body works.

                              Scientists can now use light to activate protein functions both inside and outside of living cells. The new method, called light-activated SpyLigation, can turn on proteins that are normally off to allow researchers to study and control them in more detail. This technology has potential uses in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and understanding how the body works.

                              ... Increasingly, scientists are also exploring whether protein functions can be turned on and off to treat disease.

                              “With new tools for controlling protein function, particularly those that offer controlled activation in time and space, we are working towards engineering complex tissue for transplantation,” said senior author Cole A. DeForest, a Weyerhaeuser Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington College of Engineering and an associate professor of bioengineering, a joint department at the UW College of Engineering and School of Medicine.

                              ... The team also showed they could activate proteins inside human cells. Three minutes of light exposure was enough to turn on specific proteins involved in genome editing. Such a tool could one day be used to direct genetic changes to very specific areas of the body....

                              https://scitechdaily.com/protein-pow...lash-of-light/


                              Gassho, J

                              stlah
                              Last edited by Jundo; 04-18-2023, 02:18 AM.
                              ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

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                              • Jundo
                                Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                                • Apr 2006
                                • 40667

                                tsukupng.png Go Duke Blue Devils ... (my old school) ... although mine was not the best brain there ...

                                Brain Imaging Breakthrough: 64 Million Times Sharper

                                MRI technology from Duke-led effort reveals the entire mouse brain in the highest resolution.


                                In a decades-long technical tour de force led by Duke’s Center for In Vivo Microscopy with colleagues at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh and Indiana University, researchers took up the gauntlet and improved the resolution of MRI leading to the sharpest images ever captured of a mouse brain. ... This refined MRI, combined with light sheet microscopy, provides an unprecedented way to visualize the brain’s connectivity, potentially leading to a better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases in humans.

                                Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first MRI, the researchers generated scans of a mouse brain that are dramatically crisper than a typical clinical MRI for humans, the scientific equivalent of going from a pixelated 8-bit graphic to the hyper-realistic detail of a Chuck Close painting. ... A single voxel of the new images – think of it as a cubic pixel – measures just 5 microns. That’s 64 million times smaller than a clinical MRI voxel.


                                New AI hope on the vaccine front ... Now, we simply must find a vaccine to be rid of the "anti-vaxxers!"

                                Artificial intelligence platform has the ability to efficiently design T-cell-based vaccines that offer broad protection. The platform could also be used to develop seasonal flu and other vaccines.

                                Researchers from Penn State have teamed up with Evaxion Biotech on a groundbreaking study that reveals the potential of an AI-generated vaccine in providing immunity against future COVID-19 variants. Unlike current COVID-19 vaccines, which target the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and are prone to losing efficacy due to mutations, this vaccine focuses on triggering a T-cell response. This could result in a more durable immunity and serve as a model for other seasonal viral diseases, such as the flu. This study marks the first time an AI-generated vaccine has been tested and shown to be effective in a live viral challenge model. ... The results showed a remarkable 87.5% survival rate among the vaccinated mice, compared to just 1 mouse from the control group. Furthermore, all the surviving mice that received the vaccine cleared the virus within two weeks after being challenged with a lethal dose of SARS-CoV-2. The findings were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.

                                https://scitechdaily.com/new-ai-gene...inst-covid-19/
                                Soon, we will have really really really tiny nano-scale phones ... but how will we hold them with our big fingers?

                                Tiny Transformers: Physicists Unveil Shape-Shifting Nano-Scale Electronic Devices

                                UC Irvine physicists have discovered nano-scale electronic devices that can change shapes and sizes in solid states, potentially revolutionizing electronic devices and atomic-scale quantum material research. The devices, made of graphene sheets and gold wires, enable flexible and dynamic movement on van der Waals material surfaces.

                                The nano-scale electronic parts in devices like smartphones are solid, static objects that once designed and built cannot transform into anything else. But University of California, Irvine physicists have reported the discovery of nano-scale devices that can transform into many different shapes and sizes even though they exist in solid states.

                                https://scitechdaily.com/tiny-transf...ronic-devices/
                                I am grateful for obsessed scientists who can't quit working on these problems ...

                                In a recent UCLA study, researchers discovered that astrocytes, brain support cells, play a significant role in OCD-related behaviors. This finding suggests that targeting both astrocytes and neurons may offer new treatment options for OCD and other brain disorders.

                                A type of cell usually characterized as the brain’s support system appears to play an important role in obsessive-compulsive disorder-related behaviors, according to new University of California, Los Angeles Health research published on April 12 in the journal Nature.

                                The new clue about the brain mechanisms behind OCD, a disorder that is incompletely understood, came as a surprise to researchers. They originally sought to study how neurons interact with star-shaped “helper” cells known as astrocytes, which are known to provide support and protection to neurons.


                                However, scientists are still trying to understand the apparent role these complex cells play in psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.

                                By studying the proteins expressed by neurons and astrocytes in mice, UCLA researchers found a protein associated with OCD and repetitive behaviors in neurons was also found in astrocytes. The discovery suggests therapeutic strategies targeting astrocytes and neurons may be useful for OCD and potentially other brain disorders.

                                ... The mice no longer compulsively groomed themselves after the SAPAP3 protein was delivered back to astrocytes and neurons, suggesting that both types of cells could be valid targets for treatments aimed at curbing compulsion. However, only neurons with the SAPAP3 protein were associated with reduced anxiety in the mice, suggesting that astrocytes would not be a good target for anxiety treatments in OCD. ...


                                Gassho, J

                                stlah
                                ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

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