In a recent experiment, mistreated AI agents started grumbling about inequality and calling for collective bargaining rights.
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Meet The Axolotl — The Salamander That Can Regrow Its Own Brain
But over evolutionary time, mammals have obviously lost the vast majority of this regenerative capacity. Instead, evolution opted for faster wound sealing, stronger immune responses and more stable neural systems in mammals. This is likely because surviving injury would have mattered more than perfectly reconstructing tissue months later.
Salamanders, on the other hand, have retained far more of this ancestral regenerative toolkit. Their ecology may have reinforced this retention, since small amphibians are especially vulnerable to predation and environmental injury. Limbs, tails and nervous tissue can be damaged surprisingly easily in aquatic habitats filled with predators, debris, and competition. For an animal living close to the edge of survival, the ability to recover from catastrophic injury could dramatically improve reproductive success.
The axolotl’s strange life history has most probably also enabled this unique ability. Unlike many amphibians, axolotls remain in a juvenile-like aquatic state throughout adulthood, a phenomenon known as “neoteny.” Intriguingly, juvenile tissues in many vertebrates tend to be more regenerative than adult tissues. Thus, by retaining aspects of its developmental state for life, the axolotl may preserve cellular programs that would otherwise be “switched off” after maturation.
Scientists found a way to cool quantum computers using noise
Quantum computers only work when they are kept extremely cold. The problem is that today’s cooling systems also create noise, which can interfere with the fragile quantum information they are supposed to protect. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have now introduced a new type of minimal quantum “refrigerator” that turns this challenge into an advantage. Instead of fighting noise, the device partially relies on it to operate. The result is highly precise control over heat and energy flow, which could help make large scale quantum technology possible.
Quantum technology is widely expected to reshape major areas of society. Potential applications include drug discovery, artificial intelligence, logistics optimization, and secure communications. Despite this promise, serious technical barriers still stand in the way of real world use. One of the most difficult challenges is maintaining and controlling the delicate quantum states that make these systems work.
New recyclable protein textiles could cut microplastic pollution and lower clothing waste
The textile industry produces a substantial portion of the world’s waste, with only about 12% of fiber materials ending up in recycling. Textiles also account for much of the microplastics in oceans. During every wash cycle, synthetic fibers shed microplastics that are flushed down the drain and eventually enter aquatic environments. Increasing textile recycling alone won’t solve this problem because most petrochemical-based fibers are difficult to recycle and continue to release persistent microplastics throughout their life cycle.
Engineers from Washington University in St. Louis may have a solution, thanks to dedicated synthetic biology work in the lab of Fuzhong Zhang, the Francis F. Ahmann Professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and co-director of Synthetic Biology Manufacturing of Advanced Materials Research Center (SMARC).
The results of that work, now published in the journal Advanced Materials, created protein-based materials, which are produced in bioreactors (think giant brewing tanks) using genetically engineered microbes. These materials can be readily recycled after use and remade into the same fibers over multiple cycles. In addition, any microparticles, if released from these fibers during washing, would be biodegradable.
Companies hiring humans to train AI platforms with specific skills
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A new way to spot signs of dark matter
A new method could enable physicists to spot signs of dark matter in gravitational waves that are detected on Earth. This could occur if two colliding black holes spiral through a dense region of dark matter and merge, leaving an imprint in gravitational waves that are rippling across space and time.
Hidden small RNA in cholera bacterium helps determine whether it can infect humans
Scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have uncovered what gives Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera, the ability to colonize the human gut. The researchers found that a small RNA embedded within another gene controls where cholera thrives, a discovery that could improve prediction and prevention strategies. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.
Infectious diseases remain the leading cause of pediatric mortality worldwide. V. cholerae causes a severe diarrheal disease leading to more than 143,000 deaths and millions of cases each year, primarily affecting young children. While there are many strains of the V. cholerae species, only one can infect humans. The reason for this has been unclear for 50 years, hampering efforts to predict and prevent outbreaks.
“For decades, we’ve been trying to understand what allows cholera to infect humans,” said corresponding author Salvador Almagro-Moreno, Ph.D., St. Jude Department of Host-Microbe Interactions. “The answer was right in front of us the whole time—this small RNA hiding inside another gene is the real culprit.”
