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Bed Nucleus of Stria Terminalis Enkephalin Neurons Contribute to Depletion-Induced Salt Appetite

The overconsumption of sodium contributes to a wide range of detrimental health conditions. Thus, it is imperative to gain a better understanding of the neural mechanisms driving sodium appetite. Here, we combined neuroanatomic, transgenic, behavioral, and chemogenetic approaches to investigate the role of bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST) enkephalin neurons (BNSTENK) in sodium appetite in male and female pENK-Cre mice. Our results demonstrate that Gi-mediated signaling onto BNSTENK neurons regulates salt consumption following sodium depletion but does not impact upon taste preference when replete. Further, Gi-mediated signaling onto BNSTENK neurons had no effect on deprivation-induced food or water intake or anxiety-like behavior.

Some technologies use accelerated natural processes to capture carbon, but can they store it durably?

Natural geological processes have been regulating Earth’s climate for millions of years. Accelerated versions of these processes are now being promoted as technologies to draw down carbon from the atmosphere—and some are rapidly moving from concept to real-world deployments.

Two such technologies are known as enhanced weathering, which speeds up the chemical breakdown of certain rocks, and ocean alkalinity enhancement, which increases the ocean’s natural ability to remove carbon dioxide from the air.

Startups backed by tech companies including Google and Microsoft are already applying these technologies in field trials. Investment in the sector is rising rapidly, with large-scale trials underway and carbon credits beginning to appear on voluntary markets.

Mitochondria as sources and targets of cellular signaling

Meichsner et al. review recent insights into mitochondria as dynamic signaling hubs. The authors describe how structural plasticity and interorganellar communication enable mitochondria to serve as both sources and targets of signaling, coordinating stress responses, metabolic adaptation, and innate immune pathways to safeguard cellular homeostasis.

Canceling Quantum Noise

A new technique uses an ‘anti-noise’ signal to cancel out the unavoidable quantum noise associated with precision measurements like those needed for gravitational-wave detection.

When light is used to detect motion with high-precision—for example, in accelerometers or gravitational-wave detectors—its ultimate sensitivity is limited by quantum noise, which is unavoidable. A research team has now demonstrated a tabletop device that can reduce the disruption of quantum noise by modifying a light beam before using it to make a measurement [1]. This beam preparation cancels out the noise in a manner reminiscent of noise-canceling headphones [1]. Working across a wide frequency range and potentially offering up to 77% noise reduction, the system might ultimately find additional uses in quantum information processing.

Observing gravitational waves involves detecting changes in the interference pattern created by a pair of interacting laser beams, each of which has bounced off a remote mirror whose distance changes slightly when a wave passes. Such detections require very high sensitivity, which is compromised by inherent quantum fluctuations in the light field. To reduce quantum noise, researchers currently use a technique called squeezing, in which the quantum fluctuations can be shifted from one parameter, such as the phase, to another, such as the intensity [2, 3].

Superconducting vortices moonlight as controllable qubits, turning a disruption into a resource

Vortices in superconductors have so far been considered a disruption, as they can impair the superconducting properties. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have proved in experiments that magnetic vortices can be used as controllable quantum systems in certain materials. This means that a previously unwanted phenomenon is becoming a potential resource in quantum technologies, opening up new avenues for the development of quantum computers, highly sensitive sensor systems, and innovative approaches in materials research. These results are published in Nature.

Superconductors are materials that, under certain conditions, conduct electricity with zero resistance, entirely expelling magnetic fields. However, once the magnetic flux exceeds a critical threshold, magnetic fields start to penetrate into the material as tiny, quantized vortices. Such vortices have so far been considered unwanted disruptive factors, as they have an energy-draining effect, limiting the efficiency of superconducting systems.

Why the intrinsic quantum effects of axion dark matter are completely undetectable

Dark matter is an elusive form of matter that almost never emits, absorbs or reflects light, while only weakly interacting with regular matter. These properties make it very difficult to detect using conventional experimental techniques and instruments.

Over the past decades, physicists have inferred the existence of dark matter indirectly, by probing its influence on the gravity of stars, galaxies and other cosmological objects. As it has never been directly observed before, the exact composition and nature of dark matter remain unknown.

A hypothetical dark matter particle is the axion, an ultralight particle that is predicted to be highly abundant in the universe. Most existing work describes axions as a classical field, a wave-like entity that resembles an electromagnetic field.

AI makes a major breakthrough in a math problem that had stumped experts for decades

For nearly 80 years, mathematicians have struggled to solve a classic geometry puzzle first posed by Paul Erdős in 1946: the planar unit distance problem. The question posed by the legendary Hungarian mathematician was, on the surface, deceptively simple.

It asks: if you take a piece of paper and add some dots, how many pairs can be exactly the same distance apart? Erdős himself proposed that the maximum number grows only slightly faster than the number of dots. Although many mathematicians agreed with him, no one could find a way to mathematically prove it.

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