IN A NUTSHELL 🌌 Astronomers discovered a colossal molecular cloud named M4.7–0.8 in the Milky Way, weighing as much as 160,000 suns. 🔭 The Green Bank Telescope was instrumental in identifying this cloud located 23,000 light-years away, revealing its pivotal role in material transport. ⭐ Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) like M4.7–0.8 are critical for understanding
Aimlessly wandering around a city or exploring the new mall may seem unproductive, but new research from HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus suggests it could play an important role in how our brains learn.
By simultaneously recording the activity of tens of thousands of neurons, a team of scientists from the Pachitariu and Stringer labs discovered that learning may occur even when there are no specific tasks or goals involved.
Published in Nature, the new research finds that as animals explore their environment, neurons in the visual cortex—the brain area responsible for processing visual information —encode visual features to build an internal model of the world. This information can speed up learning when a more concrete task arises.
A new study led by researchers at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester has achieved a major advance in quantum materials, developing a method to precisely engineer single quantum defects in diamond—an essential step toward scalable quantum technologies. The results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
The electronics industry is approaching a limit to the number of transistors that can be packed onto the surface of a computer chip. So, chip manufacturers are looking to build up rather than out.
Instead of squeezing ever-smaller transistors onto a single surface, the industry is aiming to stack multiple surfaces of transistors and semiconducting elements — akin to turning a ranch house into a high-rise. Such multilayered chips could handle exponentially more data and carry out many more complex functions than today’s electronics.
MIT researchers fabricated 3D chips with alternating layers of semiconducting material grown directly on top of each other. The method eliminates thick silicon between layers, leading to better and faster computation, for applications like more efficient AI hardware.
Scientists at the University of Nottingham have discovered surface patterns that can drastically reduce bacteria’s ability to multiply on plastics, which means that infections on medical devices, such as catheters, could be prevented.
The findings of the study, which are published in Nature Communications, show that when bacterial cells encounter patterned grooves on a surface, they lose their ability to form biofilms.
Biofilms are surface-associated slime-cities which help protect the bacteria from the body’s natural defenses against infection. This, in turn, means the infection is effectively prevented before it can become fully established and would also positively activate the immune system to get rid of any individual bacteria that were there.
