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Category: computing

Sensory expectations configure neural responses before disturbances occur, study reveals

A study led by Jonathan Michaels, a Faculty of Health professor at York’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science, reveals how the brains of humans and monkeys use sensory expectations to prepare for unexpected disturbances, enabling faster and more accurate motor responses.

Published today in Nature, the study demonstrates that motor circuits across the brain do not passively wait for sensory signals. Instead, they proactively anticipate potential challenges, configuring themselves to respond effectively to disturbances. The research represents a significant leap forward in uncovering the brain’s predictive capabilities and its role in .

This advancement provides a clearer picture of the neural mechanisms underlying movement preparation and response, illustrating how expectation itself enhances precision and stability. The discovery opens new pathways for improving rehabilitation techniques and advancing brain-computer interface technology.

Electrons can now be controlled to build smarter quantum devices

Auburn University scientists have developed a new class of materials that lets researchers precisely control free electrons, a breakthrough that could reshape the future of computing and chemical manufacturing.

Their study introduces a material system that allows fine-tuned control over how electrons behave within matter, potentially paving the way for faster computers, smarter machines, and more efficient industrial processes.

Iontronic Circuits: Building Intelligence in Brine

Experiments with membranes offer a path toward scalable neuromorphic computing.

Imagine a future in which computers process information not with streams of electrons but with hydrated ions flowing through salt water, a system that mimics how the brain itself computes. This emerging field—known as iontronics, a portmanteau of ions and electronics—is rapidly growing as researchers design neuromorphic computing devices, inspired by animal nervous systems and powered by electrolyte solutions at the nanoscale [1–3]. Since Leon Chua introduced the memory resistor or “memristor” in the 1970s [4], these components have been considered revolutionary building blocks for neuromorphic computing. A memristor’s electrical resistance depends on the current that flowed through it before it was powered off, offering a way to store information. Unlike solid-state memristors, fluidic ones still face challenges in terms of scalability and integration with a circuit.

Electric signals reveal magnetic spin waves, hinting at faster computing

Today’s computers store information in magnetic hard drives, keeping files safe even when the device is powered off. But to run programs and process information, computers rely on electricity. Each calculation requires a transfer of information between the electric and magnetic systems. This back-and-forth is a major bottleneck in the speed of modern computing.

Devices that integrate magnetic components directly into computing logic would remove this limitation and allow computers to perform faster and more efficiently.

A new theoretical study led by University of Delaware engineers reveals that magnons, a type of magnetic spin wave, can produce detectable electric signals. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlight potential ways to control and manipulate magnons with electric fields and suggest a path toward integrating electric and magnetic components to enable next-generation computing technologies.

This Quantum Electron Breakthrough Could Make Computers Faster Than Ever Before

Auburn University scientists have developed a new class of materials that allow precise control over free electrons, potentially transforming computing and chemical manufacturing. Imagine a future where factories produce new materials and chemical compounds more quickly, more efficiently, and at

Scientists smash record in stacking semiconductor transistors for large-area electronics

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST; Saudi Arabia) researchers have set a record in microchip design, achieving the first six-stack hybrid CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) for large-area electronics. With no other reported hybrid CMOS exceeding two stacks, the feat marks a new benchmark in integration density and efficiency, opening possibilities in electronic miniaturization and performance.

A paper detailing the team’s research appears in Nature Electronics.

Among microchip technologies, CMOS microchips are found in nearly all electronics, from phones and televisions to satellites and medical devices. Compared with conventional silicon chips, hybrid CMOS microchips hold greater promise for large-area electronics. Electronic miniaturization is crucial for flexible electronics, smart health, and the Internet of Things, but current design approaches are reaching their limits.

Living computers powered by mushrooms

Mushrooms are known for their toughness and unusual biological properties, qualities that make them attractive for bioelectronics. This emerging field blends biology and technology to design innovative, sustainable materials for future computing systems.

Turning Mushrooms Into Living Memory Devices

Researchers at The Ohio State University recently discovered that edible fungi, such as shiitake mushrooms, can be cultivated and guided to function as organic memristors. These components act like memory cells that retain information about previous electrical states.

Mesoscale volumetric fluorescence imaging at nanoscale resolution by photochemical sectioning

I first explored this amazing work back when it was a preprint! Wang et al. herein developed VIPS (volumetric imaging via photochemical sectioning), a way of using UV light to remove layers of expanded tissue-hydrogel, allowing combination of high-resolution lattice-light sheet microscopy with expansion microscopy. Link: [ https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr9109]

In my opinion, this technology has enormous future promise for high-throughput connectomics! They will need to improve their labeling density so that higher expansion factors can be used, but this problem is well-studied and I think the issue will likely be solvable with additional resources/effort.

Optical nanoscopy of intact biological specimens has been transformed by recent advancements in hydrogel-based tissue clearing and expansion, enabling the imaging of cellular and subcellular structures with molecular contrast. However, existing high-resolution fluorescence microscopes are physically limited by objective-to-specimen distance, which prevents the study of whole-mount specimens without physical sectioning. To address this challenge, we developed a photochemical strategy for spatially precise sectioning of specimens. By combining serial photochemical sectioning with lattice light-sheet imaging and petabyte-scale computation, we imaged and reconstructed axons and myelin sheaths across entire mouse olfactory bulbs at nanoscale resolution.

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