The team also found that this layout in the nose aligns with corresponding maps in the olfactory bulb of the brain. This connection offers new clues about how scent signals travel from the nose into the brain.
The findings were published April 28 in Cell.
Scientists have long known how sensory receptors are arranged in the eyes, ears, and skin, and how those arrangements connect to the brain. Smell has been the exception.
A three-dimensional soft electronic sensor and stimulator array that is integrated with a three-dimensional cultured neural network can be used to record action potential from multiple planes over a period of 6 months, monitor evolving connectivity maps and pharmacological responses, as well as construct a reservoir neural network for biocomputing.
What if the human brain could be mapped, simulated… and eventually run like software?
Scientists have already mapped a single cubic millimeter of the human brain, generating a staggering 1.4 petabytes of data. But that’s just the beginning.
In this video, we break down:
The rise of connectomics and full brain mapping
How AI reconstructs neurons from petavoxel-scale data
Why a brain map alone isn’t enough to recreate intelligence
The emergence of digital brain twins
And how models like ZAPBench are predicting brain activity like a weather forecast.
From the complete neural wiring of a fruit fly to simulations like OpenWorm, we are entering an era where biology meets computation.
This isn’t science fiction anymore. It’s engineering.
“We found that the earlier a region became shadowed, the larger the area that was able to accumulate ice,” said Dr. Oded Aharonson. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30512/moon-craters-targets-water-ice-2](https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30512/moon-craters-targets-water-ice-2)
What are the best places on the Moon to find water ice that can be used for future crewed missions to the Moon’s surface? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated potential regions of the Moon where future astronauts could have the highest chance of finding water ice. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, mission planners, and future astronauts narrow the scope for finding the best locations of water ice on the Moon to aid in future crewed missions, thus negating the need for water supplies from Earth.
For the study, the researchers analyze data obtained from the Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP), which is an instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter designed to map the entire surface of the Moon in far ultraviolet light. They combined these findings with computer models designed to simulate how and when water was delivered to the Moon millions to billions of years ago.
In the end, the researchers found that Shackleton Crater, a portion of which is located directly at the lunar south pole, is not the most ideal location for water ice, which has long been thought. In contrast, the researchers propose that Haworth Crater is the ideal location for finding water ice. Additionally, the researchers found that some of these regions have been building water ice for as long as 1.5 billion years.
Large language models (LLMs) could help human scientists identify interesting research topics that have not previously been explored, say scientists at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). By analysing abstracts in materials science publications and mapping connections between different concepts, the model was able to generate predictions for future areas of interest that the KIT team says are more precise than those produced by traditional, rule-based algorithms.
The number of research articles published each year is increasing so quickly that it is impossible for scientists to keep up with everything, observes team leader Pascal Friederich, who heads a KIT research group on artificial intelligence for materials sciences. While experienced scientists know how to find connections between research areas within their field, identifying links between these and other, unfamiliar topics is a different story.
By mapping all the possible variations in a single gene, researchers have uncovered a previously hidden neurodevelopmental condition.
ReNU syndrome is a rare, inherited neurodevelopmental disorder identified in 2024 that affects brain function, development, and motor skills and is predicted to affect tens of thousands of individuals worldwide.
A study by University of Wollongong (UOW) physicist Dr. Enbang Li has demonstrated that gravity can subtly influence the behavior of light, a breakthrough that could underpin future technologies for monitoring groundwater, tracking glacier melt, locating mineral deposits and detecting underground changes linked to volcanic activity and carbon storage.
The study, published in Scientific Reports, shows early experimental evidence that photons—particles of light—interact with Earth’s gravitational field in measurable ways, laying the groundwork for a new generation of ultra-sensitive gravity sensors.
Dr. Li said the work could lead to more precise and compact next-generation sensing technologies for environmental monitoring, navigation and underground mapping.
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Blog post with audio player, show notes, and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/.…
The connectome is the wiring diagram of a brain, a big matrix that tells us what neurons talk to what other neurons. Understanding it is an important step to understanding how brains work, but a long way from the final answer. A big next step is understanding how neuronal circuits connect to and guide bodily behavior. Very recent work on mapping the fruit-fly connectome has brought us closer to that goal. I talk with neuroscientist Bing Brunton about the connectome, how we can study it to understand bodily motion in flies and other creatures, and where it’s all taking us.
Bing Wen Brunton received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Princeton University… She is currently a Professor of Biology and the Richard & Joan Komen University Chair at the University of Washington, with affiliations at the eScience Institute for Data Science, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and the Department of Applied Mathematics.
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