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Scientists create realistic brain-wide connection maps through digital modeling

EPFL researchers have developed a powerful method to generate brain-wide, biologically realistic wiring maps of the mouse brain. Their approach bridges experimental data with mathematical and computational modeling to simulate how neurons connect across the entire brain.

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

One of neuroscience’s greatest challenges is understanding how the brain is wired. Even with modern imaging tools, it has been a challenge to create detailed maps that show how the brain’s billions of cells () connect, not just with their local “neighbors” but also to other, more distant cells in the brain.

Breaking the code in network theory: Bimodularity reveals direction of influence in complex systems

As summer winds down, many of us in continental Europe are heading back north. The long return journeys from the beaches of southern France, Spain, and Italy once again clog alpine tunnels and Mediterranean coastal routes during the infamous Black Saturday bottlenecks. This annual migration, like many systems in our world, forms a network—not just of connections, but of communities shaped by shared patterns of origin and destination.

This is where —and in particular, community detection—comes in. For decades, researchers have developed powerful tools to uncover in networks: clusters of tightly interconnected nodes. But these tools work best for undirected networks, where connections are mutual. Graphically, the node maps may look familiar.

These clusters can mean that a group of people are all friends on Facebook, follow different sport accounts on X, or all live in the same city. Using a standard modularity algorithm, we can then find connections between different communities and begin to draw useful conclusions. Perhaps users in the fly-fishing community also show up as followers of nonalcoholic beer enthusiasts in Geneva. This type of information extraction, impossible without community analysis, is a layer of meaning that can be leveraged to sell beer or even nefariously influence elections.

Alien eavesdropping: Study shows how our signals might leak into space

Alien eavesdropping: A new study shows how our signals might leak into space.


Imagine you’re an alien astronomer, pointing your telescope toward our solar system, listening for signs of intelligent life. Would you hear us? For decades, scientists have wondered the same thing.

A new study by researchers from Penn State University and NASA suggests we may finally have a clue. By carefully mapping the directions and timing of Earth’s strongest space communications, they’ve shown that our radio messages, meant for spacecraft like those near Mars, leak into the cosmos in predictable patterns.

Ark Invest Blew My Mind: Shocking Tesla Robotaxi Research

Ark Invest forecasts that Tesla’s robotaxi business could reach $10 trillion by 2029, driven by its manufacturing efficiency, data advantage, and strategic positioning in major urban markets ## ## Questions to inspire discussion.

Tesla’s Robotaxi Dominance.

🚗 Q: How significant could Tesla’s robotaxi business become? A: Tesla’s robotaxi business could represent around 90% of its enterprise value by 2029, capturing a substantial share of Ark’s projected $10 trillion global robotaxi market.

🏙️ Q: What’s the potential impact of robotaxis on urban transportation? A: Research suggests 200,000 robotaxis, supplemented by privately owned vehicles in an Airbnb-like model, could meet all of urban Austin’s vehicle miles traveled (VMT) demand, with peak demand requiring 350,000 vehicles.

Manufacturing and Cost Advantages.

🏭 Q: How does Tesla’s manufacturing capability compare to urban demand? A: Tesla’s Austin factory alone could produce more vehicles than urban Austin’s entire ride-hail fleet in approximately 9 days, showcasing its vertically integrated manufacturing advantage.

LiDAR scans decommissioned nuclear reactors at Hanford for safety

US nuclear graveyard scanned with advanced LiDAR tech for safety, risk mapping.


The 3D imaging tool helped them come up with a detailed picture of the conditions of the safe storage enclosures for six cocooned reactors and identify potential issues.

“These inspections are critical to ensuring the cocooned reactors continue to function as designed,” said Tashina Jasso, acting director with the HFO’s Site Stewardship Division.

“The inspections are part of our commitment to reducing risk and preserving infrastructure for long-term management and safe disposal.”

Brain scans reveal action-based organization in people born without hands

Conventional wisdom among neuroscientists suggests that the brain’s motor functions are organized around the body, meaning certain brain areas control the hand; others the foot. An emerging alternative theory is that parts of the brain may be organized by the types of action, like reaching or using tools, no matter which body part is used to complete the task.

Researchers at Georgetown University recently set out to understand these theories, because knowing how the brain is organized around function versus body part has profound implications for rehabilitation and a person’s return to function following a .

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work is titled “Action-type mapping principles extend beyond evolutionarily-conserved actions, even in people born without hands.”

New AI Model May Predict Success Of Future Fusion Experiments, Saving Money And Fuel

What this means in real time is that researchers using these maps do not know if there are any errors or issues ahead of them, nor do they know if these errors are part of the research design. Nevertheless, this is all they have to work with, so they have to make a decision based on this limited information, and doing so will always have high costs in terms of the ignition attempt, which is expensive.

To overcome this, the team at the NIF created a new way to create these “maps” by merging past data with high-fidelity physics simulations and the knowledge of experts. This was then fed into a supercomputer that ran statistical assessments in the course of over 30 million CPU hours. Effectively, this allows the researchers to see all the ways that things can go wrong and to pre-emptively assess their experimental designs. This saves a lot of time and, more importantly, money.

The team tested this approach on an experiment they ran in 2022, and, after a few changes to the model’s physics, was able to predict the outcome with an accuracy above 70 percent.

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