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Webb spots greedy supermassive black hole in early Universe

Researchers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed an actively growing supermassive black hole within a galaxy just 570 million years after the Big Bang. Part of a class of small, very distant galaxies that have mystified astronomers, CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 represents a vital piece of this puzzle and challenges existing theories about the formation of galaxies and black holes in the early Universe. The discovery connects early black holes with the luminous quasars we observe today.

Over its first three years, Webb’s surveys of the early Universe have turned up an increasing number of small, extremely distant, and strikingly red objects. These so-called Little Red Dots (LRDs) remain a tantalising mystery to astronomers, despite their unexpected abundance. The discovery in CANUCS-LRD-z8.6, made possible by Webb’s exceptional capabilities, has assisted in this hunt for answers. Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) enabled researchers to observe the faint light from this distant galaxy and detect key spectral features that point to the presence of an accreting black hole.

Roberta Tripodi, lead author of the study and a researcher of the University of Ljubljana FMF, in Slovenia and INAF — Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, in Italy, explained: “This discovery is truly remarkable. We’ve observed a galaxy from less than 600 million years after the Big Bang, and not only is it hosting a supermassive black hole, but the black hole is growing rapidly – far faster than we would expect in such a galaxy at this early time. This challenges our understanding of black hole and galaxy formation in the early Universe and opens up new avenues of research into how these objects came to be.”

New therapeutic brain implants could defy the need for surgery

Microscopic bioelectronic devices could one day travel through the body’s circulatory system and autonomously self-implant in a target region of the brain. These “circulatronics” can be wirelessly powered to provide focused electrical stimulation to a precise region of the brain, which could be used to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and cancer.

Our BRLS Research Application, Fixation vs. Vitrification Reflection, Cryonics & Autism

In this epsiode of the Cryosphere chat we discuss:
● The research proposal we submitted to BRLS
● Why slow growth could be an existential risk to cryonics.
● Our review of the Fixation vs. Vitrification discussion.
● Why there are so many autistic cryonicists.

Links:
Fixation vs. Virtification Discussion: https://youtu.be/gvu8P9D6p0g?si=2KOSESeOndtVl33V
Biostasis Pacific Northwest: https://www.reddit.com/r/cryonics/comments/1ozxslv/announcin…northwest/
I’ll see ya later mom… Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/cryonics/comments/1owgnk0/ill_see_ya_later_mom/
Cryosphere Discord: https://discord.gg/ndshSfQwqz

Quantum-centric supercomputing simulates supramolecular interactions

A team led by Cleveland Clinic’s Kenneth Merz, Ph.D., and IBM’s Antonio Mezzacapo, Ph.D., is developing quantum computing methods to simulate and study supramolecular processes that guide how entire molecules interact with each other.

In their study, published in Communications Physics, researchers focused on molecules’ noncovalent interactions, especially hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic species. These interactions, which involve attraction and repulsive forces between molecules or parts of the same molecule, play an important role in , membrane assembly and cell signaling.

Noncovalent molecular interactions involve an unknowable number of possible outcomes. Quantum computers with their immense computational power can easily complete these calculations, but conventional quantum computing methods can lack the accuracy of classical computers.

A new era of intelligence with Gemini 3

We’re releasing Gemini 3, our most intelligent model that helps you bring any idea to life. It’s the best model in the world for multimodal understanding and our most powerful agentic and vibe coding model yet — all built on a foundation of state-of-the-art reasoning.

Learn more about Gemini: https://deepmind.google/gemini.
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Add us on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/deepmind/

Cosmic Paradox Reveals the Awful Consequence of an Observer-Free Universe

From the article:

Quantum mechanics requires a distinction between an observer — such as the scientist carrying out an experiment — and the system they observe. The system tends to be something small and quantum, like an atom. The observer is big and far away, and thus well described by classical physics. Shaghoulian observed that this split was analogous to the kind that enlarges the Hilbert spaces of topological field theories. Perhaps an observer could do the same to these closed, impossibly simple-seeming universes?

In 2024, Zhao moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she began to work on the problem of how to put an observer into a closed universe. She and two colleagues —Daniel Harlow and Mykhaylo Usatyuk — thought of the observer as introducing a new kind of boundary: not the edge of the universe, but the boundary of the observer themself. When you consider a classical observer inside a closed universe, all the complexity of the world returns, Zhao and her collaborators showed.

The MIT team’s paper(opens a new tab) came out at the beginning of 2025, around the same time that another group came forward with a similar idea(opens a new tab). Others chimed in(opens a new tab) to point out connections to earlier work.

At this stage, everyone involved emphasizes that they don’t know the full solution. The paradox itself may be a misunderstanding, one that evaporates with a new argument. But so far, adding an observer to the closed universe and trying to account for their presence may be the safest path.

“Am I really confident to say that it’s right, it’s the thing that solves the problem? I cannot say that. We try our best,” Zhao said.

If the idea holds up, using the subjective nature of the observer as a way to account for the complexity of the universe would represent a paradigm shift in physics. Physicists typically seek a view from nowhere, a stand-alone description of nature. They want to know how the world works, and how observers like us emerge as parts of the world. But as physicists come to understand closed universes in terms of private boundaries around private observers, this view from nowhere seems less and less viable. Perhaps views from somewhere are all that we can ever have.

Continue reading “Cosmic Paradox Reveals the Awful Consequence of an Observer-Free Universe” | >

The Brain’s Hourglass: The motor cortex and striatum work together like an hourglass to measure time for precise and coordinated movement

Pause and Rewind: Temporarily silencing the neural activity in the motor cortex paused the brain’s timer, whereas silencing the striatum rewound the timer.

Broader Impacts: These findings reveal how the brain keeps time to coordinate movement, which one day may be harnessed to restore movement in disorders like Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.

Whether speaking or swinging a bat, precise and adaptable timing of movement is essential for everyday behavior. Although we do not have sensory organs like eyes or a nose to sense time, we can keep time and control the timing of our actions. Such timing accuracy depends on a timer in the brain, but how the brain implements this timer was previously unknown. In research published this week in Nature, MPFI scientists Zidan Yang, Hidehiko Inagaki, and colleagues reveal how this timer works through the interaction of two brain regions—the motor cortex and the striatum. Together, these areas track the passage of time much like an hourglass.

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MPFI Scientists have discovered how two brain areas work together like an hourglass to flexibly control movement timing.

Continue reading “The Brain’s Hourglass: The motor cortex and striatum work together like an hourglass to measure time for precise and coordinated movement” | >

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