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Nov 24, 2021

Lightwave-driven scanning tunneling spectroscopy of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons

Posted by in categories: materials, physics

When physicist Tyler Cocker joined Michigan State University in 2018, he had a clear goal: build a powerful microscope that would be the first of its kind in the United States.

Having accomplished that, it was time to put the to work.

“We knew we had to do something useful,” said Cocker, Jerry Cowen Endowed Chair in Experimental Physics in the College of Natural Science’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. “We’ve got the nicest microscope in the country. We should use this to our advantage.”

Nov 24, 2021

P.E.I. to offer shingles vaccine free for seniors

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

P.E.I. will be making a vaccine that prevents shingles free for seniors next year.

The two dose Shingrix vaccine will be available for Islanders who are 65 and older beginning in January.

Erin MacKenzie, executive director of the P.E.I. Pharmacists Association, said one dose of the vaccine usually costs around $180.

Nov 24, 2021

NS/ The brain has a “compass” for navigating thoughts

Posted by in categories: food, neuroscience

Neuroscience biweekly vol. 46, 10th November — 24th November.


“It’s amazing that you can still find areas of the brain that are important for basic survival behaviors that we had never before implicated,” Betley says. “And these brain regions are important in robust ways.” The work, shared in the journal Nature, suggests that neurons in the cerebellum’s anterior deep cerebellar nuclei (aDCN) are involved in helping animals regulate their meal size. Since its start, Betley’s lab has unraveled a variety of neural circuits related to how the brain regulates food intake. That work as well as other research has implicated areas of the hindbrain and hypothalmus in this control.

Nov 24, 2021

Can quantum mechanics explain consciousness?

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, quantum physics

Well beyond Descartes and his mind-body duality, new questions have emerged that are as exciting as they are nebulous: Does quantum physics play a role in how the brain works? Or, more profoundly, is the mind, viewed as a collection of possible brain states, sustained by quantum effects? Or can it all be treated using classical physics?

There is nothing better than mixing two great mysteries to produce an even bigger one.

Nov 24, 2021

Uncertain future: Is Andromeda going to collide with the Milky Way or not?

Posted by in categories: futurism, space

In 2012, astronomers announced a startling result: The had used Hubble to very carefully measure the motion of the Andromeda galaxy, and found that it appeared to heading very nearly directly toward the Milky Way at 100 kilometers per second. They predicted that in about 4 billion years the two galaxies would collide, and chaos would ensue.

In 2019, an update to the measurements indicated that Andromeda was sliding to the side a little bit more than previously thought, delaying the inevitable collision by about 600 million years.

Continue reading “Uncertain future: Is Andromeda going to collide with the Milky Way or not?” »

Nov 24, 2021

Emergent Matter Scientists Successfully Manipulate a Single Skyrmion at Room Temperature

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics

Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and collaborators have shown that they can manipulate single skyrmions—tiny magnetic vortices that could be used as computing bits in future ultra-dense information storage devices—using pulses of electric current, at room temperature.

Skyrmions—tiny particles that can be moved under small electric currents several orders lower than those used for driving magnetic domain walls—are being studied in the hope of developing promising applications in data storage devices with low energy consumption. The key to creating spintronics devices is the ability to effectively manipulate, and measure, a single tiny vortex.

Most research to date has focused on the dynamics for skyrmions a micrometer or more in size or skyrmion clusters stabilized below room temperature. For the current research, published in Nature Communications, the researchers used a thin magnetic plate made up of a compound of cobalt, zinc, and manganese, Co9Zn9Mn2, which is known as a chiral-lattice magnet. They directly observed the dynamics of a single skyrmion, with a size of 100 nanometers, at room temperature using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy. They were able to track the motions of the skyrmion and control its Hall motion directions by flipping the magnetic field, when they subjected it to ultrafast pulses of electric current—on the scale of nanoseconds.

Nov 24, 2021

Wild ‘Propeller’ Star Smashes The Record For Fastest-Spinning White Dwarf

Posted by in category: cosmology

A dead star is spinning so rapidly, it officially has the fastest known spin rate of any star of its kind.

It’s a white dwarf star, named LAMOST J024048.51+195226.9 (J0240+1952 for short) and located 2,015 light-years away, and it has an insane rotation rate of just 25 seconds. That pips the previous record holder by a significant margin – CTCV J2056-3014, with a spin rate of 29 seconds.

It also bears a close similarity to another fast white dwarf, AE Aquarii, which has a spin rate of 33 seconds.

Nov 24, 2021

Mapping the Human Brain — (Intro)

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, mapping, robotics/AI

Mapping the human connectomics.


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Continue reading “Mapping the Human Brain — (Intro)” »

Nov 24, 2021

Water is important on Mars, but not for the one reason you think

Posted by in categories: space, sustainability

There are lots of potential uses for a Mars colony. While drinking water is a big one, just as important is creating rocket fuel out of hydrogen.

Nov 24, 2021

256-qubit Quantum Computer Unveiled

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics

The first 256-qubit quantum computer has been announced by startup company QuEra, founded by MIT and Harvard scientists.

QuEra Computing Inc. – a new Boston, Massachusetts-based company – has emerged from stealth mode with $17 million in funding and has completed the assembly of a 256-qubit device. Its funders include Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, Day One Ventures, Frontiers Capital, and the leading tech investors Serguei Beloussov and Paul Maritz. The company recently received a DARPA award, and has already generated $11 million in revenue.

QuEra Computing recently achieved ground-breaking research on neutral atoms, developed at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is being used as the basis for a highly scalable, programmable quantum computer solution. The QuEra team is aiming to build the world’s most powerful quantum computers to take on computational tasks that are currently deemed impossibly hard.