The Science of Aliens, Part IV: Would they have blood (implying a circulatory system) and if so, what color would it be?
Not every animal bleeds red, even on Earth.
Summary: A new study found a person’s math ability was linked to levels of GABA and glutamate in the brain. In children, greater math fluency was associated with higher GABA levels in the left intraparietal sulcus, while lower levels of GABA were linked to math ability in adults. The reverse was true for glutamate in both children and adults.
Source: PLOS
The neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate have complementary roles — GABA inhibits neurons, while glutamate makes them more active.
“What is exciting about this is that although our study was only in mice, the same mechanism should operate in humans – the molecules and structures in the human brain are the same as those in rodents,” says Fawcett. “This suggests that it may be possible to prevent humans from developing memory loss in old age.”
An intriguing new study from researchers in the United Kingdom is proposing an innovative method to treat age-related memory loss. The preclinical research shows memory decline in aging mice can be reversed by manipulating the composition of structures in the brain known as perineuronal nets.
Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are structures in the brain that envelop certain subsets of neurons, helping stabilize synaptic activity. They essentially put the brakes on the neuroplasticity seen in the first few years of life.
Although PNNs are vital to the effective functioning of a mature adult brain, by their very nature they also limit future neural plasticity and adaptability. A new wave of research is beginning to investigate ways to modulate PNNs in adult brains in the hope of treating a variety of diseases from diabetes to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
GPUs up to 12-inches in size are supported.
Intel has revealed its new NUC 11 Extreme, which features its 11th generation CPUs and enough space for a full-size graphics card. It’s a miniature computer that should have enough horsepower to handle modern AAA games.
Truly bendable devices pave the way for the Internet of Everything.
Researchers have shown that it is possible to use plastics to create a working Arm microprocessor, creating a new world for truly flexible electronics spanning multiple sectors.
Large space structures, such as telescopes and spacecraft, should ideally be assembled directly in space, as they are difficult or impossible to launch from Earth as a single piece. In several cases, however, assembling these technologies manually in space is either highly expensive or unfeasible.
In recent years, roboticists have thus been trying to develop systems that could be used to automatically assemble structures in space. To simplify this assembly process, space structures could have a modular design, which essentially means that they are comprised of different building blocks or modules that can be shifted to create different shapes or forms.
Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Technische Universität München (TUM) have recently developed an autonomous planner that could be used to assemble reconfigurable structures directly in space. This system, introduced in a paper presented at the 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference, could allow aerospace engineers and astronauts to assemble large structures in space and adapt them for specific use cases, reconfiguring them when necessary.
Nature always finds a way…so they say! But it looks like it may actually be true in the case of our global plastic waste dilemma. Genetic mutations have been discovered in specific natural bacteria that enable them to break the polymer chains of certain plastics. Where have we found these bacteria? Well…in plastic recycling dumps of course. So, gloves and masks on everyone. We’re going in!
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In partnership with EMBL-EBI, we’re incredibly proud to be launching the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database.
The University of Surrey has built an artificial intelligence (AI) model that identifies chemical compounds that promote healthy aging—paving the way towards pharmaceutical innovations that extend a person’s lifespan.
Our customers are putting Spot to work in nuclear environments, increasing safety and efficiency at their their electrical production facilities. Learn how thre… See More.
Spot is going to work in nuclear environments, increasing the safety, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of their electrical production facilities.