NVIDIA Ising is the world’s first family of open AI models for building quantum processors, launching with two model domains: Ising Calibration and Ising Decoding. Both target the fundamental…
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This nasal spray rewinds the aging brain, restoring memory and reversing inflammation in preclinical models
Picture this: your brain is a high-performance engine. Over decades, it doesn’t just wear down, it also starts to run hot. Tiny “fires” of inflammation smolder deep within the brain’s memory center, creating a persistent brain fog that makes it harder to think, form new memories or even adapt to new environments, all the while increasing the risk to disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists call this slow burn “neuroinflammaging,” and for decades it was thought to be the inevitable price of growing older. Until now.
A landmark study by researchers at Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine suggests the inflammatory tide responsible for brain aging and brain fog might actually be reversible. And the solution doesn’t involve brain surgery, but a simple nasal spray.
DSph-obic dark matter
A new theoretical model could redefine how we search for darkmatter 🌌! This model proposes that dark matter exists in two distinct forms whose particles must interact to annihilate, offering a solution to a long-standing astrophysical puzzle. Want to learn more? Click here: https://ow.ly/H5mR50YIpWk strophysics astronomy.
Berlin, Asher, Foster, Joshua W., Hooper, Dan, Krnjaic, Gordan.
Perovskite Nanocrystals, Quantum Dots, and Two-Dimensional Structures: Synthesis, Optoelectronics, Quantum Technologies, and Biomedical Imaging
💬Editorial: Decade-long follow-up highlights that patients with surgically treated ChronicSubduralHematoma have persistent excess mortality and long-term cognitive and functional impairment, even when overall quality of life appears preserved.
In the setting of aging populations and rising antithrombotic use, chronic subdural hematomas (cSDH) are increasingly common in high-income countries. While discussed in the medical literature for centuries,1 clinical research on cSDH in the modern era initially focused on surgical approaches and the risk of short-term mortality and recurrence.2-4 In this setting, cSDH was perceived to be a relatively benign disease; however, recent work has challenged this reputation. Patients with cSDH have persistently elevated long-term mortality when compared with controls,5 and those who survive are often left with functional and cognitive impairment.6 Unfortunately, most prior studies of long-term outcomes were small or had limited data on premorbid health, and none had data on functional status or quality of life.
In this issue of JAMA Neurol ogy, Petutschnigg et al7 expand on this work by examining mortality, function, and quality of life 10 years after surgical management of cSDH. To achieve this, they used patients who had previously been enrolled in a cSDH clinical trial from 2012 through 2016, which was conducted at a single center in Switzerland and examined the use of routine follow-up computed tomography scans in surgically managed patients with cSDH. The study authors obtained all-cause mortality for all 359 participants through 2023 using a nationwide data source. Each patient was then matched by age, sex, and birth month to controls from the Swiss population. Then, they obtained health-related quality of life by administering a validated survey to consenting participants, getting a response in 147 of 202 survivors at a mean of 10.55 years from the cSDH. Results from these participants were compared with normative values for a European population, using standardized age and sex strata.
The authors7 found a significantly higher mortality rate among patients with cSDH when compared with controls, with the absolute risk difference widening from 6% at 1 year to 18% at 10 years. Among those who survived, both men and women showed significant impairment in cognitive and role functioning (ie, how much their daily work/hobbies are impaired) when compared with normative controls. In addition, men (but not women) showed significant additional impairment in physical functioning and social functioning when compared with normative controls. Importantly, perceived quality of life was not reduced in either men or women. Discordance between functional impairments and perceived quality of life has been observed in other types of brain injury, a phenomenon termed the disability paradox,8 and should similarly caution against therapeutic nihilism when it comes to patients with cSDH.
The once-theoretical skyrmion could unlock supercomputing memory
When looking to the future of information technology, researchers have pinpointed a once-theoretical particle-like structure: the skyrmion. Magnetic skyrmions are very stable structures found on micromagnetic materials that have a vortex-like spin. Because they can be moved with minimal electrical current, these structures could help develop memory to power the next generation of computing without consuming a lot of power.
But until recently, the fundamental properties of the skyrmion remained a mystery to researchers. In a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers shared new details and properties about these structures.
“Skyrmions are highly stable and move with minimal electrical current, paving the way for next-generation memory with extremely low power consumption. It’s the ultimate miniaturization, utilizing ‘world-class’ 2-nanometer structures that will allow ultra-high-density data storage and much smaller electronic devices,” said Kosuke Nakayama, a professor at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.
Scientists Grow Electronics Inside the Brains of Living Mice
Yet most implants require extensive surgery and risk damaging the brain’s delicate tissue. The new technology would avoid these downsides by building electrodes directly at the target.
“Our work points to a future where doctors could ‘grow’ soft, wire-free electronic interfaces inside the brain using the patient’s own blood, then gently dial brain activity up or down from outside the head using harmless near-infrared light,” study author Krishna Jayant said in a press release.
The brain produces every one of our sensations, movements, emotions, and decisions. Scientists have long sought to decode and manipulate its activity with a range of hardware.
An entrepreneur is transforming a Cold War-era nuclear silo into an underground data center. Look inside
Nik Halik, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, bought a decommissioned nuclear silo for more than $10 million. He wants to make it a data center.