It took 10 years, around 500 scientists and some €600 million, and now the Human Brain Project — one of the biggest research endeavours ever funded by the European Union — is coming to an end. Its audacious goal was to understand the human brain by modelling it in a computer. During its run, [...]
Sandia Labs manufactures its first devices capable of supporting 200 trapped ion qubits. Sandia National Laboratories has produced its first lot of a new world-class ion trap, a central component for certain quantum computers. This innovative device, termed the Enchilada Trap, enables researchers to construct more powerful machines, propelling the experimental yet groundbreaking realm [...]
Markers that indicate the presence of Parkinson's disease in patients on average seven years before clinical presentation have been identified by a UCL and Moorfields Eye Hospital research team. This is the first time anyone has shown these findings several years before diagnosis, and these results were made possible by the largest study to [...]
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are tracking and studying a highly mutated new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19. Officially titled BA.2.86 and nicknamed Pirola on social media, the WHO has designated it as a “variant under monitoring.” This status applies to variants that have an unusually large number of [...]
Clinical studies reveal extended survival in diffuse midline glioma patients receiving ONC201 treatment; research also explains the underlying mechanism of the drug’s success. For the first time, a potential drug candidate has been identified by researchers that show promise in improving outcomes for patients suffering from a specific type of childhood brain tumor that [...]
The largest ever study of the genetics of the brain—encompassing some 36,000 brain scans—has identified more than 4,000 genetic variants linked to brain structure. The results of the study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, are published in Nature Genetics. Our brains are very complex organs, with huge variety between individuals in terms [...]
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that the virus responsible for chikungunya fever can spread directly from cell to cell—perhaps solving the longstanding mystery of how the virus, now emerging as a major health threat, can manage to escape antibodies circulating in the bloodstream. The findings, published in Nature Microbiology, could help in [...]
Could plants be the answer to the looming threat of microplastic pollution? Scientists at UBC's BioProducts Institute found that if you add tannins—natural plant compounds that make your mouth pucker if you bite into an unripe fruit—to a layer of wood dust, you can create a filter that traps virtually all microplastic particles present [...]
Two molecular languages at the origin of life have been successfully recreated and mathematically validated, thanks to pioneering work by Canadian scientists at Université de Montréal. Living organisms are made up of billions of nanomachines and nanostructures that communicate to create higher-order entities able to do many essential things, such as moving, thinking, surviving [...]
Scientists are hard at work developing a new vaccine against a future pandemic caused by the mysterious Disease X, the designation adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the next hypothetical pandemic. Around 200 British scientists are hard at work doing just that at the Porton Down laboratory complex in Wiltshire, Sky News reported. "What [...]
