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Newborn Cells in the Epileptic Brain Provide a Potential Target for Anti-Seizure Medications

Altered cells create an electrical “fire” in patients with epilepsy. Credit: BioRender illustration by Aswathy Ammothumkandy/Bonaguidi Lab/USC Stem Cell Over the years, everyone loses a few brain cells. A study led by scientists from USC Stem Cell and the USC Neurorestoration Center presents evidence that adults can replenish at least some of what they’ve lost by generating new brain cells, and that this process is dramatically altered in patients with long-term epilepsy. The findings are published in Nature Neuroscience. “Our study is the first to detail the presence of newborn neurons and an immature version of a related cell type,…

Gain Muscle Mass and Lose Fat: Can Weekly Prednisone Treat Obesity?

Obese mice gain muscle mass and lose fat with once-weekly prednisone. Daily prednisone promotes obesity, but weekly prednisone has ‘strikingly different’ results Weekly prednisone promotes nutrient uptake into muscles and improves lean body mass Many people take daily prednisone for immune conditions, resulting in weight gain and development of diabetes-like side effects Obese mice that were fed a high-fat diet and that received prednisone one time per week had improved exercise endurance, got stronger, increased their lean body mass, and lost weight, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. The once-weekly prednisone promoted nutrient…

MIT Uses AI To Discover Hidden Magnetic Properties in Multi-Layered Electronic Material

Lead Image: MIT researchers discovered hidden magnetic properties in multi-layered electronic material by analyzing polarized neutrons using neural networks. Credit: Ella Maru Studio An MIT team incorporates AI to facilitate the detection of an intriguing materials phenomenon that can lead to electronics without energy dissipation. Superconductors have long been considered the principal approach for realizing electronics without resistivity. In the past decade, a new family of quantum materials, “topological materials,” has offered an alternative but promising means for achieving electronics without energy dissipation (or loss). Compared to superconductors, topological materials provide a few advantages, such as robustness against disturbances. To…

Variable Speed of Sound on Mars: What Sounds Captured by NASA’s Perseverance Rover Reveal About the Red Planet

Lead Image: This illustration depicts NASA’s Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA A new study based on recordings made by the rover finds that the speed of sound is slower on the Red Planet than on Earth and that, mostly, a deep silence prevails. Listen closely to sounds from Mars, recorded by NASA’s Perseverance: the rover’s mechanical whine and click in a light Martian wind; the whir of rotors on Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter; the crackling strike of a rock-zapping laser. An international team of scientists has done just that, performing the first analysis of acoustics…

Turn Your Cell Phone Into a Space Monitoring Tool

Model of the well-known October 30, 2003, Halloween solar storm produced by the MIDAS tomographic ionospheric model from the University of Bath. Credit: University of Bath A newly released Android app will turn your smartphone into an instrument for crowdsourced science. Leave it by your window each night with your satnav positioning turned on and your phone will record small variations in satellite signals, gathering data for machine learning analysis of meteorology and space weather patterns. The CAMALIOT app, developed through ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Program (NAVISP) with the support of the Agency’s GNSS Science Support Center, is suitable…