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Plants that glow under ultraviolet (UV) light aren’t just inventions of science fiction TV and movies. Roots of a traditional medicine plant called the orange climber, or Toddalia asiatica, can fluoresce an ethereal blue hue. And now, researchers have identified two coumarin molecules that could be responsible. These natural coumarins have unique fluorescent properties, and one of the compounds could someday be used for medical imaging. Their study is published in ACS Central Science.

Fluorescent substances take in UV light that is directed on them and release vibrantly colored visible light. And some glow even more brightly when they are close together, a phenomenon seen in compounds called aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens). They are key components in some optical devices, cellular imaging techniques and environmental sensors. However, these molecules are usually made in a lab, and many are toxic. Some plants already have this ability, so, Ben Zhong Tang, Zheng Zhao, Xiao-Dong Luo and colleagues turned to nature to find naturally occurring and safer AIEgens.

The researchers dried orange climber roots, crushed them into a powder, and then isolated and identified coumarin compounds with aggregation-induced emission properties: 5-methoxyseselin (5-MOS) and 6-methoxyseselin (6-MOS). When dissolved in an organic solvent, 5-MOS exhibited a blue-green glow and 6-MOS had a slightly dimmer blue glow. In addition, both AIEgens had low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility.

The first-ever feature film shot in space has premiered on April 20, 2023 and Moscow is celebrating the achievement, considering it a victory over a rival Hollywood project amid rising tensions with the West. In October 2021, Russia dispatched an actor and a film director to the International Space Station to shoot scenes for a movie titled “The Challenge.” The plot of the film revolves around a surgeon who is sent to the ISS to save an injured cosmonaut. The filming took place during a 12-day stint onboard the orbiting laboratory. In a competition to produce the first feature film shot in space, the Russian crew emerged as the winners, surpassing a Hollywood project that was announced in 2020 by Tom Cruise in collaboration with NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

#TheChallenge #FirstMovieShotinSpace #Filmmaking #SpaceExploration #cosmonautics #InternationalSpaceStation #Roscosmos

Summary: It may be possible to optimize the stimulation parameters of brain implants in animals without human intervention. The study highlights the potential for autonomous optimization of prostheses implanted in the brain. The advance may prove to be beneficial for those with spinal cord injury and diseases that affect movement.

Source: University of Montreal.

Scientists have long studied neurostimulation to treat paralysis and sensory deficits caused by strokes and spinal cord injuries, which in Canada affect some 380,000 people across the country.

A causal relationship exists among the aging process, organ decay and dis-function, and the occurrence of various diseases including cancer. A genetically engineered mouse model, termed Eklf^K74R/K74R or Eklf (K74R), carrying mutation on the well-conserved sumoylation site of the hematopoietic transcription factor KLF1/ EKLF has been generated that possesses extended lifespan and healthy characteristics including cancer resistance. We show that the high anti-cancer capability of the Eklf (K74R) mice are gender-, age-and genetic background-independent. Significantly, the anti-cancer capability and extended lifespan characteristics of Eklf (K74R) mice could be transferred to wild-type mice via transplantation of their bone marrow mononuclear cells. Targeted/global gene expression profiling analysis has identified changes of the expression of specific proteins and cellular pathways in the leukocytes of the Eklf (K74R) that are in the directions of anti-cancer and/or anti-aging. This study demonstrates the feasibility of developing a novel hematopoietic/ blood system for long-term anti-cancer and, potentially, for anti-aging.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Aging clocks estimate how fast specific organs are deteriorating—but it’s hard to know what to do with the results.

What if we could just skip the workout part and take the results in supplement form? Researchers did it… On mice and flies.

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It’s a step that could one day lead to advances for humans that boost quality of life for many by: giving amputees and those with spinal injuries control of advanced prosthetics, stimulating the sacral nerve to restore bladder control, stimulating the cervical vagus nerve to treat epilepsy and providing deep brain stimulation as a possible treatment for Parkinson’s.

How far would you go to keep your mind from failing? Would you go so far as to let a doctor drill a hole in your skull and stick a microchip in your brain?

It’s not an idle question. In recent years neuroscientists have made major advances in cracking the code of memory, figuring out exactly how the human brain stores information and learning to reverse-engineer the process. Now they’ve reached the stage where they’re starting to put all of that theory into practice.

Last month two research teams reported success at using electrical signals, carried into the brain via implanted wires, to boost memory in small groups of test patients. “It’s a major milestone in demonstrating the ability to restore memory function in humans,” says Dr. Robert Hampson, a neuroscientist at Wake Forest School of Medicine and the leader of one of the teams.

Researchers show how Stable Diffusion can read minds. The method reconstructs images from fMRI scans with amazing accuracy.

Researchers have been using AI models to decode information from the human brain for years. At their core, most methods involve using pre-recorded fMRI images as input to a generative AI model for text or images.

In early 2018, for example, a group of researchers from Japan demonstrated how a neural network reconstructed images from fMRI recordings. In 2019, a group reconstructed images from monkey neurons, and Meta’s research group, led by Jean-Remi King, has published new work that derives text from fMRI data, for example.