Chronic Stress Accelerates Colorectal Cancer Progression by Disrupting the Balance of Gut Microbiota, study shows

intestine
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Cutting-edge research has uncovered how chronic stress disrupts the balance of gut microbiota to speed up the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC), opening new avenues for CRC prevention and treatment.

By eliminating certain gut bacteria and inducing stress, researchers were able to conclude a relationship between stress and gut microbiota in the progression of CRC, identifying a particular bacterial species as a potential therapeutic target.

Presenting the study at UEG Week 2024, lead researcher Dr...

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Researchers develop a Laser that produces the Strongest Ultra-Short Laser Pulses to date

A peek inside the record-breaking laser. The image shows the round amplifier disk, through which the laser beam passes several times (bright spot at the centre). (Image: Moritz Seidel / ETH Zurich)

The word laser usually conjures up an image of a strongly concentrated and continuous light beam. Lasers that produce such light are, in fact, very common and useful. However, science and industry often also require very short and strong pulses of laser light.

These pulses can be used to machine materials or to create high harmonic frequencies up to X-rays, which can help to make extremely fast processes in the attosecond range (a billionth of a billionth of a second) visible.

A team of researchers at ETH Zurich led by Ursula Keller, professor at the Institute for Quantum Electronics,...

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Europa Clipper Mission to Investigate Potential Habitability of Jupiter’s Moon

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will scour Jupiter moon for the ingredients for life
This illustration provided by NASA depicts the Europa Clipper spacecraft over the moon, Europa, with Jupiter at background left. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP

A NASA spacecraft is ready to set sail for Jupiter and its moon Europa, one of the best bets for finding life beyond Earth.

Europa Clipper will peer beneath the moon’s icy crust where an ocean is thought to be sloshing fairly close to the surface. It won’t search for life, but rather determine whether conditions there could support it. Another mission would be needed to flush out any microorganisms lurking there.

“It’s a chance for us to explore not a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but a world that might be habitable today—right now,” said program scientist Curt Niebur.

Its massive solar ...

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Integer Addition Algorithm could Reduce Energy Needs of AI by 95%

image of computer screen with ai screen on it connected to a big energy source
Credit: AI-generated image

A team of engineers at AI inference technology company BitEnergy AI reports a method to reduce the energy needs of AI applications by 95%. The group has published a paper describing their new technique on the arXiv preprint server.

As AI applications have gone mainstream, their use has risen dramatically, leading to a notable rise in energy needs and costs. LLMs such as ChatGPT require a lot of computing power, which in turn means a lot of electricity is needed to run them.

As just one example, ChatGPT now requires roughly 564MWh daily, or enough to power 18,000 American homes...

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