Research on novel nanoelectronics devices has enabled brain neurons and artificial neurons to communicate with each other over the Internet. Brain functions are made possible by circuits of spiking neurons, connected together by microscopic, but highly complex links called synapses. In this new study, published in the scientific journal Nature Scientific Reports, the scientists created a hybrid neural network where biological and artificial neurons in different parts of the world were able to communicate with each other over the internet through a hub of artificial synapses made using cutting-edge nanotechnology. This is the first time the three components have come together in a unified network.

During the study, researchers based at the University of Padova in Italy cultivate...

A new study identifies a transition in the strong nuclear force that illuminates the structure of a neutron star’s core. Most ordinary matter is held together by an invisible subatomic glue known as the strong nuclear force – one of the four fundamental forces in nature, along with gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak force. The strong nuclear force is responsible for the push and pull between protons and neutrons in an atom’s nucleus, which keeps an atom from collapsing in on itself.

In atomic nucl...

About 1 million people in the United States have ulcerative colitis, a serious disease of the colon that has no cure and whose cause is obscure. Now, a study by Stanford University School of Medicine investigators has tied the condition to a missing microbe.

The microbe makes metabolites that help keep the gut healthy. “This study helps us to better understand the disease,” said Aida Habtezion, MD, associate professor of gastroenterology and hepatology. “We hope it also leads to our being able to treat it with a naturally produced metabolite that’s already present in high amounts in a healthy gut.”

When the researchers compared two groups of patients – one group with ulcerative colitis, the other group with a rare noninflammatory condition – who had un...

A team of researchers at Stanford University has developed a theoretical way to cool down heated objects. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their study of heat radiation and how it might be boosted to cool down a desired object.

Objects in the environment both radiate heat and receive it from the environment. Prior research has shown that heat radiated from an object does so in a spectrum, and that it peaks at a certain frequency determined by the temperature of the object. And when the number of incoming photons is greater than the number of outgoing photons, the object will grow warmer...