The illustration shows a minute fraction of a fly brain. The automated analysis partitions a three-dimensional image stack into individual nerve cells, depicted here with arbitrary colors. Twenty of such images side by side approximate the diameter of a human hair. Credit: Thorsten Beier, IWR

Precise knowledge of the connections in the brain – the links between all the nerve cells – is a prerequisite for better understanding this most complex of organs. Researchers from Heidelberg University have now developed a new algorithm that can extract this connectivity pattern with far greater precision than previously possible from microscopic images of the brain. Prof. Dr Fred Hamprecht expects such automated image data analysis to bring about great strides in the neurosciences...

A holmium (Ho) and a iron (Fe) atom placed on a MgO substrate are the components for the world’s smallest memory device. Ho is used as a storage medium and Fe as a sensor were. The magnetism of the holmium atom can be changed or read by flowing current through the STM tip.

Storing 1 bit in 1 atom is possible: The extraordinary end of Moore’s law. One bit of digital information can now be successfully stored in an individual atom, according to a study just published in Nature. Current commercially-available magnetic memory devices require approximately 1 million atoms to do the same...

In vitro and in vivo assessment of direct effects of simulated solar and galactic cosmic radiation on human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. Leukemia, 2016; DOI: 10.1038/leu.2016.344

Using mice transplanted with human stem cells, a team has demonstrated for the first time that the radiation encountered in deep space travel may increase the risk of leukemia in humans. With funding from NASA, researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and colleagues are using human stem cells to measure the effects of deep space radiation. “Our results are troubling because they show radiation exposure could potentially increase the risk of leukemia in two ways,” said A/Prof. Christopher Porada, Ph.D.

As part of this ongoing project, the group has identified and is currently testi...

Iota Orionis. Credit: Image by Danielle Futselaar

Using the world’s smallest astronomical satellites, researchers have detected the biggest stellar heartbeat ever. Astronomers are hopeful that this discovery will provide the initiative to search for other such systems, creating a fundamental shift in how we study the evolution of massive stars. This is important, since massive stars are laboratories of elements essential to life.

Astronomers from the BRITE (BRight Target Explorer) Constellation project and Ritter Observatory have discovered a repeating 1% spike in the light of a very massive star which could change our understanding of such stars. Iota Orionis is a binary star system and is easily visible with the naked eye, being the brightest star in the constellation Orion’s sword...