How Sensory Neurons Impact the Gut

Neuronal Piezo2 mediates gastric emptying, intestinal and colonic transit in mice

Gastrointestinal and digestive issues impact roughly 3 million people across the United States alone, and that number is growing. A new study from Scripps Research scientists shows how sensory neurons control our gastrointestinal tracts — critical information that could shape our understanding of related diseases and disorders.

The study, published in the journal Cell on Aug. 3rd, 2023, used a combination of human clinical data and animal models to reveal that the receptor PIEZO2 controls gastrointestinal transit through the stomach, small intestine, and colon by sensing the presence of food and slowing the rate of gut motility accordingly...

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Researchers Trick Large Language Models into providing Prohibited Responses

chatgpt
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

ChatGPT and Bard may well be key players in the digital revolution currently underway in computing, coding, medicine, education, industry and finance, but they also are capable of easily being tricked into providing subversive data.

Articles in recent months detail some of the leading problems. Disinformation, inappropriate and offensive content, privacy breaches and psychological harm to vulnerable users all raise issues of questions about if and how such content can be controlled.

OpenAI and Google have, for instance, designed protective barriers to stanch some of the more egregious incidents of bias and offensive content. But it is clear that a complete victory is not yet in sight.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh are...

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Gas Streamers Feed Triple Baby Stars

Gas distribution around the trinary protostars IRAS 04239+2436, (left) ALMA observations of SO emissions, and (right) as reproduced by the numerical simulation on the supercomputer ATERUI. In the left panel, protostars A and B, shown in blue, indicate the radio waves from the dust around the protostars. Within protostar A, two unresolved protostars are thought to exist. In the right panel, the locations of the three protostars are shown by the blue crosses. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J.-E. Lee et al.) 

New observations and simulations of three spiral arms of gas feeding material to three protostars forming in a trinary system have clarified the formation of multi-star systems.

Most stars with a mass similar to the Sun form in multi-star systems together with other stars...

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Geomagnetic Field Protects Earth from Electron Showers

The Field Protects Earth from Electron Showers

Geophysicists studied the activity of high energy electrons and clarified the unexpected protective role of the geomagnetic field surrounding the Earth.

Understanding the ionosphere high in the Earth’s atmosphere is important due to its effects on communications systems, satellites and crucial chemical features including the ozone layer. New insights into the activity of high energy electrons have come from a simulation study led by geophysicist Yuto Katoh at Tohoku University, reported in the journal Earth, Planets and Space.

“Our results clarify the unexpected role of the geomagnetic field surrounding the Earth in protecting the atmosphere from high energy electrons,” says Katoh.

The ionosphere is a wide region between roughly 6...

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