You’re exhausted. The world is veiled in haze, your thoughts plod aimlessly like zombies in a B movie. Sleep deprivation curtails cognitive function. It kills focus and learning, zaps memory, and slows critical thinking to a crawl. No amount of caffeine can reverse the effects of sleep deprivation and more powerful stimulants can make things even worse. There simply is no substitute for sleep. Or so we thought.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have pinpointed one of the chemical pathways in the brain that causes the cognitive deficits associated with sleep deprivation. They found, in mice, that sleep deprivation leads to increased levels of the enzyme PDE4 and reduced levels of the molecule cAMP in the brain. cAMP is key to forming new synaptic connections in the hippocampus, a region of the brain associated with learning.
The team injected the mice with a PDE4 inhibitor. Miraculously, the mice recovered their lost cognitive abilities (which no doubt involves maze-running). Biologist Ted Able with the university says he and his team plan to refine the inhibitor and look for other possible sleep-deprivation treatments in the future.
“Millions of people regularly obtain insufficient sleep,” Abel said. “Our work has identified a treatment in mice that can reverse the cognitive impact of sleep deprivation. Further, our work identifies specific molecular changes in neurons caused by sleep deprivation, and future work on this target protein promises to reveal novel therapeutic approaches to treat the cognitive deficits that accompany sleep disturbances seen in sleep apnea, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.”
Unfortunately, Sleep in a Pill is still years away and will likely only be available via prescription. Still, it’s exciting to think how it could help the sleep deprived (especially new parents) be more productive, creative, and generally in a better mood.
Link to University of Pennsylvania article
If you’re going to build a swarm of nanobots to take over the world, you’ll need a lot of very tiny batteries. You could build microscopic AAs with exceedingly diminutive tools, or turn to the best nano-scale builder known: Nature. Scientists at Yale were studying how some cells turn chemical energy into electrical energy (brain cells, the cells that give electric eels their zap) when they inadvertently created synthetic cell batteries.
The simple cells are essentially lipid sacks filled with salt water and a modified protein. When two of the synthetic cells touch, they stick together. The proteins create pores between the two cells. If the two cells have different salt concentrations, positive or negative ions will pass through the pores shared wall until salt concentrations in both cells reach an equilibrium. Stick the cells with electrodes to siphon off the ions and you’ve got a microscopic battery.
Two 200-nanoliter drops of the cells in solution can deliver electricity for about 10 minutes. An 11-microleter volume can put out a charge for more than four hours.
Researchers say the cells turn chemical energy into electrical energy at about 10 percent efficiency, which is frankly pretty terrible for a battery. But it’s pretty good when compared to tiny solar cells or piezoelectric devices that generate electricity from mechanical stress.
Link to Gizmag article
Honda is set to reveal several electric scooter concepts at the Tokyo Motor Show this year, including the EV Cub. The Honda Cub is the most popular and prolific motorcycle ever made—more than 60 million have been sold worldwide. The EV Cub is a modern interpretation of the old design and it’s spiffy.
Biologists at San Francisco State University (my alma mater) have discovered seven new species of bio-luminescent mushrooms—completely unaided by mind-altering fungi. Biology professor Dennis Desjardin and his team discovered the species of mushrooms in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico. Four of the discovered species are completely new to science and three have never been known to glow.
Desjardin named two of the new species after movements in Mozart’s Requiem – Mycena luxaeterna (eternal light) and Mycena luxperpetua (perpetual light). Both glow 24 hours a day.
All the new mushrooms belong to the genus Mycena, which also include the mushrooms that produce the hallucinogen psilocybin. Mycena also includes 33 species that glow, collectively and commonly known as foxfire.
Bioluminescent mushrooms glow as they break down organic matter. When a high-energy molecule is broken down into a lower-energy one, it throws out a few photons (light). In biology the process is sometimes referred to as “reverse photosynthesis.”
Desjardin thinks the newly discovered mushrooms glow to attract nocturnal animals that may help in spreading spores.
Link to SF State article
Al and Ziggy
Researchers at Yale have created the first ever fully functional quantum processor. Harnessing the bizarre qualities of quantum mechanics, the processor can perform simple calculations.
Typical computers use electrons (through transistors) to compute—reading and writing information in bits. Bits have binary states; they’re either “on” or “off,” 1 or 0. Quantum computers use atoms and “qubits,” which have multiple states. Qubits can be 1, 0, 1-0, 0-1, 0+1, or 0 AND 1 simultaneously. Thus a single qubit can store much more information than a bit. Additionally, typical computers read and write numbers and solve problems sequentially. Quantum computers can read and write long strings of numbers all at once, boosting speed tremendously.
The Yale computer is made up of two artificial atoms—billions of aluminum atoms that act as a single atom—in a solid-state system. The processor is extremely unstable, capable of hanging around for only a millisecond before evaporating. Still, it’s a major breakthrough in quantum computing that will lead to more stable and capable computers in the future.
Because of their tremendous computing power and speed, quantum computers have the potential to truly revolutionize computing.
Link to TG Daily article
