Robert Sapolsky

NEW VIDEO! Chen-Yu Chuang (National Tsing Hua University) and Christian Jerspersen (Princeton University) chat about their article on galaxies: https://ow.ly/mh2A50SfmaM The goal of the AAS Journals Author Series is to connect authors w/their article, their human story & the larger #astronomy community. #ExploreAstronomy #TheGoodStuff

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Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center fellows and co-lead paper authors Jiaqi Zhang (MIT EECS PhD student) and Ryan Welch (MIT master’s student in engineering), joined by senior author and Schmidt Center Director Caroline Uhler, have developed theoretical foundations for methods that could identify the best way to aggregate genes into related groups, so they can efficiently learn the underlying cause-and-effect relationships between many genes. This cost-effective and more feasible technique could help scientists identify potential gene targets to induce certain behavior in a more accurate and efficient manner, potentially enabling them to develop precise treatments for patients. Check out MIT News to learn more: https://lnkd.in/ekhyxXau Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology #SchmidtCenter #BroadInstitute #MIT #EECS #IDSS #LIDS #CausalDisentanglement #GeneExpression #Genomics #MachineLearning #MLinBio #ScienceNews #ScientificResearch

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Victor Ambros ’75, PhD ’79 and Gary Ruvkun share Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The scientists, who worked together as postdocs at MIT, are honored for their discovery of microRNA — a class of molecules that are critical for gene regulation. MIT alumnus Victor Ambros ’75, PhD ’79 and Gary Ruvkun, who did his postdoctoral training at MIT, will share the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced this morning in Stockholm. Ambros, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and Ruvkun, a professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, were honored for their discovery of microRNA, a class of tiny RNA molecules that play a critical role in gene control. “Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans. It is now known that the human genome codes for over one thousand microRNAs. Their surprising discovery revealed an entirely new dimension to gene regulation. MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function,” the Nobel committee said in its announcement today. During the late 1980s, Ambros and Ruvkun both worked as postdocs in the laboratory of H. Robert Horvitz, a David H. Koch Professor at MIT, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002. While in Horvitz’s lab, the pair began studying gene control in the roundworm C. elegans — an effort that laid the groundwork for their Nobel discoveries. They studied two mutant forms of the worm, known as lin-4 and lin-14, that showed defects in the timing of the activation of genetic programs that control development. In the early 1990s, while Ambros was a faculty member at Harvard University, he made a surprising discovery. The lin-4 gene, instead of encoding a protein, produced a very short RNA molecule that appeared to inhibit the expression of lin-14. At the same time, Ruvkun was continuing to study these C. elegans genes in his lab at MGH and Harvard. He showed that lin-4 did not inhibit lin-14 by preventing the lin-14 gene from being transcribed into messenger RNA; instead, it appeared to turn off the gene’s expression later on, by preventing production of the protein encoded by lin-14. The two compared results and realized that the sequence of lin-4 was complementary to some short sequences of lin-14. Lin-4, they showed, was binding to messenger RNA encoding lin-14 and blocking it from being translated into protein — a mechanism for gene control that had never been seen before. Those results were published in two articles in the journal Cell in 1993. https://lnkd.in/e8MgZ42h

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In part 2 of our "What to Expect When Electing" article series, the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public election rumor research team has identified five major ways that election rumors mislead the public: false evidence, misinterpreted evidence, exaggerated impact, overlooked remedies, and falsely attributed intent. Election rumors rarely feature entirely false or fabricated evidence, though we may find more examples of this as generative AI becomes ubiquitous. The complexity of U.S. election procedures, which vary by state and local jurisdiction, makes them susceptible to misinterpretation. These misunderstandings are often amplified and framed in misleading ways, contributing to the spread of false narratives. Read more of our analysis on the CIP's website: https://lnkd.in/g7DEy8we You can subscribe to the CIP election rumor research team's updates via our Substack newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gMtB3T_8 We'll be discussing this, and other election rumor research insights on Wednesday evening at Town Hall Seattle (7:30-9 p.m.) in a special event co-sponsored by the CIP, KNKX Public Radio, and KUOW Public Radio with NPR's Shannon Bond. Event and ticket information: https://lnkd.in/g85Amnn8 This "What to Expect When Electing" article was co-authored by Kate Starbird, Mert Can Bayar, Ashlyn B. Aske, Danielle Lee Tomson Ph.D., Emma Spiro, Nina Lutz, and Michael Grass.

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Thrilled to share a major advancement in understanding how brain cells form during early development!🧠   Led by Professor Dongsung Lee from the College of Medicine at SNU, in collaboration with UCLA and UCSF, a new study is the first to examine epigenomic changes, including 3D genome structure and DNA methylation.   The team has created the first-ever 3D genomic structure-DNA methylation map spanning from fetal stages to adulthood. This research identifies specific cell types with unique genomic structures linked to schizophrenia, paving the way for advancements in research, diagnosis, and treatment.   Published in Nature: https://lnkd.in/gRYTvkhW   #SNU #SNUResearch #Epigenetics #HumanBrain

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Since electrons were first discovered 127 years ago, they have been incredibly well-researched. And yet, these tiny particles keep surprising us – late last year, a team led by UW researchers discovered something new. The researchers reported that, in a stack of two atomically thin crystalline sheets offset from each other, electrons behaved like quasiparticles with fractional amounts of charge. This is the first time that electrons formed fractional quasiparticles without a magnetic field. University of Washington Materials Science & Engineering and UW Physics professors Xiaodong Xu and Matthew Yankowitz sat down with Quanta Magazine to discuss their findings, and what this might mean for quantum computing: https://lnkd.in/eGkiWD89

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The E.D.N.Y. described "The Art in the Science of DNA" as an "excellent essay" that provides "cogent explanations of the challenges that arise in DNA interpretation through analogies to other contexts." Check out the piece by Professor Erin Murphy, which was published in ELJ: https://lnkd.in/eVWdjzb8.

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Amii researchers have published research on a major challenge to deep learning in Nature. Follow the journey from idea to one of science’s most prestigious journals, and what it means for future AI in the Approximately Correct podcast. https://hubs.la/Q02R4PFv0 #AI #ML #DeepLearning

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A new open-access paper (https://lnkd.in/eaH3puqn) led by Gregory Bratman, Director of UW Nature and Health, describes how: Human beings are embedded in complex, rich, and prolific olfactory environments—chemical contexts within which the natural world transmits information. Airborne chemicals from the natural environment affect human well-being through pathways specific to olfaction—initially perceived and later explicitly judged through both innate and acquired processes. Anthropogenic activity often negatively affects natural olfactory environments to the detriment of human well-being. A better understanding of the relationship of human beings with natural olfactory environments can promote appreciation and revitalization of the natural world—and can thereby contribute to human well-being. Co-authors include: Peter Kahn, UW Nature and Health Steering Committee member and researcher, and Hector A. Olvera Alvarez Ph.D., P.E., UW Nature and Health research partner.

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An #electrochemical technique to safely extract #PreciousMetals from #LowGradeOre and discarded electronics reportedly uses less energy and fewer chemicals. Professor Xiao Su at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Postdoctoral researcher (and first author) Stephen Cotty explain how. Read more at: bit.ly/3yfxpjY

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In a collaborative study, researchers from Center for Synthetic Biology at Northwestern University, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Northwestern Engineering, and Bridges/Puentes: Justice Collective of the Southeast explain how at-home biosensor tests can help Americans easily check for lead in their water. https://lnkd.in/g3pEaznp Sera Young, Julius Lucks

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Postdoc Matthew Du of the Suri Vaikuntanathan Lab and the James Franck Institute has won the poster award at American Conference on Theoretical Chemistry in Chapel Hill, NC. According to Du, the poster, titled "Stabilizing equilibrium configurations using nonequilibrium forces inspired by active matter", showcases his work proposing new strategies to stabilize physical/chemical systems at their energy minima (or stable states) in the presence of environmental fluctuations. These strategies involve driving the system out of equilibrium, as inspired by two prominent features of active matter (i.e., systems that convert energy from their local environment into motion, such as bacteria and catalytically active colloids): self-propulsion of individual particles and nonreciprocal interactions (e.g., predator-prey interactions) between particles. The poster is based on soon-to-be-published results. Du joined JFI in 2022 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the group of Prof. Suri Vaikuntanathan. He earned his PhD in Chemistry at UC San Diego under the advising of Prof. Joel Yuen-Zhou. His PhD research focused on the reaction-rate theory of molecules inside an optical cavity. Matthew's current research interests broadly include statistical mechanics, machine learning, and adaptive materials. The American Conference on Theoretical Chemistry (ACTC) brings together the theoretical chemistry community to discuss the latest cutting-edge research. ACTC 2024 has featured a wide range of topics within theoretical chemistry, including electronic structure, statistical mechanics, and quantum dynamics, as well as applications to biology and energy science. It has been held about every three years for half a century, and its historical origin dates back to 1951. https://lnkd.in/ghdyrvh2

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📣 New scientific paper released! Peter Weber and his team from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in collaboration with CAMECA, released a new scientific paper reporting on the new NanoSIMS-HR instrumental capabilities. The performance improvements of the NanoSIMS-HR are having a significant impact on its core scientific fields: 🔸High lateral resolution enhances the accuracy of therapeutic molecules concentration at the subcellular level 🔸High current helps deciphering hydrogen embrittlement in materials and water content in anhydrous minerals 🔸Low energy primary beam for depth profiling into patterned wafers within small micrometer square area Read the paper to find out more details 👇 ChemRxiv (open access): https://ow.ly/LLx550UjY4N Analytical Chemistry: https://ow.ly/KMiw50UjY4M #NanoSIMS #SIMS #corefacility #depthprofile #resolution #nutrientuptake #subcellular #HydrogenEmbrittlement

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A New Frontier in Muscle Disease Research 💪 Congratulations to the UCLA research team on their impressive work, detailed in their paper, "The Development of Robust Antibodies to Sarcospan, a Dystrophin- and Integrin-Associated Protein, for Basic and Translational Research." Sarcospan (SSPN) is integral to various tissues, facilitating critical connections between the actin cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. Its deficiency is linked to diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Becker muscular dystrophy. 🔍 Summary & Key Findings: Recognizing the limitations of commercially available SSPN antibodies, the UCLA team successfully developed a panel of highly specific and robust antibodies targeting three distinct SSPN epitopes. These include the intracellular N- and C-termini and the large extracellular loop. Their innovative approach led to the creation of rabbit poly- and monoclonal antibodies, as well as mouse monoclonal antibodies, all exhibiting superior performance in various applications such as immunoblotting, immunofluorescence analysis, immunoprecipitation, and ELISA. This unique antibody panel reliably detects SSPN even in low-abundance contexts typical of disease conditions, making them invaluable for both basic and translational research, as well as potential clinical applications. 🌐 Read the publication here: https://lnkd.in/gRbxMEz4 BP Fluor 405, offered by BroadPharm, played an essential role in the isolation and sorting of rabbit B-cells and facilitating the development of N-terminus specific SSPN antibodies. Discover how BP Fluor 405 and other fluorescent dyes from BroadPharm can enhance your research outcomes. Visit our product links to explore the full range of offerings and elevate your scientific investigations to the next level: 🔗 BP Fluor 405 —> https://lnkd.in/gWzu7ZZG  🔗 More fluorescent dyes —> https://lnkd.in/gCh9Be-T #MuscleResearch #RareDiseases #DMD #Antibodies #SSPN #fluorescent #dyes #Fluorophore #Selectivity #AlexaFluor647 #AlexaFluor488 #Fluorescein #Rhodamine #TAMRA #Coumarin #LabelingReagent

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