Nuclear fusion is what powers stars, the most common source of energy in the universe. And yet, we can’t easily recreate it here on Earth because we cannot compress hydrogen in the same way that gravity does in the core of stars. To bypass that requirement, the inertial fusion approach uses lasers to compress a pellet of fuel so much that it ignites.
The NIF uses an indirect method. Their system has some of the most powerful lasers in the world hitting a container called a hohlraum, getting converted to x-rays. It’s the x-rays that then compress the pellet of fuel and release energy. The method presented in new research from scientists at the University of Rochester approached fusion by directly slamming the pellet of fuel with lasers. READ MORE...
Researchers successfully transferred a longevity gene from naked mole rats to mice, leading to enhanced health and increased lifespan. Naked mole rats, noted for their resistance to age-related diseases, have a gene that produces high molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HMW-HA), which when introduced to mice, demonstrated potential anti-aging benefits.The successful transfer of a gene that produces HMW-HA paves the way for improving the health and lifespan of humans, too.In a groundbreaking endeavor, scientists at the University of Rochester have successfully transferred a longevity gene from naked mole rats to mice, leading to enhanced health and a longer lifespan for the mice.Naked mole rats, known for their long lifespans and exceptional resistance to age-related diseases, have long captured the attention of the scientific community. By introducing a specific gene responsible for enhanced cellular repair and protection into mice, the Rochester researchers have opened exciting possibilities for unlocking the secrets of aging and extending human lifespan.“Our study provides a proof of principle that unique longevity mechanisms that evolved in long-lived mammalian species can be exported to improve the lifespans of other mammals,” says Vera Gorbunova, the Doris Johns Cherry Professor of biology and medicine at Rochester.Gorbunova, along with Andrei Seluanov, a professor of biology, and their colleagues, report in a study published in Nature that they successfully transferred a gene responsible for making high molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HMW-HA) from a naked mole rat to mice. This led to improved health and an approximate 4.4 percent increase in the median lifespan for the mice.
A unique mechanism for cancer resistance
Naked mole rats are mouse-sized rodents that have exceptional longevity for rodents of their size; they can live up to 41 years, nearly ten times as long as similar-sized rodents. Unlike many other species, naked mole rats do not often contract diseases—including neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and cancer—as they age. Gorbunova and Seluanov have devoted decades of research to understanding the unique mechanisms that naked mole rats use to protect themselves against aging and diseases. READ MORE...
See-through 3D model that shows the axon (red), medium spinal motor neuron (green), and astrocyte converging at the synapse (yellow). Credit: Center for Translational Neuromedicine, University of Rochester and University of CopenhagenScientists have created one of the most detailed 3D images of the synapse, the important juncture where neurons communicate with each other through an exchange of chemical signals. These nanometer-scale models will help scientists better understand and study neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease and schizophrenia.The new study appears in the journal PNAS and was authored by a team led by Steve Goldman, MD, Ph.D., co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen. The findings represent a significant technical achievement that allows researchers to study the different cells that converge at individual synapses at a level of detail not previously achievable.“It is one thing to understand the structure of the synapse from the literature, but it is another to see the precise geometry of interactions between individual cells with your own eyes,” said Abdellatif Benraiss, Ph.D., a research associate professor in the Center for Translational Neuromedicine and co-author of the study. “The ability to measure these extremely small environments is a young field, and holds the potential to advance our understanding of a number of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases in which synaptic function is disturbed.”The researchers used the new technique to compare the brains of healthy mice to mice carrying the mutant gene that causes Huntington’s disease. Prior research in Goldman’s lab has shown that dysfunctional astrocytes play a key role in the disease. Astrocytes are members of a family of support cells in the brain called glia and help maintain the proper chemical environment at the synapse.The researchers focused on synapses that involve medium spiny motor neurons, the progressive loss of these cells is a hallmark of Huntington’s disease. The researchers first had to identify synapses hidden within the tangle of the three different cells that converge at the site: the pre-synaptic axon from a distant neuron; its target, the post-synaptic medium spiny motor neuron; and the fiber processes of a neighboring astrocyte. READ MORE...
Researchers at the University of Rochester in the US have devised a new method that simplifies the creation of fuel pellets for nuclear fusion reactors. This could aid in the mass production of energy from nuclear fusion, taking it out of the laboratory and into the real world.
Nuclear fusion has long been admired as a clean and safe way of catering to our energy requirements. Scientists have been experimenting with multiple approaches to get this done and, in December 2022, set off the first fusion ignition reaction using 192-high energy lasers.
While these could be regarded as significant milestones, we still need to figure out how this technology could be run at scale and commercial levels. One significant hurdle in this direction is how nuclear fusion fuel is prepared.
To create fuel for fusion reactors, isotopes of hydrogen, namely deuterium, and tritium, are frozen into a solid spherical shell. Since the isotopes are gaseous in their native state, scientists use extremely low temperatures to bring them into a solid state where they can be layered.
The shell is then bombarded with lasers to subject it to extremely high temperatures and pressures, following which it collapses and then ignites to undergo fusion.
While this approach can release enormous amounts of energy, a fusion-based power plant would require millions of such shells every day to supply power reliably. The frozen shell approach is too expensive and not economically feasible. READ MORE...
Less than two years after shocking the science world with the discovery of a material capable of room-temperature superconductivity, a team of UNLV physicists has upped the ante once again by reproducing the feat at the lowest pressure ever recorded.
In other words, science is closer than it's ever been to a usable, replicable material that could one day revolutionize how energy is transported. UNLV physicist Ashkan Salamat and colleague Ranga Dias, a physicist with the University of Rochester, made international headlines in 2020 by reporting room-temperature superconductivity for the first time. To achieve the feat, the scientists chemically synthesized a mix of carbon, sulfur, and hydrogen first into a metallic state, and then even further into a room-temperature superconducting state using extreme pressure—267 gigapascals—conditions you'd only find in nature near the center of the Earth. Fast forward less than two years, and the team is now able to complete the feat at just 91 GPa—roughly one-third the pressure initially reported. The new findings were published this month as an advance article in the journal Chemical Communications.
A super discovery
Through a detailed tuning of the composition of carbon, sulfur, and hydrogen used in the original breakthrough, scientists are able to produce a material at a lower pressure that retains its state of superconductivity.
"These are pressures at a level difficult to comprehend and evaluate outside of the lab, but our current trajectory shows that it's possible achieve relatively high superconducting temperatures at consistently lower pressures—which is our ultimate goal," said study lead author Gregory Alexander Smith, a graduate student researcher with UNLV's Nevada Extreme Conditions Laboratory (NEXCL). "At the end of the day, if we want to make devices beneficial to societal needs, then we have to reduce the pressure needed to create them." READ MORE...
In an extremely cosmic-brain take, University of Rochester astrophysics professor Adam Frank suggests that a civilization could advance so much that it could eventually tinker with the fundamental laws of physics.
It's a mind-bending proposition that ventures far beyond the conventional framework of scientific understanding, a reminder that perhaps we should dare to think outside the box — especially as we continue our search for extraterrestrial civilizations.
If a civilization were to be able to change the laws of physics, "the very nature of energy itself, with established rules like energy conservation, would be subject to revision within the scope of engineering," Frank, who is part of the NASA-sponsored Categorizing Atmospheric Technosignatures program, wrote in an essay for Big Think.
Playing Games
For instance, as astrophysicist Caleb Scharf argued in an eyebrow-raising 2016 article, an alien civilization could conceivably be behind dark matter, the theoretical stuff that — as far as our current understanding of the universe is concerned — makes up the majority of mass in the universe.
Frank takes the concept even further, suggesting advanced alien civilizations could "mix and match physical laws any way they see fit." It's all pretty far fetched, and the astrophysicist is the first to acknowledge that, pointing out that at this point it's primarily just "fun" to think about these things.
Frank concludes that while controlling these laws may be pretty unlikely, it's far more likely that they put "severe limits on life and what it can do." So it's possible that "there simply is no way around the limits imposed by the speed of light," Frank concedes. READ MORE...
