Posted on

Mind the gap

Imagine wanting to move, but your body just won’t do what it’s told. This is a stark reality for many people with spinal cord injuries.

But researchers at Washington University have developed a way to help your brain and spine start talking again — no wires or surgery needed.

Using a special cap that reads brain waves, like a swim cap with sensors, the system can understand when someone wants to move, even if they aren’t actually moving.

As soon as the brain says to go, the system sends a small, pain-free zap to the spine through the skin. This light stimulation helps reinforce the brain’s command, training the nervous system — like a workout for the mind-body connection.

The team tested this setup on 17 healthy volunteers and found it could detect when someone was trying to move with surprising accuracy, even when they were just imagining movement.

Notably, it worked in real time with no delay between the brain giving the order and the zap.

This early success is a big step toward using the technology with people who have paralysis.

There’s still work to do, like making it even more accurate and usable in everyday life, but the future looks promising for mind-controlled recovery.

The paper was published in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

More like this: The AI will see you now

Posted on

Simulators and the weird world
of quantum chaos

Imagine trying to untangle a giant bowl of spaghetti but each noodle is doing its own dance — twisting and looping in ways that defy common sense. That’s kind of what physicists face when they study complex quantum systems.

But now scientists have built a 69-qubit quantum simulator that can handle the tangle.

This simulator, made with tiny superconducting circuits called qubits, kind of like super-sensitive switches, is special because it combines two types of quantum tricks: analog (smooth and continuous) and digital (step-by-step and precise).

Together, they let researchers peek into the strange behaviors of quantum systems — things that regular computers just can’t handle.

They watched energy ripple and spread through their system. They measured entanglement — that spooky quantum link where particles stay connected no matter how far apart they are — and saw hints of rare phase transitions. These transitions are when quantum systems flip from one state to another, like water freezing into ice.

Notably, the team spotted signs of a famous but hard-to-see event called the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, catching quantum chaos in action.

These kinds of quantum simulators are like time machines and magnifying glasses rolled into one. They let scientists explore questions that have stumped physics for decades — like how quantum materials behave, how energy moves and even how the universe itself might tick.

And this is just the beginning.

More like this: Eye on electron microscope

Posted on

From bling to bank

As the global value of gold climbs and you wonder what to do with the loot in your jewelry box, wonder no more — just take it to the ATM on the corner.

Shanghai recently launched an ATM that lets people sell their gold for cash within 30 minutes. The machine can weigh your jewelry, coins or bullion — the accepted currencies — and convert it to cash based on real-time Shanghai exchange rates.

The machine, at Global Harbor shopping mall, is part of Shenzhen Kinghood Group, globally known for its Smart Gold Stores, and is based on the same concept.

The company in 2019 rolled out the first prototype of its Smart Gold Store, packed with high-tech features like precision electronic scales that work with international measurement units and a universal detector that’s accurate to 0.01 percent.

If you’re in Shanghai and have, say, a gold bracelet to sell, your experience might look something like this:

  • Follow the touchscreen instructions and place your bracelet into the deposit tray. The bracelet weighs in on the high-precision scale at 15 grams, and the purity is measured at 91.6 percent (confirmed using the universal detector).
  • You confirm you are happy to proceed with the transaction.
  • The ATM melts your bracelet at approximately 1,200 degrees Celsius, allowing for more accurate purity verification valuation.
  • The machine checks the real-time market price and, based on pure 25 karat gold price of 458 yuan per gram and a commission deduction of 3 percent, you will receive 6,663.90 yuan or U.S. $932.95. This will be transferred to your linked account within 30 minutes.

By September 2024, Kinghood had rolled the machines out in 40 cities across China. While it does not have machines outside China, the company says it intends to expand internationally.

In the interim, the company in July 2024 introduced its international version of the Smart Gold Store at the Jewelry and Gem World Hong Kong event with all of the bells and whistles of the current model plus advanced hardware that is compatible with major global measurement units. It supports mobile phone registration in over 200 countries, multi-currency and real-time live-market pricing from global trading platforms.

“The introduction of smart gold ATMs primarily serves a recycling function from a business perspective,” says Xu Weixin, a member of the Shanghai Gold Association. “This reflects the fact that, with rising gold prices, the value of gold held by the public has increased significantly, leading to a stronger desire to cash out. There is still strong upward momentum for gold, mainly driven by central banks and institutional investors accelerating their gold purchases.”

More like this: A golden opportunity for medical devices

Posted on

Simple language tests can spot
early signs of rare dementia

A team in Brazil has figured out which language tasks are most helpful for spotting primary progressive aphasia (PPA) — a condition where people slowly lose their ability to speak and understand language, even though their memory might still be OK at first.

Using a toolkit called the MTL-BR Battery, the researchers tested 29 people with PPA and compared them to 58 healthy individuals. They found that people with PPA struggled the most with understanding phrases, telling stories, coming up with words in a category (like animals) and doing simple math.

This matters because PPA, a dementia-related syndrome characterized by progressive language deterioration, can be tricky to diagnose early.

By focusing on a few key tasks, doctors and speech therapists can catch it sooner and start helping patients faster.

Think of it like narrowing down the best clues in a mystery — these language tasks are the ones worth following.

The study was published in PLoS ONE.

More like this: Spotting early signs of Alzheimer’s

Posted on

It’s a fight for your right to not
eat meat

New research focused on meat-alternative consumers in the European market reveals that while many admire their dedication to environmental protection and health, they attract strong negative emotions as well.

Fear and contempt, sometimes leading to aggression, are among the strong emotions vegetarians conjure up from their meat-eating counterparts, according to the study published in Food Quality and Preference.

The study was conducted across four European countries and used the BIAS Map framework, revealing seriously conflicting social perception that may be a key factor limiting the widespread adoption of plant-based diets.

Also highlighted was the impact social dynamics have on shaping these attitudes. People with an advanced need for social affiliation responded more positively to individuals who balanced both traditional meat and plant-based alternatives, while those with a high need for status viewed exclusive meat-alternative consumers with increased envy and anger.

This suggests that grand-scale social perceptions coupled with taste and affordability may need to be adopted in marketing strategies for plant-based foods.

More like this: Business is mushrooming