Mammalian astrocytes have regional roles within the brain parenchyma. Indeed, the notion that astrocytes are molecularly heterogeneous could help explain how the central nervous system (CNS) retains embryonic positional information through development into specialized regions into adulthood. A growing body of evidence supports the concept of morphological and molecular differences between astrocytes in different brain regions, which might relate to their derivation from regionally patterned radial glia and/or local neuron inductive cues. Here, we review evidence for regionally encoded functions of astrocytes to provide an integrated concept on lineage origins and heterogeneity to understand regional brain organization, as well as emerging technologies to identify and further investigate novel roles for astrocytes.

Robert Eggers' re-imagining of the legendary vampire has his fangs out for prey in a very unusual manner.

That anyone could witness or directly experience the increasingly frequent and intense heat domes, droughts, floods and record high temperatures and claim we don’t have a problem is insanity!

The post Don’t buy-in to climate science denialism appeared first on rabble.ca.

Find out what we're currently reading in the New Scientist Book Club - and catch up on all the great books we've already explored

Space exploration has long been a staple of sci-fi films and TV, yet most play fast and loose with the laws of physics, and scientific fact often couldn't be further from the truth

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

Moin Hussain's debut feature film Sky Peals sees a man discover his father may be from outer space. Part sci-fi, part family drama, part coming-of-age tale, it is odd and otherworldly

Cyborg: A documentary tells the intriguing story of Neil Harbisson, who wears an antenna to “hear” colour, but it is lacking in depth and should have probed its subject more, says Simon Ings

Two of the three science Nobel prizes in 2024 have been won by people working in AI, but does this mean that AI models are now vital for science?

A simulator for the process of scientific discovery shows that AI models still fall short of human scientists and engineers in coming up with hypotheses and carrying out experiments on their own

Hollywood has been imagining the impact AI might have on our lives for decades, but how accurate are these portrayals?

The water column is hazy as an unusual remotely operated vehicle glides over the seafloor in search of a delicate tilt meter deployed three years ago off the west side of Vancouver Island. The sensor measures shaking and shifting in continental plates that will eventually unleash another of the region’s 9.0-scale earthquakes (the last was in 1700). Dwindling charge in the instruments’ loggers threatens the continuity of the data.

The 4-metric-ton, C$8-million (US $5.8-million) remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is 50 meters from its target when one of the seismic science platforms appears on its sonar imaging system, the platform’s hard edges crystallizing from the grainy background like a surgical implant jumping out of an ultrasound image. After easing the ROV to the platform, operators 2,575 meters up at the Pacific’s surface instruct its electromechanical arms and pincer hands to deftly unplug a data logger, then plug in a replacement with a fresh battery.

This mission, executed in early October, marked an exciting moment for Josh Tetarenko, director of ROV operations at North Vancouver-based Canpac Marine Services. Tetarenko is the lead designer behind the new science submersible and recently dubbed it Jenny in homage to Forrest Gump, because the fictional character named all of his boats Jenny. Swapping out the data loggers west of Vancouver Island’s Clayoquot Sound was part of a weeklong shakedown to test Jenny’s unique combination of dexterity, visualization chops, power, and pressure resistance.

Jenny is only the third science ROV designed for subsea work to a depth of 6,000 meters.

By all accounts Jenny sailed through. Tetarenko says the worst they saw was a leaky O-ring and the need to add some spring to a few bumpers. “Usually you see more things come up the first time you dive a vehicle to those depths,” says Tetarenko.

Jenny’s successful maiden cruise is just as important for Victoria, B.C.–based Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), which operates the NEPTUNE undersea observatory. The North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked Experiments array boasts thousands of sensors and instruments, including deep-sea video cameras, seismometers, and robotic rovers sprawled across this corner of Pacific. Most of these are connected to shore via an 812-kilometer power and communications cable. Jenny was custom-designed to perform the annual maintenance and equipment swaps that have kept live data streaming from that cabled observatory nearly continuously for the past 15 years, despite trawler strikes, a fault on its backbone cable, and insults from corrosion, crushing pressures, and fouling.

NEPTUNE remains one of the world’s largest installations for oceanographic science despite a proliferation of such cabled observatories since it went live in 2009. ONC’s open data portal has over 37,000 registered users tapping over 1.5 petabytes of ocean data—information that’s growing in importance with the intensification of climate change and the collapse of marine ecosystems.

Over the course of Jenny’s maiden cruise, her operators swapped devices in and out at half a dozen ONC sites, including at several of NEPTUNE’s five nodes and at one of NEPTUNE’s smaller sister observatories closer to Vancouver.

Inside Jenny

ROV Jenny aboard the Valour, Canpac’s 50-meter offshore workhorse, ahead of October’s NEPTUNE observatory maintenance cruise.Ocean Networks Canada

What makes Jenny so special?

• Jenny is only the third science ROV designed for subsea work to a depth of 6,000 meters.
• Motion sensors actively adjust her 7,000-meter-long umbilical cable to counteract topside wave action that would otherwise yank the ROV around at depth and, in rough seas, could damage or snap the cable.
• Dual high-dexterity manipulator arms are controlled by topside operators via a pair of replica mini-manipulators that mirror the movements.
• Each arm is capable of picking up objects weighing about 275 kilograms, and the ROV itself can transport equipment weighing up to 3,000 kg.
• 11 high-resolution cameras deliver 4K video, supported by 300,000 lumens of lighting that can be tuned to deliver the soft red light needed to observe bioluminescence.
• Dual multibeam sonar systems maximize visibility in turbid water.

Meghan Paulson, ONC’s executive director for observatory operations, says the sonar imaging system will be particularly invaluable during dives to shallower sites where sediments stirred up by waves and weather can cut visibility from meters to centimeters. “It really reduces the risk of running into things accidentally,” says Paulson.

To experience the visibility conditions for yourself, check out recordings of the live video broadcast from the NEPTUNE maintenance cruise. Tetarenko says that next year they hope to broadcast not only the main camera feed but also one of the sonar images.

3D video could be next, according to Canpac ROV pilot and Jenny codesigner, James Barnett. He says they would need to boost the computing power installed topside, to process that “firehose of data,” but insists that real-time 3D is “definitely not impossible.” Tetarenko says the science ROV community is collaborating on software to help make that workable: “3D imagining is kind of the very latest thing that’s being tested on lots of ROV systems right now, but nobody’s really there yet.”

More Than Science

Expansion of the cabled observatory concept is the more certain technological legacy for ONC and NEPTUNE. In fact, the technology has evolved beyond just oceanography applications.

ONC tapped Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to design and build the Neptune backbone and the French firm delivered a system that has reliably delivered multigigabit Ethernet plus 10 kilovolts of direct-current electricity to the deep sea. Today ASN deploys a second-generation subsea power and communications networking solution, developed with the Norwegian international energy company Equinor.

ASN’s “Direct Current/Fiber Optic” or DC/FO system provides the 100-km backbone for the ARCA subsea neutrino observatory near Sicily, in addition to providing control systems for a growing number of offshore oil and gas installations. The latter include projects led by Equinor and BP where DC/FO networks drive the subsea injection of captured carbon dioxide and monitor its storage below the seabed. Future oil and gas projects will increasingly rely on the cables’ power supply to replace the hydraulic lines that have traditionally been used to operate machinery on the seafloor, according to Ronan Michel, ASN’s product line manager for oil and gas solutions.

Michel says DC/FO incorporates important lessons learned from the Neptune installation. And the latter’s existence was a crucial prerequisite. “The DC/FO solution would probably not exist if Neptune Canada would not have been developed,” says Michel. “It probably gave confidence to Equinor that ASN was capable to develop subsea power and coms infrastructure.”

Scientists say geoengineering, or doing things like intentionally increasing Earth’s reflectivity or blocking the sun, is a “really big deal” in slowing down climate change. Here are the ideas they are proposing.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada whale researchers recently spotted one of the largest pods of orca whales ever reported off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

NASA said Thursday that the study of UFOs will require new scientific techniques, including advanced satellites as well as a shift in how unexplained sightings are perceived.

Scientists are using machine learning to decode and eventually translate how sperm whales communicate with Morse code-like clicks and pauses.

A pediatrician, author and co-inventor of a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine warns that the anti-vaccine movement has morphed into a political force that threatens the world's gains against deadly childhood infections like measles.

Scientists in New Mexico conducted several experiments and learned that asteroids can be deflected from Earth using explosions of nuclear warheads above the space rock's surface.

A spike in earthquakes at Mount Adams, a volcano in Washington state, prompted scientists to install additional monitoring instruments to assess the seismic activity.

New research led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, Karolinska Institute and Linköping University provides a landscape view of the human sense of touch.

The post Neuroscientists Identify 16 Neuronal Types Involved in Human Sense of Touch appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

DNA methylation is one of several epigenetic mechanisms crucial for regulating gene expression in eukaryotic organisms.

The post Scientists Investigate Inner Workings of DNA Methylation in Plants appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

The World Health Organization considers "gaming disorder" a condition, but researchers have now found that playing video games can boost well-being

The latest research on caffeine reveals why coffee and decaf can be so good for your health, but energy drinks can be lethal

A better understanding of what happens to our bodies when we get fitter can unlock ways to speed up the journey – and it might be simpler than you think

A researcher who underwent dozens of brain scans discovered that the volume of her cerebral cortex was 1 per cent lower when she took hormonal contraceptives

Running, swimming, HIIT or walking – what is the best way to work out? The answer is complicated, and depends on the person, finds Grace Wade

A super-hurricane is barreling toward Florida, gaining strength from a number of sources.

Researchers show the average surface temperature on our planet has shifted between 51.8 to 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit

From fish smoothies to oral antibiotics, researchers are taking matters into their own hands in a radical effort to save New Zealand’s yellow-eyed penguins

Humans perfected how to identify wild animals over millennia, and now biologists are rediscovering the exceptional worth of the tracks and marks left behind

As a truck owner who’s watching every penny, you know how quickly maintenance expenses can get out of hand. There’s always another issue, another part to replace, another tool you didn’t know you needed. But there’s good news – plenty of ways exist to keep those trucks running smoothly without draining your wallet. With a […]

The post Maintenance Tips for Budget-Conscious Truck Owners ─ Keeping Costs Down appeared first on Chart Attack.

Sharks less likely to interact as LED lights get brighter

"You’ve taken this idea way too far," a mentor told Prof. Fei-Fei Li.

GUESTS: WILLIAM GIBSON author of Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive and Virtual Light. DAVID BRIN astronomer, professor and author of Foundation's Triumph, Infinity's Shore, and The Postman.

The addition of Discover to LabX’s portfolio strengthens its position as a leading voice in science and research media, bringing one of the most recognized science publications into its family.

What is Jupiter's great red spot? Researchers have observed the red spot changing over time.

Throughout the fall, unusual white blobs have been washing ashore on beaches in eastern Newfoundland. A Memorial University chemist says the substance is a type of pollution that shouldn't have been in the ocean in the first place.

On day one of Donald Trump's presidency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he'll be advising Trump to take fluoride out of public water. The former presidential hopeful — and prominent proponent of debunked public health claims — has described fluoride as "industrial waste."

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Nov 04, 2024
In a recent study led by Professor Xin Li and Dr. Yanlong Guo of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, researchers analyze how scientific research is evolving through the power of big data and artificial intelligence (AI). The paper discusses how the traditional "correlation supersedes causation" model is being increasingly challenged by new "data-intensive scie

Les progressistes s’inquiètent de voir les États-Unis basculer dans le fascisme depuis l’élection de Donald Trump.

A science photo book probes the colors we can see—and even “forbidden” colors we can’t

What was once fair under the law may become unfair when science changes. The law must react to uphold due process

In medieval times, astrology was considered a serious science, a branch of astronomy. Curator Larisa Grollemond of the Getty Museum, walks us through the medieval zodiac and how someone’s sign decided their day-to-day life.