Majorana fermions might be the sole component of the dark matter in our Universe

The find is the culmination of decades of research. First theorized by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana in 1937 by building on the work of Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Dirac, the Majorana fermion emitted too weak a signal to be spotted within most materials. Recently, however, theoretical physicists have suggested that some exotic materials might circumvent defects and impurities found elsewhere and allow for the detection of this elusive particle.

Building on this knowledge, Kouwenhoven connected indium antimonide nanowires to a circuit with a gold contact at one end and a slice of superconductor at the other, and then exposed the circuit to a moderate magnetic field. Measurements of the electrical conductance of the nanowires showed a peak at zero voltage that is consistent with the formation of a pair of Majorana particles.

Conceptual close-up of the Majorana nano-device

This special kind of fermion has the unique property of being its own antiparticle. An antiparticle is defined as a subatomic particle having the same mass as a given particle, but opposite electric or magnetic properties – for instance, the antiparticle of a negatively-charged electron is a positively-charged positron. The unique properties of Majorana fermions generate an interesting behavior whenever two particles interact.

Elementary particles come in two kinds: bosons, such as photons, and fermions, such as electrons. Besides having different charge and spin properties, they also behave quite differently when two particles of the same kind interact with each other.

When two bosons trade places, there is no change in their quantum mechanical state, and they become interchangeable; when two normal fermions trade places, the sign of their mathematical "wavefunction" changes from positive to negative with each switch, returning to their original state after two switches. Majorana fermions, on other hand, "remember" their previously taken path.

This property makes Majorana fermions a very strong candidate for use in quantum computers. While we’ve seen a number of developments in quantum computing in recent years, from qubits in semiconductors to manipulating quantum informationthrough electrical fields, one longstanding issue is that the qubits – "quantum bits," the basic unit of information in a quantum computer – are unstable and highly sensitive to external influences.

Not so with this particle, which promises to be unaffected by external influences (even though, it should be pointed out, it’s not yet entirely clear whether qubits created in this manner will be long-lived enough to be used in that way).

More broadly, the "memory" of these particles could be a crucial factor that will enable researchers to more effectively crack some of the long-standing mysteries of quantum mechanics once and for all, helping to investigate the behavior of other particles.

Also, as some researchers suggest, the particles may play a crucial role in cosmology – a proposed theory assumes that the mysterious dark matter, which is thought to form around 73 percent of our Universe, is composed entirely of Majorana fermions.

The video below illustrates the process by which Kouwenhoven’s team managed to isolate the fermions.

Edwin Hubble first observed this phenomenon in 1929, when he noticed that the light from distant galaxies shifted to the red end of the spectrum, as though it had been stretched as it traveled through space. By measuring the wavelengths of the light, Hubble observed that galaxies were expanding away from each other at a rate proportional to their distance from one another.

In the beginning, the universe was a single point. Where was that? It was, and still is, everywhere. Scientists even have proof: Light from the big bang, in the form of cosmic radiation, fills the sky in every direction.

In February, there were  a study involving Japanese women whose reproductive stem cells were donated because they were undergoing gender reassignment surgery. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital were able tocoax these ovarian stem cells into becoming immature human egg cells, which were then incubated in mice so they’d have the proper ovarian structures. Now these same scientists, working with a team at Edinburgh University, want to fertilize them.

After sperm implantation, the scientists would watch the blastocysts develop into embryos for two weeks — the legal limit — and determine if they’re viable. Then these embryos would either be frozen or "allowed to perish," according to the independent. The tests would validate the stem-cell-derived human eggs, more properly called oocytes, and serve as an early indicator of whether they could someday be used to eradicate infertility.

Stem-cell derived oocytes could replenish the stocks of women undergoing menopause, or they could be used to allow infertile women to reproduce. The Independent goes so far as to mention an “elixir of youth,” wherein women of any age are full of stem-cell derived oocytes, remaining fertile and youthfully healthy forever.

This potential stem cell-based embryo construction still faces some hurdles — reproductive biologists are applying for a license to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in the UK. But if it’s approved, the eggs could be fertilized this year, according to the Independent.

Stem cells hold such great promise because they can differentiate into any cell, potentially replacing neurons, islet cells, kidney cells and more. But this research conceivably turns stem cells into an infinite supply of cellular material. The stem cell eggs would obviously most likely be used to help women conceive a child, but it’s not a huge leap to much more frightening scenarios: Stem cells turned into human egg cells, which could be fertilized to grow embryos, which would contain more stem cells, which could in turn be harvested …. and so on, as self-contained stem cell factories. It will be interesting to see how the UK authority interprets the possibilities.

Assistant professor Kee-Hong Kim from Purdue University is testing a compound that is commonly found in red wine for its ability to block the processes of fat cell development

Piceatannol results from the conversion of resveratrol – a compound found in red wine, grapes and peanuts that is also thought to combat cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases. When resveratrol is converted into the piceatannol compound, which naturally occurs after consumption, the compound has the ability to delay fat cell growth.

"Piceatannol actually alters the timing of gene expressions, gene functions and insulin action during adipogenesis, the process in which early stage fat cells become mature fat cells," explains Kee-Hong Kim, an assistant professor of food science at the Purdue University. "In the presence of piceatannol, you can see delay or complete inhibition of adipogenesis."

Young fat cells develop over a period of 10 days or more and go through several stages of development before becoming mature fat cells. The researchers are currently testing the effects of the piceatannol compound during the early stages of fat cell development before mature fat cells occur. "These precursor cells, even though they have not accumulated lipids, have the potential to become fat cells," Kim said. "We consider that adipogenesis is an important molecular target to delay or prevent fat cell accumulation and, hopefully, body fat mass gain."

The research found that piceatannol binds to insulin receptors of immature fat cells in the first stage of adipogenesis, blocking insulin’s ability to control cell cycles and activate genes that carry out further stages of fat cell formation. In other words, piceatannol is able to block the immature fat cells from maturing and growing.

Professor Kim will now start testing the compound with an animal model of obesity and hopes to find a way to protect piceatannol from degrading in the bloodstream. "We need to work on improving the stability and solubility of piceatannol to create a biological effect," Kim said.

Kim explains the study in the video below.

The SpikerBox essentially consists of a microprocessor, a speaker, and two neural probes (also known as metal needles). Everything is powered by a single 9-volt battery.

Users start by grabbing a handy invertebrate, such as a cockroach or cricket, and briefly dunking it in ice water to anesthetize it. They then carefully cut off one of its legs, which Marzullo and Gage assure us will grow back. Next, that leg is placed on a surface such as a cork board. One probe is then stuck into the base of the leg, to serve as a ground, while the other is placed higher up and serves as a recording electrode.

As soon as the device is turned on, users will be able to hear a popping sound over its speaker. That sound is the neurons firing in the still-living leg. Scientifically-curious types can then poke at the leg, to hear how the neural activity increases when it’s touched. Other experiments (some of which involve whole live crickets or earthworms) include observing how neurons are affected by hot and cold temperatures, neuroactive chemicals, or an external electrical signal. Instructions are available on the company website.

Additionally, the device can be hooked up to an iOS or Android device running a custom app, providing users with a visual display of the neural activity.

Toshiba Vegetable Recognizer

The device comes with a large database of items it can recognize, even from a distance. It can be trained with additional items when necessary.

Those treatments are a long way off, but the finding is nonetheless pretty huge. It means that not only could stem cells be isolated from women with fertility problems to produce eggs in the lab, but that biologists could gain whole new insights into the way fertility works–how eggs are impacted by things like nutrition and pharmaceuticals.

The new study comes on the heels of a number of recent animal fertility studies that suggest that adult mice produce the same kind of stem cells that can produce healthy eggs and healthy offspring. Using equipment that can identify a specific protein found on the surfaces of reproductive cells (both male and female), scientists isolated them in the lab. They then showed that the mice cells wold generate viable eggs, capable of producing healthy embryos.

But it was unclear if the same technique would work with humans. To find out, a team of researchers obtained reproductive stem cells donated by Japanese women undergoing gender reassignment because of gender identity disorder. From these stem cells, the team was able to generate immature egg cells that showed the properties of human eggs. The researchers then placed the stem cells into human ovarian tissue and placed that into mice. Within a couple of weeks, these cells generated the proper ovarian structures for producing eggs, as well as egg cells that appear healthy and ready for fertilization.

Of course, there’s no telling yet whether that’s really the case. In the U.S., researchers aren’t allowed to fertilize human eggs in the lab just to see what happens, and there’s no guarantee that a lab-grown cell wouldn’t develop some kind of abnormality (actually, this happens a lot). Initial use of the technique would be to create eggs for research use in the lab (sans fertilization of course). But fertility treatments, while on the distant horizon, aren’t out of the question at some point in the future.

We knew this day was coming, but I certainly didn’t suspect it’d be so soon. Never again will you have to wonder Where is the closest Pizza Hut? or What make of car is that? or Don’t I know her from somewhere? Ubiquitous smartphones have already given us the ability to swiftly look up information with only a moderate disruption. Smartglasses completely remove the mediating step of pausing to wonder and ponder and research: data is simply there, an inseparable part of your visible world.

Overlay Google Maps onto the real world, and navigation becomes effortless. Overlay reviews and menus onto restaurant storefronts as you pass them; overlay nutritional data onto your plate as you eat; overlay purchasing info if you particularly admire your co-worker’s new shoes; overlay translations of foreign signage, breaking news, hilarious kittens romping at your feet.

As smartglasses become popular, the world will start to seem naked and inaccessible without a glossy data layer on everything.As smartglasses become popular, the world will start to seem naked and inaccessible without a glossy data layer on everything. Everyday activities, maneuvering through the physical world, socializing, working, learning, will all be increasingly eased by the use of glasses; increasingly, until these activities start to feel almost impossible without the glasses. Who’s going to have patience to laboriously explain facts to a non-data-overlaid person? Give you my business card? Point you in the direction of Fifth Avenue? I don’t even remember how to spell my name! Where are your Googles?

Will businesses see the need for physical signs and billboards? Will municipalities bother to maintain physical street signs and traffic signals? Will smartglasses make the university lecturer’s blackboard and salesman’s PowerPoint obsolete as well?

What comes after that? With everyone wearing glasses (or, at this point in the future, contact lenses or implants), individual appearance becomes as malleable on the street as it is now on the Internet. You can overlay your real body with a digitally altered one, saving money on subtle nose surgery or just completely living life as a furry avatar.

What, though, will it take to get us to that tipping point, when head-up augmented reality suddenly shifts from a novelty to a ubiquity? Wearing cumbersome goggles on your face as you proceed through your day is a bit more of an intrusion than I for one am ready for. Sony’s 3DTV goggles are impressive and designed only to be worn in the comfort of your couch, and still I have yet to meet someone who owns a pair. The gear will have to be small and easy to integrate with your basic life processes. Perhaps AR windshields in our cars will become common first, before we put them on our faces.

But, however it comes — the fully mediated future has begun.

If you care about physics, Einstein or controversies, you’ll recall the excitement last fall about neutrinos that were supposedly moving faster than light. The ghostly particles, which can move through the Earth and through you without slowing down, were leaving a particle beam in Geneva and traveling under the Alps to Gran Sasso, Italy, in less time than it would take light to travel the same distance. The neutrinos were only 60 nanoseconds early, but still — the result, which the experimenters could not explain, suggested they were moving faster than light.
While applauding the Italian researchers’ careful experiments, most of the world of physics assumed the scofflaw particles were the result of some kind of mistake, because nothing can go faster than light. Theories abounded, from fun relativity reasons to simple math errors. It turns out it was even more boring, more humdrum, more insipid than even that — someone hadn’t plugged in a wire all the way. Science Insider broke the news this afternoon, citing unnamed sources familiar with the experiment.

The blame lies with a fiber-optic cable used to connect a GPS receiver, which corrects the timing of the neutrinos’ flight, and a computer card that reads the receiver. As part of the efforts to replicate the results, a team member apparently tightened the connection and then measured the length of time it took the timing data to travel down the fiber. The data showed up, you guessed it, 60 nanoseconds earlier than assumed.

Frankly, this is so boring as to sound almost suspicious.These people with their 5 sigmas and their M-branes and their beta particles just forgot to push the plug in all the way! That would explain it so nicely, do away with the inconvenient superluminal result so cleanly.

Of course, more experiments are needed to prove this either way. All the big physics conferences are ramping up here in the next couple of weeks, so we’ll find out the truth. We will let you know when we do.

Otavia antiqua could be the earliest human ancestor, predating the previous earliest known animal by tens of millions of years.

Discovered by University of St. Andrews researchers, Otavia is thought to have lived in calm, shallow waters and fed on the bacteria and algae that was fairly abundant there. It was of simple design–a tubelike body that would draw food through its pores into a central space where it was basically absorbed directly into the organism’s cells.

Otavia didn’t evolve much, but perhaps it didn’t need to. The record shows that if the researchers are right, Otavia weathered at least two “snowball Earths,” periods when the global temperatures plunged and almost the entire planet was ice-bound. And the organism lasted for 200 million years by the best estimates, suggesting this potential ancestor to all things animal was a lot hardier than a lot of the larger multicellular species that have come into being since.