Thinking biologically: Organic memory devices and mice in space
For the first time in the world, Russian scientists will give water in the form of a gel to mice flying on the Bion-M satellite No. 2 to find out how it affects the body. Scientists at Sirius University of Science and Technology have developed a group of substances that can help patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity. American researchers have created an algorithm that makes it possible to recognize words with record accuracy in people with impaired speech ability using electrodes implanted in the brain. And scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences have obtained magnets whose properties can be controlled using light. Large memory elements will be developed based on them. Read about these and other scientific discoveries in the weekly Izvestia column.
Launch of the Bion-M satellite
The flight of the Bion-M spacecraft No. 2, which was launched from Baikonur on August 20, will last 30 days. During this time, several generations of drosophila flies will change on board. This will help to better understand the impact of space conditions on the offspring of living beings. Also, for the first time in the world, Russian scientists will give mice water in the form of a gel and check whether microbes could get to Earth from space. In total, more than 30 scientific experiments will be conducted on the biosatellite during the orbital mission.
— The launch of a biosatellite is a strategically important project for our country, which holds a leading position in biological space research. Many foreign scientific organizations use Russian developments in this field," Gennady Krasnikov, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, commented in an interview with Izvestia.
He specified that more than 30 experimental studies will be carried out during the mission. More than 50 Russian scientific organizations participated in their preparation and implementation.
An affordable cure for obesity and diabetes
Scientists at Sirius University of Science and Technology have developed a group of substances that can help patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity. The compounds act on glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP—1), a molecule that can control blood sugar levels and reduce appetite.
First, scientists took as a basis one of the foreign analogues — the drug danuglipron. In human clinical trials, it showed severe side effects, and the research stopped. However, Sirius specialists have found a number of new compounds with a structure similar to danuglipron, from which they plan to create a completely new type of drugs. Unlike foreign analogues, which are available only in injectable form, new drugs can be produced in tablets.
—We are already working on finding an effective candidate within the framework of the proposed chemotype of compounds with high activity combined with low toxicity," Roman Ivanov, director of the Scientific Center for Translational Medicine at Sirius University, told Izvestia.
The release of a powerful prominence into space
Scientists at the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy of the IKI RAS filmed a three-hour release into space of the most powerful prominence in recent years, which turned out to be larger than the Sun itself. The footage was posted on the laboratory's Telegram channel.
The release occurred on the morning of August 20, at about 07:00 Moscow time, and lasted until 10:00. To make the picture more vivid, the scientists accelerated the video to a few seconds.
Due to their huge size and mass, prominences represent the most dangerous phenomena of space weather, but since they move in random directions, the probability that they will be directed exactly at Earth is relatively low, the scientists said in a statement.
"In this case, the plasma has previously moved away from the planet. The last time a direct hit of a large prominence into the Earth was registered on June 1 of this year, when it caused an almost three—day magnetic storm, which only slightly fell short of the highest, fifth, level," the scientists said in a post.
A light-driven molecular magnet
Scientists have synthesized a complex of compounds based on copper and the organic molecule spiropyran, which, on the one hand, demonstrates switching and changing properties under the influence of light, and on the other, exhibits the properties of a molecular magnet at temperatures from -273 to -267 °C. With this cooling, the compound remains magnetized for some time even when the external magnetic field is turned off, so it can potentially be used to create optical sensors and light-controlled electronic devices.
The work was performed by researchers from the Federal Research Center for Problems of Chemical Physics and Medical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Chernogolovka) with colleagues from other organizations.
"Materials like the one we have obtained can become the basis for ultra—dense information storage devices that can be controlled using light. Light allows signals to be transmitted faster than current, so light control can potentially speed up information processing," said Dmitry Konorev, PhD, Head of the Laboratory of Advanced Multifunctional Materials at the Federal Research Center for Chemical Physics and Medicinal Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the project supported by an RNF grant.
AI has learned to read people's minds at record speed
Engineers from the University of California at Davis (USA) presented a device a few months ago that can most accurately decode a patient's mental speech. We are talking about patients who have lost the ability to speak due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or other diseases.
The technology consists of implanting electrodes in the area of the cerebral cortex responsible for motor activity, which is also involved in pronouncing words. Previously, the patient had to do his best to "pronounce" words by articulating them. However, it was very uncomfortable and exhausting for the patient.
Researchers from Stanford, using the same technology of implanting electrodes in the brain, went a different way. First, they asked four subjects to read the words and try to "pronounce" them aloud. Then the patients just thought about these words. The team of scientists, recording brain activity using an electroencephalogram, found that the neurons of the motor region of the cerebral cortex are also active, although with a lower intensity.
The computer system was able to decode internal speech in real time with an error of 26 to 54%. This is the highest accuracy of decoding internal speech today.
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