Huerta, T.S., Devarajan, A., Tsaava, T. et al. Sci Rep 11, 5,083 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-84330-6
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The Great Filter May Explain Why Civilizations Don’t Survive
The universe is old enough, large enough, and chemically rich enough to have produced countless civilizations. And yet, when we listen, we hear nothing. The Great Filter hypothesis offers one of the most disturbing explanations in modern science — somewhere between dead chemistry and starfaring intelligence, there exists a barrier so severe that almost nothing gets through. But the real question isn’t whether the filter exists. It’s whether we’ve already passed it — or whether it’s still ahead of us, waiting. This video explores the formal probability argument behind the silence, the candidate barriers hiding in the deep history of biology, the existential threats that scale with technological power, and what every new discovery about life beyond Earth actually tells us about our own survival odds.
Sources:
Robin Hanson, \
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Swarming, spinning microrobots can manipulate their surroundings
E pluribus unum – “out of many, one” – is not only a motto for the United States. It’s a good credo for microrobots.
A research collaboration between Cornell and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems has shown how a swarm of microrobots spinning on a water surface can together generate the fluidic torque needed to manipulate passive structures without any physical contact.
This collective behavior was demonstrated to operate gears and move objects, with the aim of eventually performing microscale tasks and biomedical procedures.
Tom sits down with Yann LeCun, the Jacob T
Schwartz professor of computer science at NYU, and executive chairman of advanced machine intelligence labs.
Yann is co-winner of the 2018 ACM Turing Award for his research in neural network learning. Yann takes us from his days as a postdoc working with Geoff Hinton, through his days as Chief AI Scientist at Facebook/Meta. His simultaneous roles as a Professor at NYU and Chief AI Scientist at a large AI provider gives Yann a unique perspective on how technological advances and commercial forces combined to get us to today’s state of the art.
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Harnessing microalgae for the biosynthesis of molecular crystals
Wagner et al. show that dinoflagellate microalgae can biosynthesize crystalline materials which would otherwise be difficult to make synthetically. Scaling this up could eventually offer a new industrial approach for producing such materials. [ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-026-03006-6](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-026-03006-6)
Crystalline materials for optical applications are synthesized in living dinoflagellates.
Cancer stress protein helps tumors hide from immunity
The ISR in cancer cells triggers the production of a protein called Activating Transcription Factor 4, or ATF4, which in turn triggers the action of many genes that help cancer cells survive, the study authors say. The new work shows that ATF4 also instructs the cell to release LCN2 to protect the tumor from the immune system.
The research team found that LCN2 passes on the ATF4 message to switch macrophages, a type of immune cell abundant in tumors, into an “immunosuppressive” mode, which keeps cancer-killing T cells from entering the tumor.
Whereas ATF4 operates inside cancer cells, LCN2 is released outside where it can be more easily targeted by drugs, the researchers said. Therefore, they designed an antibody therapy, a lab-made version of an immune protein, to bind and block LCN2, which kept it from manipulating macrophages, letting the sidelined T cells back into tumors.
When the researchers team engineered mice to both develop cancer, and to lack LCN2, tumor growth slowed. That this effect happened only in mice with healthy immune systems suggested that an important role for LCN2 is to block the immune attack on tumors.
Next, the team examined tumor samples from more than 100 lung cancer patients and 30 pancreatic cancer patients. High LCN2 levels were linked to a median survival of 52 months, compared to 79 months for patients with low levels.
When treated with an antibody that blocked LCN2, tumors in mice became flooded with T cells and shrank. Combining the LCN2 antibody with an existing immunotherapy drug worked even better, extending survival in mice with aggressive lung cancer. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.
Abstract: This study challenges the long-standing notion of fibroblasts as passive bystanders in atopic dermatitis
Richard L. Gallo & team discover dermal fibroblasts respond to IL4 and IL13, producing Ccr3-binding chemokines, and driving T cell recruitment in atopic dermatitis:
The figure shows reduction of T cells (red) in an CCR3 antagonist-treated mouse model of atopic dermatitis.
Address correspondence to: Richard L. Gallo, Department of Dermatology, MC0869, UCSD, 9,500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, California, 92,093, USA. Phone: 858.822.4608; Email: rgallo@health.ucsd.edu.
Find articles by Numata, T. in: | Google Scholar | 
Department of dermatology, UCSD, la jolla, california, USA.
AI could prevent construction delays before they happen
What if a construction project could rewrite its own schedule the moment a problem appears? A new peer-reviewed study from the University of East London (UEL) suggests that artificial intelligence could make this possible—detecting emerging risks and automatically adjusting project plans before delays spread across a site. The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Built Environment.
Rather than proposing a single new tool, the research outlines how existing technologies could be connected in ways they currently are not. Today, safety monitoring systems, digital risk registers and scheduling platforms typically operate in isolation. As a result, risks are identified, but the project timetable often continues unchanged.
The findings come from a systematic review of 60 peer-reviewed studies on AI in construction management. The research proposes a framework showing how risk warnings could trigger immediate, machine-readable planning decisions.
New research on acquired aphantasia pinpoints specific brain network responsible for visual imagination
People who lose their ability to conjure visual memories after a brain injury share damage that connects to a single, highly specific brain region. A recent analysis of these rare medical cases reveals that a structure called the fusiform imagery node acts as an essential hub for the human imagination. These results, published in the journal Cortex, help explain the physical origins of our mind’s eye.
Most people can easily close their eyes and picture a childhood bedroom or the face of a loved one. This ability is known as visual mental imagery. It allows human beings to relive past events, solve spatial problems, and envision future scenarios without any external sensory input.
However, a small fraction of the population lacks this internal visual experience entirely. This absence of a mind’s eye is called aphantasia. It occurs from birth in an estimated one to three percent of people across the globe.
Human LFA-1 governs T cell immune surveillance of the skin
Deficiency in the leukocyte integrin LFA1 increases susceptibility to commensal human papillomaviruses (HPVs) by impairing T cell homing and surveillance in the skin. Learn more in Science Immunology.
Human inherited integrin αL (CD11a) deficiency selectively impairs skin homing of T cells and surveillance of commensal papillomaviruses.