Lucy

@lucyreadingikkanda.bsky.social

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Graphic Designer for Simons Foundation. #science #graphics #scicomm #sciart

Science infographic: Why Female Brains Age Better than Males To inform strategies for promoting healthy brain aging, scientists investigated why female's brains age more slowly than males. The origin of our X chromosomes holds a clue. Diverse Inheritance Male cells have a maternal X chromosome inherited from their mother. Female cells inherit both paternal X and maternal X. In all cells, only one X is activated. Male cells only have a maternal X to activate. Females activate a mix of maternal and paternal X. The diversity of maternal and paternal Xs across female cells is thought to offer a buffer against age-related diseases. A Healthy Mix Female mice were engineered to only express maternal X. The engineered brains aged faster, suffered cognitive impairment and had certain brain cell genes shut off when compared to brains with a diversity of X.
Cell collective concentric circles animated gif
Graphic: Pattern Formation Under Stress Through simulations and modeling of bacterial colonies, researchers at the Flatiron Institute and collaborators have discovered how dividing cells adapt to their crowded environments. Understanding how cells respond to mechanical stress could inform strategies for controlling the growth of harmful substances. Self-Inhibiting Growth Particle simulations (top row) capture the cycles in which bacterial cells grow and then divide. At the edge of the colony, some cells experience little stress and grow quickly, while others are trampled by their faster-growing neighbors; these cells experience more stress and grow slower. The process repeats until the colony reaches 100,000 cells, forming rings of small to large cells for each cycle. By changing the stress sensitivity of a colony, the researchers could control the wavelength of the concentric rings, with a higher sensitivity resulting in more rings. The team created a continuum model to predict how the process might play out with a larger number of cells. The model resembled the particle simulations and quantitatively identified the origin of the ring patterns.
The Origin of Black Hole Bursts Graphic: Black holes shoot off powerful jets of charged particles, leading to explosive and luminous bursts of gamma rays. Researchers have revealed the previously unknown source of the strong magnetic field required to power such bursts. Not only does the work solve a longstanding mystery, but it also opens the door for further studies of jets. A rotating massive star collapses, forming a rapidly spinning proto neutron star. Due to the angular momentum of the stellar core, a spinning accretion disk rapidly forms. The spin of the proto neutron star may generate a strong, ordered magnetic field. As the proto neutron star collapses into a spinning black hole, the accretion disk moves inward, anchoring the field lines to the black hole. The strongly magnetized and spinning black hole then launches a pair of jets that break through the outer layers of the star, powering a gamma-ray burst.
Quote with an illustration of a confined qubits surrounded by unconfined qubits that reads: “There is some boundary that separates what can be done with quantum computing and what can be done with classical computers. Our work helps clarify that boundary." Quote from Joseph Tindall, Flatiron Institute
Diagram that reads: Keeping It Local Researchers at the Flatiron Institute in New York have successfully used a classical computer to reproduce a process performed by a quantum computer. The work offers invaluable intel for understanding the physics happening in both systems. The graphic introduces qubits in spin up and spin down positions, and also in superposition of both spin up and down. The multiple qubits are arranged into a lattice. In the system’s initial setup, the qubits all began pointed down. When energy (a magnetic field) is introduced, the qubits tip into a mostly down superposition state. Over time, the qubits influence their immediate neighbors to tip into deeper superpositions in a self-reinforcing chain reaction that cascades through the lattice, making the system too complex for classical computers to emulate. Confining the Action Tipping qubits costs energy. By suppressing the amount of energy available to the system, researchers were able to confine the chain reaction of influence to small regions within the lattice. These regions were manageable enough to be accurately simulated using classical methods.
A map of the Orion constellation showing the location of Betelgeuse, which sits on the shoulder of Orion.
Graphic: Betelgeuse - a red supergiant in the shoulder of the Orion constellation - grows brighter and dimmer, as if it had a pulse. A new study suggests these changes in brightness may be caused by an orbiting star, dubbed Betelbuddy, clearing light-blocking dust in its vicinity, allowing Betelgeuse to appear brighter from our vantage point.
Animated gif of an illustrated hedgehog