Article archives

The brain has a direct connection to the lymphatic system

The brain has a direct connection to the lymphatic system

BiomedicineNeurobiologyNeuroscience

By José Ramón Alonso

The lymphatic system performs important immune functions, and runs parallel to the blood circulatory system to provide a secondary circulation that transports excess interstitial fluid, proteins and metabolic waste products from the systemic tissues back into the blood. For centuries, it was thought that the central nervous system lacks a lymphatic drainage system and the […]

MI weekly selection #134

MI weekly selection #134

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Polar winds found on Saturn’s moon Titan Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, has polar winds that take gases from its atmosphere and throw them into space, very much like Earth’s polar winds, according to data collected by the Cassini space probe, which has been studying Saturn and its moons since 2004. Space.com Supermassive black hole’s […]

On the quantum theory of consciousness

On the quantum theory of consciousness

BiologyNeurobiologyQuantum physics

By Francisco R. Villatoro

The Penrose–Hameroff theory of orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) claims that quantum computations in the brain account for consciousness . The communication among neurons by the secretion of neurotransmitters is based on synaptic vesicles distributed along their axons. The neuronal cytoskeleton has a key role in the dynamics of these vesicles. In the 1990s, Stuart […]

Quantum Thermodynamics VI: Negative absolute temperatures in optical lattices

Quantum Thermodynamics VI: Negative absolute temperatures in optical lattices

PhysicsQuantum physics

By Daniel Manzano

As we have discussed in our previous post, there is an important debate in the scientific community regarding the existence of negative absolute temperatures. The debate is not over, and both sides have valuable arguments, but in any case, one thing has already been proved. If negative absolute temperatures are real, the requirement to achieve […]

MI weekly selection #133

MI weekly selection #133

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Saturn’s massive, invisible outermost ring Saturn’s invisible outermost ring is even larger than scientists thought and made mostly of tiny particles. NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has helped researchers get a better look at the Phoebe ring’s enormity since it can only be seen as a faint halo at infrared wavelengths. Los Angeles Times Colossal […]

How you grow graphene on d-metals key to get spin-polarized electrons

How you grow graphene on d-metals key to get spin-polarized electrons

Condensed matterMaterialsPhysics

By DIPC

Graphene is a material with outstanding electronic characteristics. Many of them arise from the cone-like dispersion of charge carriers near the Fermi level (at which the occupation probability of energy levels is 0.5), where electrons behave as relativistic Dirac fermions, i.e., as if they had no mass. This excellent video from toutestquantique.fr summarizes them very […]