New gut-brain circuits found for sugar and fat cravings
Understanding why we overeat unhealthy foods has been a long-standing mystery. While we know food’s strong power influences our choices, the precise circuitry in our brains behind this is unclear. The vagus nerve sends internal sensory information from the gut to the brain about the nutritional value of food. But, the molecular basis of the […]
Starch discovery reaps benefits for brewing, baking and milling industries
Research has brought clarity to the longstanding question of how starch granules form in the seeds of Triticeae crops — wheat, barley, and rye — unlocking diverse potential benefits for numerous industries and for human health. Starch in wheat, maize, rice and potatoes is a vital energy-giving part of our diet and a key ingredient […]
5 Happiest Types of Doctors
[embedded content] Over the last few years, the global pandemic has highlighted many of the long-standing issues within medicine. With all of this negativity, you might think that medicine is a dying career or that all physicians are burned out and miserable. Not so fast. There are still many physicians who lead happy and fulfilling […]
Anti-butterfly effect enables new benchmarking of quantum-computer performance: Running a quantum system backward, then forward in time distinguishes information leaks from the desired information scrambling
Research drawing on the quantum “anti-butterfly effect” solves a longstanding experimental problem in physics and establishes a method for benchmarking the performance of quantum computers. “Using the simple, robust protocol we developed, we can determine the degree to which quantum computers can effectively process information, and it applies to information loss in other complex quantum […]
Researchers develop powerful strategy for creating new-to-nature enzymes
Engineering enzymes to perform reactions not found in nature can address longstanding challenges in the world of synthetic chemistry, such as upgrading plant-based oils into useful biochemicals. A team of researchers has developed a simple yet powerful strategy for creating new enzymes with novel reactivity that can produce valuable chemical compounds, building on their previous […]