How the brain changes when mastering a new skill
Researchers have discovered what happens in the brain as people learn how to perform tasks, which could lead to improved lives for people with brain injuries. The study revealed that new neural activity patterns emerge with long-term learning and established a causal link between these patterns and new behavioral | Read more...
Danger avoidance can be genetically encoded for four generations, say biologists
Researchers have discovered that learned behaviors can be inherited for multiple generations in C. elegans, transmitted from parent to progeny via eggs and sp | Read more...
Is there a limit to human endurance? Science says yes
From the Ironman to the Tour de France, some competitions test even the toughest endurance athletes. A study of energy expenditure during some of the world's longest, most grueling sporting events suggests that no matter what the activity, everyone hits the same metabolic limit, likely due to constraints on the digestive tract's ability to break | Read more...
Honey bee colonies down by 16 percent
An international survey finds that the number of honey bee colonies fell by 16 percent in the winter of 2017-18 across 38 | Read more...
Feathers came first, then birds
New research suggests that feathers arose 100 million years before birds -- changing how we look at dinosaurs, birds, and pterosaurs, the flying | Read more...
Solving the sun’s super-heating mystery with Parker Solar Probe
It's one of the greatest and longest-running mysteries surrounding, quite literally, our sun: Why is its outer atmosphere hotter than its fier | Read more...
2 Chinese Babies With Edited Genes May Face Higher Risk Of Premature Death
Six months ago, a Chinese scientist announced that he had edited the genomes of two babies born last year. The germline edits with CRISPR-Cas9 supposedly changed the CCR5 gene to prevent HIV from invading immune cells. An analysis of records in the U.K. Biobank shows that having two copies of this mutation is associated with a 21 percent increase in | Read more...
New causes of autism found in ‘junk’ DNA
Leveraging artificial intelligence techniques, researchers have demonstrated that mutations in so-called 'junk' DNA can cause autism. The study is the first to functionally link such mutations to the neurodevelopmental condition and the first clear demonstration of non-inherited, noncoding mutations causing any complex human disease or | Read more...
How to enhance or suppress memories
New research shows memories are pliable if you know which regions of the brain's hippocampus to stimulate -- a finding that could someday enable personalized treatment for people with PTSD, depression an | Read more...
Did ancient supernovae prompt human ancestors to walk upright?
Supernovae bombarded Earth with cosmic energy starting as many as 8 million years ago, with a peak some 2.6 million years ago, initiating an avalanche of electrons in the lower atmosphere and setting off a chain of events that feasibly ended with bipedal | Read more...
