In a new brain-wide circuit tracing study, scientists at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory focused selective attention on a circuit that governs, fittingly enough, selective attention. The comprehensive maps they produced illustrate how broadly the mammalian brain incorporates and integrates information to focus its sensory resources on its goals. Working in mice, the […]

The lecture theatre hums its tune,a thousand nascent dreamsgroping for space betweenthe dog-eared texts oflessons learnt and lapsed.Knowledge markedin double entryas loans extendlike unchecked books,seeping into thoughtsthat float with strings attached.A tightness of thoughtwrapping barbed branchesaround the satisfactionof future selves,schooling sold shortagainst the coronary riskof rain.The freedom of educationborne out to thosewho can affordto pay. […]

New research being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Maastricht, the Netherlands (4-7 May), has found that toddlers eat more vegetables if they are rewarded for trying them. Healthy eating habits can lower the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer. But, as many parents know, young children often don’t like […]

Asking people to stop using social media for just one week could lead to significant improvements in their wellbeing, depression and anxiety and could, in the future, be recommended as a way to help people manage their mental health say the authors of a new study. The study, carried out by a team of researchers […]

Carbon dioxide is known to have a fertilizing effect on plant growth, and the gas is often added to greenhouse crops to help improve yields. Climate scientists have suggested that this same CO2 fertilization effect—acting on planetary rather than greenhouse scales—could help offset global warming by promoting the growth of trees and shrubs that store […]

Obesity is recognized as a public health crisis with serious medical and economic effects, but a Perspective in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, outlines how obesity’s consequences also impact the US military. “This is a complex problem that has a deep impact on national security by limiting the number of available recruits, decreasing […]

In the future, human skills will be digitalised and democratised via the Internet of Skills: a future internet that will enable you to use robot technology and haptic feedback to transfer expertise in real time, no matter where you are, and no matter where the problem to be solved is. For example, imagine a highly […]

It’s often said that a little stress can be good for you. Now scientists have shown that the same may be true for cells, uncovering a newly-discovered mechanism that might help prevent the build-up of tangles of proteins commonly seen in dementia. A characteristic of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s – collectively known as […]

Scientists have revealed how the sunscreen compound oxybenzone kills corals and other marine invertebrates: under UV light, the animals convert the normally benign compound into a potent phototoxin. Oxybenzone is one of the most common UV-light protecting agents in sunscreens. But it has been linked to coral bleaching, a process during which corals expel their […]

Scientists in China have genetically engineered yeast to turn methanol into heparin. The work is a step towards a sustainable production process for the essential anticoagulant that could mean drug makers no longer need to source it from animals. Heparin, a glycosaminoglycan, is a natural anticoagulant synthesised by the liver, intestine and lungs of mammals. […]