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A single human brain cell may be far more powerful than scientists once realized. Researchers found that cortical neurons can perform remarkably complex computations, giving them capabilities more like tiny biological computers than simple on-off switches. This could help explain why the human brain supports abilities such as language, imagination, and mathematics.

Why do we keep making the same choices even when better options are available? Researchers found that simply repeating a decision can reshape what we prefer, causing familiar choices to feel better than alternatives. Instead of weighing every option from scratch, the brain often remembers what it chose before and repeats it. That shortcut may help explain many everyday habits and seemingly irrational decisions.

AI has helped scientists measure the brain’s hidden cleaning system, revealing that fluid moves rapidly around its outer spaces but about 50 times more slowly through deep tissue. The discovery could eventually help researchers detect circulation problems linked to Alzheimer’s, aging, and concussions.

Mutaciones encontradas en familias colombianas dieron esperanza para el desarrollo de tratamientos. Datos alterados e imágenes sospechosas ponen en cuestión los beneficios

Experiments point to an alternative origin of a particle accounting tool called the baryon number

Mutations found in Colombian families raised hopes for treatments. Altered patient data and suspect images call their benefits into question

Ozempic-like drugs appear to weaken more than hunger—they may also reduce cravings for alcohol and other addictive substances. Scientists are increasingly tracing this effect to the lateral septum, a brain region that helps connect memories and surroundings with rewarding experiences. Packed with GLP-1 receptors, it may act as a crucial control point between thinking about a reward and feeling compelled to pursue it. The discovery could open new approaches to treating addiction as well as obesity.

Scientists have pinpointed a brain network—and its distinctive electrical rhythm—that appears to drive the benefits of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease. The discovery could lead to more precise, personalized stimulation settings and better results for patients.

Ancient remains from Vietnam suggest diseases like yaws may have been passed from mother to child thousands of years ago, a form of transmission often assumed to indicate syphilis. The discovery could overturn how scientists interpret ancient infections and complicate the long-running mystery of syphilis’s origins.

Two scientists' cars were burned at the proposed Sardinian site, in what researchers say was an attempt to intimidate supporters of the gravitational-wave observatory

The adult brain may be far better at repairing itself than scientists once believed. In mice, researchers discovered a special group of support cells called astrocytes that respond to damaged brain tissue by rebuilding lost cellular networks. Rather than simply moving into the injured area, these cells perform a remarkable maneuver: they create new nuclei and send them traveling through long cellular extensions to repopulate damaged regions.

Keratin extracted from sheep’s wool helped damaged bone regenerate in animals, producing tissue that was more organized and structurally similar to healthy bone than tissue grown with conventional collagen scaffolds. The discovery could turn an abundant agricultural byproduct into a promising new material for regenerative medicine.

With a lens array in Chile, astronomers capture clumps of gas from a dying star returning to the Galaxy

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Female fertility depends on a finite pool of oocytes that depletes during aging^(1,2), yet the spatiotemporal dynamics of this depletion remain poorly understood. Traditional methods obscure the three-dimensional architecture of the ovary, limiting quantitative insights. Here we combine light-sheet microscopy, artificial intelligence-driven segmentation and mathematical modeling to map over 85,000 oocytes in whole ovaries across the reproductive lifespan in mouse. We find that newly activated...

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There is little understanding of how aging serves as the strongest risk factor for several neurodegenerative diseases. Microglia undergo age-related maladaptive changes, including increased inflammation, impaired debris clearance, and cellular senescence, yet specific mediators that regulate these processes remain unclear. The aged brain is rejuvenated by youth-associated plasma factors, including tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP2), which we have shown acts on the extracellular...