A tiny piece of a mouse’s brain has just given scientists a massive breakthrough in understanding how our brains work. This isn’t just any piece; it’s a speck smaller than a grain of sand from the mouse’s visual cortex. Inside this tiny speck, there are 84, 000 neurons connected by about half a billion synapses. That’s roughly 5. 4 kilometers of neuronal wiring! Thi...
The Dicyphus cerastii is a tiny hero in the world of plants. This bug is a big deal in gardens and farms. It helps keep plants healthy by eating other bugs that harm them. To understand how this bug works, researchers looked at how it grows, survives, and has babies. They checked how different plants and temperatures affect these things. The bug needs food to grow u...
Mountain highways are tough to navigate and even tougher to keep safe. The main issue is that it's hard to predict where crashes might happen. This is because there's not enough data and the data that does exist is tricky to analyze. There are too many zeros and too much variation. This makes it hard to figure out what causes crashes and how to stop them before they ...
A mouse's brain is tiny, but it's packed with intricate details. Tiny sections of brain tissue, about the size of a grain of sand, can contain hundreds of thousands of cells. These cells are linked together by miles of wiring. This complexity has always been a challenge for scientists. In the late 1970s, a famous scientist named Francis Crick thought that understandi...
The moon's far side, the one that never shows its face to Earth, is quite different from the side we see. It has more craters, a thicker crust, and fewer of those dark, smooth areas called maria. These differences might not just be skin deep. They could tell a story about how the moon came to be and changed over billions of years. Chinese scientists recently studied...
The solar system might have a ninth planet. It is hiding far beyond Neptune. Scientists have been looking for it for years. They have not seen it yet. The evidence comes from strange orbits of small, icy bodies. These orbits suggest a large planet is pulling them with its gravity. A powerful telescope is almost ready. It is in Chile. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory wi...
Herbicides are a double-edged sword. They help farmers keep weeds at bay, but they also pose a risk. Weeds can develop resistance, making the herbicides less effective. This is a big problem, especially with paraquat. Paraquat is a fast-acting herbicide used around the world. It's non-selective, meaning it kills most plants it touches. But weeds are fighting bac...
The boreal forest, also known as taiga, is a vast expanse of evergreens. But there is another tree that plays a crucial role in this ecosystem: the aspen. This tree is vital for both forestry and wildlife. However, pinpointing where these trees are can be tricky. This is where technology comes in. Researchers have developed a smart way to map out where aspen trees a...
Hot weather can mess with your mood. It's not just about feeling uncomfortable. It can actually change how you feel and act. Scientists have been trying to figure out why this happens. The brain has a part called the posterior paraventricular thalamus. It's like a control center for emotions. It gets signals from another part of the brain, the preoptic area...
The world of genetic science is vast and complex. It includes things like genetic testing, gene editing, and biobanking. These topics are not just about science. They also bring up important ethical, legal, and social questions. The National Institutes of Health is very interested in these questions. They have a major program dedicated to studying them. A tool calle...