New Theory Says Only Brain Activity Involving ‘L5p Neurons’ Enters Conscious Awareness
Is this brain cell your ‘mind’s eye’? No-one knows what connects awareness — the state of consciousness — with its contents, i.e. thoughts and experiences….
Cell Biology
Deep Inside the Brain: Unraveling Dense Networks in the Cerebral Cortex [Video]
Researchers use 3-dimensional electron microscopy to map the local connectome in the cerebral cortex. Mammalian brains, with their unmatched number of nerve cells and density…
Intricate Control of Biological Processes With Glowing Nanoparticles and Superballs
New nanoparticles can adjust the beating speed of heart cells by emitting different colors of light. Light from nanoparticle clusters was also able to activate…
Solved: First Structure of Human Cotransporter Protein Family Member
In work that could someday improve treatments for epilepsy, UT Southwestern scientists have published the first three-dimensional structure of a member of a large family…
Major Implications for Human Disease Uncovered in Mysterious Microproteins
Salk scientists discover how microprotein PIGBOS could be a target for cancer. As the tools to study biology improve, researchers are beginning to uncover details…
Bioprinting Living Cells Extremely Fast and at Very High Resolution in a 3D Printer
With a new process developed at TU Wien (Vienna), living cells can be integrated into fine structures created in a 3D printer — extremely fast…
What Really Caused Neanderthals to Go Extinct? New Study Has Shocking Answer
A 21st century nuisance for parents may have proved deadly to early man. It is one of the great unsolved mysteries of anthropology. What killed…
Scientists Improve the Texture and Color of Lab Grown Meat
Cultured meat could reduce resources required in meat production, with a smaller environmental footprint relative to animal farming. A team of Tufts University-led researchers exploring…
Nanostructure of Wood Revealed – Strength Gains Could Lead to Wooden Skyscrapers
There is increasing interest around the world in using timber as a lighter, more sustainable construction alternative to steel and concrete. While wood has been…
Instant Human Liver and Pancreas? Not Quite, but a Better Way to Grow Multiple Organs [Video]
A research team centered at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) and Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) developed an improved method to grow an…
Cornell Scientists Unravel Mystery Behind DNA Replication
The molecules of life are twisted. But how those familiar strands in DNA’s double helix manage to replicate without being tangled up has been hard…
Scientists Assumptions Were Wrong About Cell Mitochondria – They Work More Like Tesla Battery Packs
For years, scientists assumed that mitochondria — the energy-generating centers of living cells — worked much like household batteries, generating energy from a chemical reaction…
How Did Cells Originally Form Billions of Years Ago? Scientists Identify Molecule That May Be Key to Emergence of Life on Earth.
Compounds called cyclophospholipids would have held up against the planet’s harsh conditions, helping the first cells form and proliferate. To truly understand how the body…
Neuroscientists Show How Interactions Between Neuronal Migration and Outgrowth Shape Network Architecture
Neurons are not randomly arranged in the human brain. In the cortex, they are organized in interconnected clusters with high intrinsic connectivity. This modular connectivity…
Researchers Discover How ‘Water Bears’ Survive Extreme Conditions
Researchers discover that a protein in tiny tardigrades binds and forms a protective cloud against extreme survival threats such as radiation damage. Diminutive animals known…
Incredible Imaging Shows How Neural Circuits Form in a Developing Embryo [Video]
Cells that eventually become neurons (red, orange, and yellow spheres) migrate during embryonic development. The migrating baby neurons that build the spinal cord are color-coded…
Energy Production Unit for a Synthetic Cell Constructed by Scientists
Scientists at the University of Groningen have constructed synthetic vesicles in which ATP, the main energy carrier in living cells, is produced. The vesicles use…
Biologists Reveal Previously Unrecognized Immune Cell Behavior
What makes healthy cells change and become dysfunctional to the point of causing disease? In addition to a disruption in genes that regulate cells, there…