A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience indicates that the sense of smell is significantly influenced by cues from other senses, whereas the senses of sight and hearing are much less affected. A popular theory of the brain holds that its main function is to predict what will happen next, so it reacts mostly [...]

Some of the world's deadliest bacteria seek out and feed on human blood, a newly-discovered phenomenon researchers are calling "bacterial vampirism." A team led by Washington State University researchers has found the bacteria are attracted to the liquid part of blood, or serum, which contains nutrients the bacteria can use as food. One of [...]

Finding your way through the winding streets of certain cities can be a real challenge without a map. To orient ourselves, we rely on a variety of information, including digital maps on our phones, as well as recognizable shops and landmarks. Cells in our bodies face a similar problem when building our organs during [...]

Microplastics pose a great threat to human health. These tiny plastic debris can enter our bodies through the water we drink and increase the risk of illnesses. They are also an environmental hazard; found even in remote areas like polar ice caps and deep ocean trenches, they endanger aquatic and terrestrial lifeforms. To combat [...]

Understanding hippocampal activity could improve sleep and cognition therapies. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine’s biomedical engineering department have discovered a new origin for two essential brain waves—slow waves and sleep spindles—that are critical for deep sleep. While it was traditionally thought that these brain waves originated solely from a circuit connecting the thalamus and [...]

Many of the individuals released to long-term acute care facilities suffered from conditions that lasted for over a year. Researchers at UC San Francisco studied COVID-19 patients in the United States who survived some of the longest and most harrowing battles with the virus. They discovered that approximately two-thirds of these survivors continued to experience a range of physical, [...]

Scientists discovered a previously unidentified rogue immune cell linked to poor antibody responses in chronic viral infections. Australian researchers have discovered a previously unknown rogue immune cell that can cause poor antibody responses in chronic viral infections. The discovery, recently published in the journal Immunity, opens the door to potential early treatments and perhaps the [...]

A case of lead poisoning due to Ayurvedic medicine use demonstrates the importance of patient history in diagnosis and the need for public health collaboration to prevent similar risks. An article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) highlights a case of lead toxicity from Ayurvedic medicines in a young woman, and the complexity in diagnosing the [...]

An enormous meteor spelled doom for most dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But not all. In the aftermath of the extinction event, birds — technically dinosaurs themselves — flourished. Scientists have spent centuries trying to organize and sort some 10,000 species of birds into one clear family tree to understand how the last surviving dinosaurs filled [...]

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have successfully grown 'mini kidneys' in the lab and grafted them into live mice, revealing new insights into the metabolic defects and a potential therapy for polycystic kidney disease. "Mini kidneys," or kidney organoids, are kidney-like structures grown in the lab using stem cells. In the study [...]