Though a complete map of the brain’s connections is many years away, the mathematical theory of networks can help fill in some of the blank spots.
For centuries after Columbus, the flora and fauna of the New World remained a mystery to Europeans. But in the 1600s and 1700s, explorers began to visit and describe what were then considered remote corners of the Earth.
As scientists have developed more sophisticated methods and ideas, their understanding of how the brain works has shifted too.
The more eclectic hoarder species segregate pantry from lumber room from junk museum. The result is more orderly than the closets of some human packrats.
Deciphering how the brain’s circuitry produces thought and behavior is an ambitious and enticing goal on the scale of the Apollo Program or the Human Genome Project. But the neuroscientists involved in a new federal effort have many challenges ahead.
Deciphering how the brain’s circuitry produces thought and behavior is an ambitious and enticing goal on the scale of the Apollo Program or the Human Genome Project. But the neuroscientists involved in a new federal effort have many challenges ahead.
A unique stellar threesome could help astronomers test the leading theory of gravity to unprecedented precision.
Patients get more pain relief from drug and placebo labeled as headache busters than from those labeled as dummy pills.
Experimental device works for many patients who can’t use breathing machines.
NASA's now-defunct Kepler space telescope captured five stellar explosions as they happened.
Older trees pack on weight faster, making them potentially the best carbon collectors.
Dolphins swimming through bubbles burst old notion of underpowered muscles.
A balance measures the tiny changes in force due to blood flow behind a person's thoughts.
Interactions between color-producing cells generate patterns on fish fins.
The light technique may one day be used to build giant telescopes in space.
A smaller size in first trimester of pregnancy has been linked to heart-health warning signs in childhood.
Genetics of 7,000-year-old skeleton suggests blond hair, pale skin came later.
Adding wavy lines to glass reduces the material’s notorious brittleness.
A study of clouds on a nearby brown dwarf reveals partial cloud cover.
Stresses send mouse cells into primordial state capable of making any tissue.
The lunar surface turns out to have more grit than scientists thought.
Physicists have levitated millimeter-sized objects. Now, the objects can levitate and move in all directions.
The United States, China, Russia, Brazil, India, Germany and the United Kingdom are responsible for more than 60 percent of the 0.74 degree Celsius rise in global average temperature observed from 1906 to 2005.
Pop music hit maker Clive Davis knows a catchy song when he hears one. Now an app aims to define that elusive quality more concretely.
On only five occasions in Earth’s long history has a large fraction of the planet’s biodiversity disappeared in a geological instant. But, journalist Kolbert reminds us in her new book, we are well on our way to making it six.
