Identical siblings are used to sharing a lot with their twin, including their DNA. But new research suggests all identical twins share a common signature of twinhood, not in their…
Author: ID
DNA offers a new look at how Polynesia was settled
Polynesian voyagers settled islands across a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean within about 500 years, leaving a genetic trail of the routes that the travelers took, scientists say. Comparisons…
Brainless sponges contain early echoes of a nervous system
Brains are like sponges, slurping up new information. But sponges may also be a little bit like brains. Sponges, which are humans’ very distant evolutionary relatives, don’t have nervous systems.…
A blood test may help predict recovery from traumatic brain injury
Elevated blood levels of a specific protein may help scientists predict who has a better chance of bouncing back from a traumatic brain injury. The protein, called neurofilament light or…
Ripples in rats’ brains tied to memory may also reduce sugar levels
Ripples of nerve cell activity that lock in memories may have an unexpected job outside of the brain: Dropping blood sugar levels in the body. Just after a burst of…
How Hans Berger’s quest for telepathy spurred modern brain science
A brush with death led Hans Berger to invent a machine that could eavesdrop on the brain. In 1893, when he was 19, Berger fell off his horse during maneuvers…
Controlling nerve cells with light opened new ways to study the brain
Some big scientific discoveries aren’t actually discovered. They are borrowed. That’s what happened when scientists enlisted proteins from an unlikely lender: green algae. Cells of the algal species Chlamydomonas reinhardtii…
A volcano-induced rainy period made Earth’s climate dinosaur-friendly
The biggest beasts to walk the Earth had humble beginnings. The first dinosaurs were cat-sized, lurking in the shadows, just waiting for their moment. That moment came when four major…
This is the oldest fossil evidence of spider moms taking care of their young
Long before Tyrannosaurus rex walked the Earth, sap engulfed a spider guarding her egg sac. Her corpse, preserved alongside her offspring in amber for 99 million years, is the oldest…
Fossil tracks may reveal an ancient elephant nursery
Fossilized footprints found on a beach in southern Spain betray what may have been a nursery for an extinct species of elephant. The track-rich coastal site, which scientists have dubbed…
