Neuroscie
Oxytocin Influences Social Behavior and Emotional Response
Summary: New research reveals how oxytocin profoundly influences social behavior and emotional responses in the brain. Animal models have shown how this hormone impacts social fear and how chronic stress…
Mapping Brain-to-Spinal Cord Pathways for Motor Control
Summary: Researchers have created a 3D atlas mapping brain regions that connect to V1 spinal interneurons, which shape motor output. By using a genetically modified rabies virus, they pinpointed connections…
Rare Brain Cells Offer Clues to Aging and Rejuvenation
Summary: A study reveals how brain cell interactions influence aging, showing that rare cell types either accelerate or slow brain aging. Neural stem cells provide a rejuvenating effect on neighboring…
Structural Sexism Tied to Faster Memory Decline in Older Women
Summary: Women born in states with higher structural sexism experience faster memory decline later in life, with effects equivalent to nine years of cognitive aging. Structural sexism encompasses societal inequities…
Life
Nature
Newfound bat skeletons are the oldest on record
Two fossilized bat skeletons unearthed in western Wyoming represent a new species and are the oldest set of bat bones yet discovered, researchers say. The incredibly complete fossils of Icaronycteris…
Astronomy
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe survives close brush with the sun’s scorching surface
This image made available by NASA shows an artist’s rendering of the Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. It’s designed to take solar punishment like never before, thanks to its…
Two populations of dark comets in the solar system could tell researchers where the Earth got its oceans
Dark comets fly through space, but unlike comets, they don’t have dust tails. Credit: Adina Feinstein and NASA’s Earth Observatory The water that makes up the oceans acted as a…
NASA’s Terra satellite captures 2015 eclipse shadow
Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team During the morning of March 20, 2015, a total solar eclipse was visible from parts of Europe, and a partial solar eclipse from…
NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the Sun
An illustration courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins APL shows an artist’s conception of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. NASA’s pioneering Parker Solar Probe made history Tuesday, flying closer to the sun than…
