News tagged with human brains

Scientists solve mystery of the eye

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have a good overall understanding of human vision: when light enters our eyes, it is focused by the lens and strikes the retina in the back of the eye. The light causes some of ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (64) | comments 14 | with audio podcast feature

Immortal worms defy aging

Researchers from The University of Nottingham have demonstrated how a species of flatworm overcomes the ageing process to be potentially immortal.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 27, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (38) | comments 22 | with audio podcast

New type of extra-chromosomal DNA discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from the University of Virginia and University of North Carolina in the US have discovered a previously unidentified type of small circular DNA molecule occurring outside ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 09, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (21) | comments 9 | with audio podcast report

Bigger not necessarily better, when it comes to brains

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny insects could be as intelligent as much bigger animals, despite only having a brain the size of a pinhead, say scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (20) | comments 12

Neuroscientists uncover possible basis of short-term memory

Ben W. Strowbridge, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience and physiology/biophysics, and Phillip Larimer, PhD, a MD/PhD student in the neurosciences graduate program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 27, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 0

Experimental mathematics: Computing power leads to insights

In his 1989 book "The Emperor's New Mind", Roger Penrose commented on the limitations on human knowledge with a striking example: He conjectured that we would most likely never know whether a string of 10 ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Oct 13, 2011 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (20) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

Computer scientists form mathematical formulation of the brain's neural networks

As computer scientists this year celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the mathematical genius Alan Turing, who set out the basis for digital computing in the 1930s to anticipate the electronic age, they still quest ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (19) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Cro Magnon skull shows that our brains have shrunk

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new replica of an early modern human brain has provided further evidence for the theory that the human brain has been shrinking. The skull belonged to an elderly Cro Magnon man, whose skeleton ...

Biology / Evolution

created Mar 15, 2010 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (20) | comments 38 | with audio podcast weblog

On the move: 'Jumping genes' create diversity in human brain cells

Rather than sticking to a single DNA script, human brain cells harbor astonishing genomic variability, according to scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The findings, to be published in ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Aug 05, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (15) | comments 3

IBM pursues chips that behave like brains

Computers, like humans, can learn. But when Google tries to fill in your search box based only on a few keystrokes, or your iPhone predicts words as you type a text message, it's only a narrow mimicry of what ...

Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation

created Aug 18, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (17) | comments 18

Japan scientists hope slime holds intelligence key

A brainless, primeval organism able to navigate a maze might help Japanese scientists devise the ideal transport network design. Not bad for a mono-cellular being that lives on rotting leaves.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (14) | comments 5

Neuronal diversity makes a difference, study says

Much like snowflakes, no two neurons are exactly alike. But it's not the size or shape that sets one neuron apart from another, it's the way it responds to incoming stimuli. Carnegie Mellon University researchers ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Aug 29, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (14) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

New technique reveals unseen information in DNA code

Imagine reading an entire book, but then realizing that your glasses did not allow you to distinguish "g" from "q." What details did you miss? Geneticists faced a similar problem with the recent discovery ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 17, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Differences in human and Neanderthal brains set in just after birth

(PhysOrg.com) -- The brains of newborn humans and Neanderthals are about the same size and appear rather similar overall. It's mainly after birth, and specifically in the first year of life, that the differences ...

Biology / Evolution

created Nov 08, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (13) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Why can't chimps speak? Study links evolution of single gene to human capacity for language

(PhysOrg.com) -- If humans are genetically related to chimps, why did our brains develop the innate ability for language and speech while theirs did not?

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (15) | comments 3