Over millions of years, retroviruses have been incorporated into human DNA, where they today make up almost 10 per cent of the total genome. A research group at Lund University in Sweden has now discovered a mechanism through ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 12, 2017
0
6
Anyone who has allowed a child to "help" with a project quickly learns that kids, no matter how intelligent or eager, are less competent than adults. Teenagers are more capable—but, as every parent knows, teens can be ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 6, 2017
0
243
It powers everything we do, yet remains one of our biggest mysteries.
Other
Dec 27, 2016
0
13
The human brain, the most complex object in the universe, has 86 billion neurons with trillions of yet-unmapped connections. Understanding how it generates behavior is a problem that has beguiled humankind for millennia, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 26, 2016
6
171
MIT researchers and their colleagues have developed a new computational model of the human brain's face-recognition mechanism that seems to capture aspects of human neurology that previous models have missed.
Computer Sciences
Dec 1, 2016
2
1416
For observations based on sensory data, the human brain must constantly verify which "version" of reality underlies the perception. The answer is gleaned from probability distributions that are stored in the nerve cell network ...
General Physics
Nov 11, 2016
1
2140
In a developing embryo, some cells can self-segregate – like oil separating out of water – to help create the tissues and organs of the human body. For example, brain cells separate into clusters that give rise to different ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 20, 2016
0
4
Our similarities and differences to chimpanzees, our great ape cousins, have intrigued people for centuries. Of particular interest is the brain. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 7, 2016
0
14
Engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are leading a research team that is developing a new type of nanodevice for computer microprocessors that can mimic the functioning of a biological synapse—the place ...
Nanophysics
Sep 29, 2016
1
14
Last March, the artificial intelligence (AI) program AlphaGo beat Korean Go champion LEE Se-Dol at the Asian board game. "The game was quite tight, but AlphaGo used 1200 CPUs and 56,000 watts per hour, while Lee used only ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 2, 2016
0
1
