Composer Alvin Lucier in 1986

Art Meets Science

Artificial ‘Brain’ Aims to Allow Composer to Keep Making Music Three Years After His Death

Before dying in 2021, Alvin Lucier donated blood for “Revivification,” an installation that generates sound in response to neural signals

Human perception of color is regulated by three types of cone cells in the eye. By artificially stimulating just one type with a laser, researchers and study participants experienced a new color they call "olo."

Scientists Say They’ve Discovered a New Color—an ‘Unprecedented’ Hue Only Ever Seen by Five People

The color, dubbed olo, is described as an intensely saturated teal. Researchers say it might have applications in understanding color blindness

A cell culture plate with pluripotent stem cells, which can differentiate into any kind of cell in the body.

Stem Cell Therapies Could Treat Parkinson’s Disease by Rebuilding Lost Circuitry in the Brain, Studies Suggest

Two small clinical trials tested the safety of injecting stem cells into the brains of Parkinson’s patients and found no adverse effects

Carrion crows (Corvus corone) can tell the difference between geometric shapes, according to new research.

Crows May Grasp Basic Geometry: Study Finds the Brainy Birds Can Tell the Difference Between Shapes

Scientists tested crows on their ability to recognize “geometric regularity,” a skill previously assumed to be unique to humans

A subset of more than 1,000 neurons, representing just a snapshot of the complexity mapped within a cubic millimeter of mouse brain tissue

In a World First, Researchers Mapped Part of a Mouse’s Brain in Incredible Detail. It’s a Leap Forward for Neuroscience

The 3D brain map includes more than 200,000 cells, 523 million synapses and over two miles of axons, representing the most detailed wiring diagram of a piece of mammal brain ever constructed

Researchers connect stroke survivor Ann Johnson's brain implant to the experimental computer, which will allow her to speak by thinking words.

Enhanced Brain Implant Translates Stroke Survivor’s Thoughts Into Nearly Instant Speech Using Artificial Intelligence

The system harnesses technology similar to that of devices like Alexa and Siri, according to the researchers, and improves on a previous model

Budgerigars are the only animals known so far to have language-producing centers of neurons akin to those in humans, according to new research.

Can Parrot Brains Teach Us About Human Speech? Study Finds Budgies Have Language-Producing Regions That Resemble Our Own

The parakeets commonly kept as pets could offer fresh clues about vocal learning and potential treatments for speech disorders

Cells producing the NOVA1 protein are shown in green in the brain of a mouse. A specific variant of this protein is unique to humans, and researchers suggest it is linked to spoken language development.

Scientists Identify a Gene Linked to Spoken Language, and It Makes Lab Mice Squeak Differently

A new study suggests the unique human version of the NOVA1 protein developed after our ancestors split from Neanderthals on the evolutionary tree, and it might have given us a competitive edge over our relatives

A new study suggests lab mice will open the mouths and pull on the tongues of their unconscious companions.

Lab Mice Appear to Offer ‘First Aid’ Care to Their Unconscious Companions, Even Pulling on Their Tongues

A new study finds that mice will sniff, lick and pull the tongue of other mice that are under anesthesia, serving to open their airways

Mice have an instinctive reaction to hide when the shadow of a bird passes over. In a new study, scientists taught the rodents to overcome that fear.

How Can the Brain Overcome Fear? New Study of Mice Offers Clues to PTSD and Anxiety Treatment

Researchers identified two brain areas in mice that helped the animals learn to suppress their instinctive fears of predators

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, this week.

The Eight Coolest Inventions From the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show

A needle-free injection system, a bug-watching garden camera, a wearable that helps with memory lapses and more were unveiled at the annual Las Vegas trade show

The glymphatic system moves a clear liquid called cerebrospinal fluid around the brain to flush out toxic proteins accumulated during waking hours.

In a Study on Mice, Scientists Show How the Brain Washes Itself During Sleep

The brain’s waste-removal process is “like turning on the dishwasher,” a neurologist says, but common sleep medications may harm it

At the same time as the Romans were building the Colosseum, they were also breathing in high amounts of toxic lead from silver mining and smelting operations.

Ancient Romans Breathed in Enough Lead to Lower Their IQs, Study Finds. Did That Toxin Contribute to the Empire’s Fall?

Using Arctic ice core samples, researchers estimate silver mining and smelting released enough lead during the Pax Romana to cause a 2.5- to 3-point drop in IQ

Researchers calculated that the human brain processes thought at a speed of ten bits per second.

The Speed of Human Thought Is Far Slower Than the Average Wi-Fi, Study Suggests

But the rate that we gather sensory data is 100 million times faster than our thought processes, making our brains champions at filtering information from our chaotic surroundings

Researchers looked at brain scan data and results from blood tests to search for correlation between certain proteins and brain aging.

Researchers Find 13 Proteins in the Blood That Are Seemingly Linked to Brain Aging

Though experts say more work is needed to understand the findings, this line of study might offer a way to monitor age-related cognitive disorders and target treatment

Mary, the 54-year-old Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo, loves using a hose to rinse off.

These Elephants Can Use Hoses to Shower—and Even ‘Sabotage’ Each Other, Study Suggests

Mary, a 54-year-old Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo, is the “queen of showering,” but her companion Anchali seems to have figured out how to exploit that habit to play pranks

If a reader stared at one of Spectropia’s illustrations under a strong light source for about 20 seconds and then gazed at a blank wall in a darkened room, a version of that image in inverted colors appeared.

This 19th-Century ‘Toy Book’ Used Science to Prove That Ghosts Were Simply an Illusion

“Spectropia” demystified the techniques used by mediums who claimed they could speak to the dead, revealing the “absurd follies of Spiritualism”

The iridescent abdomen of a cuckoo wasp (Hedychrum gerstaeckeri) looks beautiful when viewed under a microscope.

See 15 Mesmerizing Photos of Hidden Scenes Only Visible Through a Microscope

Winners of the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition captured insects, cancer cells, cat claws and more

Volunteers looked at the original artworks in the museum and posters in the gift shop.

Art Meets Science

Seeing Vermeer’s ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ in Person Stimulates the Brain More Than Looking at Reprints, Study Suggests

Scientists used EEG headsets, MRI machines and eye trackers to study volunteers’ responses to five paintings housed at the Mauritshuis museum in the Netherlands

Researchers mapped all 139,255 neurons in the brain of an adult fruit fly, which are linked by more than 50 million synapses.

Scientists Unveil the First-Ever Complete Map of an Adult Fruit Fly’s Brain, Captured in Stunning Detail

The brain diagram, called a connectome, could revolutionize researchers’ understanding of the human brain, which has many parallels with a fruit fly’s

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