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The Gut Microbiome Helps Social Skills Develop in the Brain

November 15, 2022

New research in fish suggests that gut microbes can have a crucial early influence on the brain’s social development.

How Supergenes Fuel Evolution Despite Harmful Mutations

November 8, 2022

Supergenes that lock inherited traits together are widespread in nature. Recent work shows that their blend of genetic benefits and risks for species can be complex.

Ocean Bacteria Reveal an Unexpected Multicellular Form

November 2, 2022

Marine bacteria normally seen as single cells join together as a “microscopic snow globe” to consume bulky floating carbohydrates.

How Genes Can Leap From Snakes to Frogs in Madagascar

October 27, 2022

The discovery of a hot spot for horizontal gene transfer draws attention to the possible roles of parasites and ecology in such changes.

Q&A

Human Brains Are Hard to Study. He Grows Useful Substitutes.

October 12, 2022

With stem cell technology and lab-grown brain organoids, Sergiu Paşca seeks the causes of autism and other neuropsychiatric conditions.

Lab-Grown Human Cells Form Working Circuits in Rat Brains

October 12, 2022

Letting human brain organoids grow in animal brains could be an ethical new option for experimental studies of neurological disorders.

Machine Learning Highlights a Hidden Order in Scents

October 10, 2022

Efforts to build a better digital “nose” suggest that our perception of scents reflects both the structure of aromatic molecules and the metabolic processes that make them.

Molecule-Building Innovators Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

October 5, 2022

The chemists Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless were recognized for their development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.

Geneticist Awarded Nobel Prize for Studies of Extinct Human Ancestors

October 3, 2022

Svante Pääbo has been awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studying our extinct ancestors’ DNA.

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