In Drosophila’s neural circuitry for courtship, researchers discover a configuration that enables a male fruit fly to be persistent, yet flexible in his pursuit of a female.
Our brains have sensory cells, which process the faces that we see, and memory cells dedicated to storing data from person encounters. But until now, a hybrid neuron capable of linking vision to memory—and explaining how we recall familiar faces—remained elusive.
Scientists have launched an ambitious effort to produce high-quality reference genomes for all vertebrate species, from mammals to birds and reptiles. The result could be discoveries with implications for animal conservation as well as human health and disease.
Scientists call it oxytocin in humans, isotocin in fish, mesotocin in birds, and valitocin in sharks. But according to a new study, it’s all the same hormone—and high time we settled on just one name.
Unlike their female counterparts, male mosquitoes have no desire to bite us. But the hardware for host-seeking is hidden in the male mosquito brain, locked behind a simple genetic switch.
COVID-19 causes a host of diverse complications, from lung inflammation to blood clots, heart failure, and brain fog. A team of scientists believes these attributes may have a single culprit—and that findings from research on Alzheimer’s disease might give them a leg up in finding it.
Unlike most humans, bats are naturally resistant to coronavirus infection. Researchers are now searching their genomes for clues that might explain why SARS-CoV-2 can cause devastating disease in our own species.
Female mosquitoes are armed with syringe-like stylets that begin to pump furiously only in the presence of blood. Scientists are now studying the specific neurons that line the stylet, and asking what mosquitoes taste when they bite us.
Rice will receive the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research that led to a cure for hepatitis C, a viral disease affecting 170 million people worldwide. His lab worked on the virus for three decades and became the first to produce a version of it that could be grown and studied i...
