Brain
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BrainThe color of body fat might affect how trim people are
Brown fat burns calories to keep us warm. Researchers are searching for ways to boost it to help fight obesity and diabetes.
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BrainBrain ‘ripples’ appear just before you remember something
Nerve cells in the brain’s hippocampus, a key memory center, fire together a second or two before people begin to recall an image, data now show.
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BrainRoutine hits in a single football season may harm players’ brains
A group of college football players underwent brain scans after a season of play. The results suggest playing the sport could harm neural signaling.
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BrainLasers make mice hallucinate
Scientists used a technique called optogenetics to make mice “see” vertical or horizontal lines that didn’t actually exist.
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BrainThis brain region may make lifelike robots creep you out
Robots that look too much like real people can be unsettling. Scientists identified a brain region that may be behind these uneasy feelings.
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BrainHigh fat diet removes brain’s natural brake on overeating
At least in mice, high-fat diets promote overeating. And the problem appears to trace to changes that these foods make to cells in an appetite-control center within the brain.
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Health & MedicineA sixth finger can prove extra handy
Two people born with six fingers on each hand adeptly control their extra digits, using them to do tasks better than five-fingered hands.
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BrainThe U.S. prison system can harm young brains, scientist warns
The U.S. justice system holds teens to adult standards. And that can harm a teen’s developing brain, one researcher now argues.
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LifeIn a first, scientists keep cells alive in the brains of dead pigs
They’re not true zombies — but these pig brains showed signs of cellular life long after the animals had died.
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BrainPeople may indeed have a sixth sense — for magnetism
People may process information about Earth’s magnetic field without knowing it, a study of brain waves suggests.
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PsychologyArt can make science easier to remember
Students who learn science using art remember what they learned longer than those in regular classes.
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PsychologyWhat part of us knows right from wrong?
Our conscience may have evolved from our need to cooperate. Scientists are learning where the brain’s moral centers are, and how they make us human.