The Brain Doesn't Need Consciousness to Understand Language
The unconscious brain can process language and predict upcoming words.
Medicine & Health
Dad's Gym Habits Ship With His Sperm
The sperm delivery story has a plot twist: it carries a molecular diary of recent lifestyle choices and kids get a copy.
Salmonella Is the Trojan Horse Sneaking in a Virus That Attacks Cancer Cells
Scientists engineered Salmonella bacteria to smuggle a cancer-killing virus past the immune system and deliver it directly into tumors.
A Dying Brain Doesn't Go Quiet. It Has Lucid, Structured Experiences.
When the heart stops, the brain doesn't go dark. It runs a structured sequence science can finally describe.
A Blind Man Got a Brain Implant. He Kept Seeing After It Came Out.
The device came out. The recovery didn't. A brain that had been dark for years reactivated circuits nobody knew were still there.
Cells Guarding the Brain Also Decide When Puberty Starts
Microglia are the brain's immune custodians. They've also been deciding when puberty starts.
Engineers Printed Artificial Neurons. The Living Brain Answered Back.
Printed neurons made from electronic ink triggered real brain cells to fire — a breakthrough with direct implications for neuroprosthetics and brain-like computing.
A Virus That Kills Shrimp Is Showing Up in Human Eyes
A seafood pathogen has turned up in the eye tissue of patients with a serious, vision-threatening condition.
Lab-Grown Brain Tissue Can Play Pong. The Next Question Is Does It Feel.
Scientists are linking lab-grown brain tissue into structures complex enough that researchers are now seriously asking, in peer-reviewed journals, whether they could be conscious. There are no regulations yet.
A Brain That Should Be Dead Is Alive
The line between recoverable and not-recoverable for brain activity has moved.
Invisible Voices Make Accurate Diagnosis
A woman's hallucinations gave her a medical diagnosis, a hospital address, and a farewell. The tumor was real. Medicine still doesn't have a clean answer for the rest of it.
Space Broke Sperm's GPS
Sperm in microgravity can still swim. The problem is they've completely lost the plot. What that means for humanity's space ambitions is not a small question.