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Swarming Bacteria Create an ‘Impossible’ Superfluid
Researchers explore a loophole that extracts useful energy from a fluid’s seemingly random motion. The secret? Sugar and asymmetry.
To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget
Researchers find evidence that neural systems actively remove memories, suggesting that forgetting may be the default mode of the brain.
Why Nature Prefers Couples, Even for Yeast
Some species have the equivalent of many more than two sexes, but most do not. A new model suggests the reason depends on how often they mate.
To Make Sense of the Present, Brains May Predict the Future
A controversial theory suggests that perception, motor control, memory and other brain functions all depend on comparisons between ongoing actual experiences and the brain’s modeled expectations.
Slime Molds Remember — but Do They Learn?
Evidence mounts that organisms without nervous systems can in some sense learn and solve problems, but researchers disagree about whether this is “primitive cognition.”
Salamander’s Genome Guards Secrets of Limb Regrowth
With a fully sequenced genome in hand, scientists hope they are finally poised to learn how axolotls regenerate lost body parts.
Solution: ‘The Slippery Math of Causation’
The all-too-intuitive picture of a straight arrow going from cause to effect is far too simplistic to describe the real world.
Mathematics Shows How to Ensure Evolution
New results emerging from graph theory prove that the way a population is organized can guarantee the eventual triumph of natural selection — or permanently thwart it.
Theory Suggests That All Genes Affect Every Complex Trait
The more closely geneticists look at complex traits and diseases, the harder it gets to find active genes that don’t play some part in them.