In short, nothing good—and just one bad night can trigger a cascade of scary side effects

In a milestone for synthetic biology, colonies of E. coli thrive with DNA constructed from scratch by humans, not nature.

Universal emotions are the deep engine of human consciousness and the basis of our profound affinity with other animals

A man who had not walked for two years was able to move all his limbs thanks to new technology.

People who have had a leg amputated found that a prosthetic leg with sensors felt like an extension of their own bodies and helped them avoid tripping over

Babies learn to speak by mimicking their parents – just ask anyone who’s caught their child casually repeating an obscenity they didn’t realize they'd heard. While studying just what’s going on in the brain during this kind of vocal learning, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern have managed to implant “memories” into the brains of zebra finches, teaching them to sing a song they’ve never actually heard.

Discovery of TOM-1 protein role heralds new directions in the disease fight

The social media company acquires CTRL-Labs, a “brain-machine-interface” startup that lets users control devices by tapping signals off a wristband.

In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that testosterone administration did not affect cognitive empathy, a measure of the ability to recognize another’s feelings and motivations. The finding calls into question the theory that the symptoms of autism are caused by a hyper-masculinized brain.

Phenomenal consciousness is a fiction written by our brains to help us track the impact that the world makes on us

Filtering out distractions might be more important for the brain than highlighting important information.

A French man paralysed in a nightclub accident has walked again thanks to a brain-controlled exoskeleton, providing hope to tetraplegics seeking to regain movement. The patient trained for months, harnessing his brain signals to control a computer-simulated avatar to perform basic movements before using the robot device to walk. Scientists described the trial results as a breakthrough.

Laughter has positive psychological, physiological, and immunological impacts on your health. Even trying a "laughing exercise" might just surprise you.

The same brain regions are activated when both reading and listening to stories, a new study says. It's a new insight into how our brains process semantic meaning.

"I'd expected to see slowing down of the clock, but not a reversal," geneticist Steve Horvath said. "That felt kind of futuristic."

How is the retina formed? And how do neurons differentiate to become individual components of the visual system? By focusing on the early stages of this complex process, researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, in collaboration with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), have identified the genetic programmes governing the birth of different types of retinal cells and their capacity to wire to the correct part of the brain, where they transmit visual information.

When researchers at the University of Kentucky compare brains donated from people who died with dementia, very rarely do they find one that bears only Alzheimer’s trademark plaques and tangles no other damage. If they do, “we call it a unicorn,” said Donna Wilcock, an Alzheimer’s specialist at the university’s aging center.

A research team at the University of California, Riverside, has found that electronic cigarettes, often targeted to youth and pregnant women, produce a stress response in neural stem cells, which are critical cells in the brain. Present throughout life, stem cells become specialized cells with more specific functions, such as brain cells, blood cells, or bone. Far more sensitive to stress than the specialized cells they become, stem cells provide a model to study exposure to toxicants, such as cigarette smoke. 

In experiments on pig organs, scientists at Yale made a discovery that could someday challenge our understanding of what it means to die.

In a search for clues to what may delay or prevent Alzheimer’s disease, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists report that smarter, more educated people aren’t protected from the disease, but do get a cognitive “head start” that may keep their minds functioning better temporarily.