Nimble Neurons

Meet some of the people featured in the November 2016 issue of The Scientist.

Covering neuroscience research means choosing from an embarrassment of riches.

Nobel's diversity problem, Brexit and science, letters of recommendation skew sexist, and NIH's public perception troubles

Data collected by elephant seals in Antarctic waters provide a closer look at the processes driving ocean circulation.

The simple therapy likely exploits the neural plasticity of the olfactory system.

Male mice exposed to females, their urine, or a chemical in their urine lost sensory neurons in their vomeronasal organs that respond to that chemical.

Impairments in the production of neurotransmitters may lead to depression in some patients, preliminary results show, opening new avenues for research.

No longer considered an inevitability, growing older should be and is being treated like a chronic condition. 

Researchers swap microscopy for RNA sequencing to track neural paths in the mouse brain.
 

The results suggest that breathing is orchestrated by three—rather than two—excitatory circuits in the medulla.

Researchers describe the first known bacterial adhesion molecule that binds to frozen water. 

Results from experiments in mice revise a long-held hypothesis that certain protein scaffolds are needed for synaptic activity.

By studying the sleep-wake cycle of fruit flies, Amita Sehgal is revealing how the body’s circadian and sleep rhythms are regulated.

Assistant Professor, Bates College. Age: 37

Advances in cage design and monitoring software allow the collection of more realistic data.

How to make the most of this rapidly developing technique and a look at what's on the horizon

How researchers are taking advantage of Twitter and other forums to do, share, and discuss research

Researchers seek to disentangle the complexity of the human mind from a cross-disciplinary perspective, but the phenomenon may be out of the reach of human understanding.

In the 1990s, the development of this gentler and more precise microscopy method improved scientists’ ability to probe neurons’ activity and anatomy.