Scans of eight fossilized adult and infant Australopithecus afarensis skulls reveal a prolonged period of brain growth during development that may have set the stage for extended childhood learning in later hominins.

Without a brain, the frog embryo immune system doesn’t receive the signals it needs to mobilize macrophages and fight infections.

Juvenile birds learn the length of the sounds in a song from a false memory introduced via optogenetics, instead of from real interactions with a tutor bird.

Recent federal announcements serve as reminders that in the US policy continues to outpace science when it comes to cannabis.

The federal government cautions that the drug can affect brain development in both teens and fetuses.

The agency argues that chlorpyrifos is one of few “cost-effective options” for controlling certain farm pests.

Rhesus monkeys engineered to express a human gene reportedly show delayed brain development and better short-term memory. Fellow scientists are raising ethical red flags.

A study links having a male twin with women’s educational, financial, and childbearing decisions. Researchers suspect prenatal exposure to testosterone may play a role.

An analysis of the contours of more than 600 kids’ brains points to links between cerebral surface area and heritability in regions of the brain important in cognition.