Under constant darkness, Drosophila’s ability to form lasting memories is impaired.

Strategies to make lab animals forget, remember, or experience false recollections probe how memory works, and may inspire treatments for neurological diseases.

Researchers have developed ways to manipulate neurons involved in a particular memory to make mice recall an experience or to remember something that never happened.

The plant geneticist has revolutionized researchers’ understanding of how light affects plant growth and development, and is engineering plants to combat climate change.

The click beetle’s intricate false eyes cast a deep black color with the help of pigment-coated hairs.

Flashing lights activate fly navigation neurons.

See a close-up of the deep-sea dragonfish’s transparent teeth.

Slithering snakes mimic waves of light, “diffracting” as they pass by an obstacle.

Researchers used infrared light to relieve itchy mice.

Researchers have outfitted brewer’s yeast with light-harvesting semiconductors to boost chemical productivity.

Researchers identify neurological pathways through which light affects mood and learning in mice.

Pectin fragments may signal plant cells to maintain a type of growth suited to darkness.

Scientists infuse plants with the luminescence of fireflies. 

Genetically engineered "disco bacteria" sense and respond to different colors of light, creating both stunning art in the culture dish and new possibilities for synthetic biology.

Incorporating light-controlled dimerization domains into kinases provides tight regulation of these enzymes.

Photon emissions in the brain are red-shifted in more-intelligent species, though scientists dispute what that means.

Squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses possess vision machinery in their skin.

Artificially extended days cause mice to gain fat and alter the function of their brown fat, a study shows.

The mollusk’s flashy tactics scare off predators.