Scent is essential to ant society: every ant within a colony wears the badge of membership in the form of smelly hydrocarbons. Human air pollution, a new study from Max-Planck Institute researchers suggests, is wreaking havoc on ant society by interfering with these characteristic scents. Each ant species’ perfume is formed from stable alkanes, plus … Read more
Summary: Scientists have identified a previously unknown type of neural stem cell (pNSC) that exists outside the brain and spinal cord, overturning decades of neuroscience dogma. These peripheral neural stem cells, discovered in tissues like the lung and tail of mice, share key properties with brain-derived neural stem cells, including the ability to self-renew and … Read more
Researchers found that even full mice continued eating sugar due to the activation of POMC neurons, which release ß-endorphin, triggering a reward response. This mechanism was also observed in humans, suggesting an evolutionary drive to consume sugar, which may have implications for obesity treatment. Nerve cells that signal when we are full also trigger cravings … Read more
Simulation of a vast region of the Universe based on the current cosmological model and performed using supercomputers. In the image, the faint glow of the gas within the cosmic filaments, forming a dense cosmic web, is shown in white. At the intersections of these filaments, the gas within galaxies, which fuels the formation of … Read more