6 results

• CuriousTwo thousand ordinary people are helping restore a 240-million-year-old predator.A nearly six-metre Mastodonsaurus skeleton is being restored in a glass-walled laboratory in Warsaw with help from more than 2,000 trained volunteers. The project turns fossil preparation into public science without pretending the work is easy.
• PeopleA question about algae ended up giving scientists a light switch for the brain.Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel and Karl Deisseroth won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries that made optogenetics possible: using light-sensitive proteins to control selected nerve cells.
• ExplainedWhat is optogenetics? Think of it as a remote control for selected neurons.Optogenetics combines genes and light to control selected cells, especially neurons, with unusual precision. It lets researchers test what specific brain circuits actually do rather than only watching them become active.
• CuriousYou do not have a lizard brain.The phrase is everywhere: the rational human brain supposedly sits on top of an ancient reptile brain that controls fear and instinct. It is memorable, intuitive and scientifically misleading.
• ExplainedTrillions of particles pass through you. Almost none notice you are there.Neutrinos are tiny, electrically neutral particles that interact so weakly with matter that they can pass through planets. That strange property makes them difficult to detect and unusually valuable for understanding the Sun, stars and extreme cosmic events.
• CuriousMars has a blue sunrise and cliffs scientists have waited years to reach.NASA’s Curiosity rover has photographed wind-carved cliffs called yardangs in unusually vivid morning light. The image is beautiful, but the geology is the more interesting story: these rocks may preserve a missing chapter in Mount Sharp’s history.