“Spider-vision” study shows how arachnids can detect biological motion

Inside a dark laboratory, a little spider hangs in front of a computer screen. Rather than a silk line suspending it from above, a complex cylindrical apparatus seems to hold it in place. The spider’s feet touch a plastic ball covered with small dark patches. As images move across the…

‘Netting’ bacteria with DNA: strategies of a social amoeba

Life has survived for more than three billion years because it is robust, and almost no mutations can easily outwit the defense mechanisms built up through eons of exposure to potential pathogens. –Lawrence M. Krauss Every second, every minute of your life, your body is under attack. This may be…

Freud, Cocaine and the Dopamine Hypothesis of Addiction

Sigmund Freud, the venerable father of psychoanalysis, had a lesser known distinction up his sleeve. He produced one of the first comprehensive scientific analyses of the drug Cocaine, published in 1884 under the title ‘Über Coca’. In this remarkable manuscript, amidst sections such as a detailed description of the cocaine…

‘Sonogenetics’ – Using sound waves to activate brain cells

Scientists at the Salk Institute, USA have discovered a way to control brain cells using ultrasonic sound waves. Their method, which they call ‘sonogenetics’, has been applied to the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans, and can pave the way for advanced research into brain function by letting researchers target individual neurons…

A stink bug is the first animal known to actively control egg color

The spined soldier bug, despite having a really cool name, is rather unimpressive in appearance. About the size of a fingernail and a muddy, mottled brown in color, this little bug does not look like it might be hiding any deep secrets. Also called the stink bug, it is often…