The emergence of human life may not have been as improbable as scientists once thought, a new model suggests. The finding increases the likelihood of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, the researchers say. Previously, scientists assumed that for human life to emerge on Earth, it needed to pass through a series of “hard steps” … Read more
Scientists have made new improvements to a “brain decoder” that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to convert thoughts into text. Their new converter algorithm can quickly train an existing decoder on another person’s brain, the team reported in a new study. The findings could one day support people with aphasia, a brain disorder that affects a … Read more
How fast do humans think? According to a new study, it’s slower than you might expect. The peripheral nervous system — the network of nerves that deliver information between the brain and the body — takes in environmental information at over a billion bits per second, a speed comparable to a lightning-fast internet connection. But … Read more
Forgetting is part of our daily lives. You may walk into a room only to forget why you went in there — or perhaps someone says hi on the street and you can’t remember their name. But why do we forget things? Is it simply a sign of memory impairment, or are there benefits? One … Read more
Imagine you are in a soccer match, and it’s tied. Each team will begin taking penalty kicks. The crowd is roaring, and whether or not your team wins the game depends on your ability to hit the shot. As you imagine this scene, are you able to picture the scenario with colors and details? Scientists … Read more
Memories evolve throughout our lifetimes, changing as we learn and experience new things and as we recall a memory repeatedly. And then, memories degrade as we age. Previously, scientists thought that this malleability was the result of changes in the brain cells that originally encoded the memory, and they believed these cells stored just one … Read more
Brain organoids are 3D, lab-grown models designed to mimic the human brain. Scientists normally grow them from stem cells, coaxing them into forming a brain-like structure. In the past decade, they have become increasingly sophisticated and can now replicate multiple types of brain cells, which can communicate with one another. This has led some scientists … Read more
Psilocybin, the compound that makes magic mushrooms trippy, works its magic by desynchronizing the brain network responsible for a person’s sense of self, new research finds. Psilocybin warps people’s sense of time and space, as well as shifts their feelings of connection to the world around them. While most of these subjective effects wane pretty … Read more
Some memories last a lifetime — and now, scientists have revealed a type of molecular “glue” that helps those memories stick around. Memories form when collections of neurons in a region of the brain called the hippocampus activate in response to a particular experience. Each time you recall that experience, the same set of cells … Read more
Scientists have identified a vulnerability in virtual reality (VR) headsets that could let hackers access private information without the wearers’ knowledge. A hacker can insert a new “layer” between the user and the device’s normal image source. Hackers can then deploy a fake app in the VR headset that might trick the wearer into behaving … Read more
