If your parents ever warned you that your childhood behavior would kill your brain cells, you may want to call them and say thank you. New research in the journal Nature finds that our brain cells may not regenerate as far into our adulthood — or even adolescence — as previously thought. In other words, you get one shot at growing brain cells — so make them count. A Whole New Brain Based on previous research in animals, and indirect tests in humans, researchers thought that our ...read more

Yesterday, Shinmoedake in Japan produced its largest eruption in almost 7 years. The volcano, which is part of the large Kirishima complex of volcanoes, sent ash and volcanic debris to over 3.5 kilometers (12,000 feet) over the volcano. The volcano was last restless in October 2017, when it produced some smaller ash plumes that reached up to a couple kilometers over the volcano, but this blast was much more akin to the 2011 eruption. Recent reports from Japan say that the volcano ...read more

What’s black, white and always dressed to impress? A penguin! And scientists, with the help of drones and poop stains, recently discovered a mega-colony of these dapper animals. The Adélie penguin population in the Antarctic continues to decline, particularly on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which some studies link to climate change. However, little is known about the population residing on the east side of the continent. After analyzing old satellite images, researcher ...read more

Returning sight to those for whom it's slipped away has been a goal of scientists for decades. But repairing or replacing the delicate internal machinery of the human eye has proven difficult so far. A few experimental devices have managed to grant low-resolution sight to the blind, but most require the use of bulky electronics and external power sources. But researchers from Fudan University and the University of Science and Technology of China say that they've come up with a more elegan ...read more

Chile’s Atacama is Earth’s driest desert. You could sit for decades in some places and never feel a raindrop. And yet, life survives here. Well-adapted plants can catch Pacific Ocean fog; then they provide that hydration to other animals. Indeed, our planet’s atmosphere holds more water than all its rivers combined, and these organisms are tapping into this water supply that humans are only beginning to appreciate. It’s not just in fog and clouds either. The air itsel ...read more

When I first saw this beautiful remote sensing image, I couldn't help but feel that I was looking at a painting by an abstract expressionist. Starting in the 1940s, abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollack and Clyfford Still "valued spontaneity and improvisation, and they accorded the highest importance to process," writes Stella Paul of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These artists placed "an emphasis on dynamic, energetic gesture," she notes. Their works also were p ...read more

Fight the flu, monitor mouth microbes, and prepare for Citizen Science Day! Flu Near You How are you feeling? If you can answer that question, you can answer a very quick weekly survey to tell researchers if you're feeling sick or not. This effort helps inform scientists on where the flu is around the world, check out the results on the map to see if the flu is, in fact, near you! Get started! Location: Online Only ...read more

Is it better to be lucky or good? Well, it's a trick question — you actually need both if you want to be successful. In an admittedly simplistic model, researchers from Italy's University of Catania, looked at whether talented individuals or those blessed with luck rose to the top. Though they found it took a bit of both, the distribution wasn't even. The most successful people weren't the most talented — they were simply the luckiest. Keep That Rabbit's Foot Their work was inspired ...read more