Memory LaneCiara Greene and Gillian MurphyPrinceton Univ., $29.95 There are countless metaphors for memory. It’s a leaky bucket, a steel trap, a file cabinet, words written in sand. But one of the most evocative — and neuroscientifically descriptive — invokes Lego bricks. A memory is like a Lego tower. It’s built from the ground up,…
An mRNA cancer vaccine may offer long-term protection
Great hammerhead sharks are known for their long migrations, but scientists have now discovered that some individuals in the Bahamas instead spend all year snacking without leaving their plentiful and protected home waters. Why would some individuals take off if others are happy to stay put? The answer to this mystery might be their favorite…
A baby’s early life has a lot of milestones: first giggle, first tooth, first step. A brain scanning study adds to the list: first memory. Infants can form memories, and they use a memory structure in the brain called the hippocampus to do it, researchers report in the March 21 Science. The results shore up…
Images of California’s wildfires this winter speak for themselves about the fires’ devastating effects. But those pictures don’t tell the whole story. Together with soil emissions, the fires are driving an increase in ground-level ozone pollution — causing a fundamental shift in our atmosphere’s chemistry, researchers say, and potentially rendering air pollution standards unmeetable. “We’re…
Gray seals may sense their own blood oxygen levels