Brain State Bread Crumbs Lead Way Back to Con...

New evidence points to the evolution of the ability for bacteria to grab nitrogen from the atmosphere some 3.2 billion years ago, about 1.2 billion years earlier than thought—with implications for finding extraterrestrial life. Lee Billings reports 

A dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way may consist of more dark matter than regular matter.* Clara Moskowitz reports 

New research using functional brain imaging reveals that many patients considered to be in a coma or vegetative state and who are unresponsive may actually be conscious and aware. A full transcript of this episode is available at nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2408662. 

Powerful new experiments have uncovered some of the molecular underpinnings of sleep.

The post Researchers Tap a Sleep Switch in the Brain first appeared on

Rats kept awake after exploring novel objects remembered the original items but not where they’d seen those objects, raising interesting questions about human sleep. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Sergiu Pasca, Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University has left the petri dish in the drawer and grown human neurons inside the brains of juvenile rats. Successful connectivity and brain function may allow for more rigorous testing and understanding of neurological conditio ...  Show more