Researchers Tap a Sleep Switch in the Brain

In a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, a microbe does something that life shouldn’t be able to do: It breathes oxygen and sulfur at the same time.The story The Cells That Breathe Two Ways first appeared on Quanta Magazine. 

Together, Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard figured out how to use the laws of quantum physics to keep secret messages safe from eavesdroppers. Their efforts have earned them one of the highest awards in computing and a $1 million prize. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, h ...  Show more

Restless nights? Walking around like a sleepless zombie? Welcome to the BrainTools podcast, practical Brain science for everyday people. In this episode of the BrainTools Podcast you're going to learn the neuroscience of sleep: why we sleep, the sleep-deprived brain and how sleep ...  Show more

Neuroscientists have long been trying to determine what happens in the brain during sleep, but to date, they have overlooked a key player: astrocytes. These star-shaped cells were once thought to be the glue that held the brain together, but we are now beginning to appreciate ...

Research indicates that sleep is one of the many factors in how our bodies create, store, and burn fat. We explore in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/sleep-obesity.htm Learn more about your ad-choices at https://ww ...  Show more

Researchers studying anesthetized rats discovered a handful of activity patterns that may mark the path to consciousness after anesthesia. Karen Hopkin reports