neuroscience
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Pain-Free Love
By Jef Akst
Love can buffer people from pain by invoking feelings of safety and reassurance.
The Birth of Optogenetics
By Edward S. Boyden
An account of the path to realizing tools for controlling brain circuits with light
OPSINS: Tools of the trade
By Edward S. Boyden
The optogenetic toolset is composed of genetically encoded molecules that, when targeted to specific neurons in the brain, enable the…
For Whom the Bell Tolls
By Cristina Luiggi
Eleanor Simpson on how dopamine helps rats learn and may lead humans to addiction
Best in Academia, 2011
By The Scientist Staff
Meet some of the finalists of this year’s Best Places to Work in Academia survey. Read the full story.
Foresight
By Karen Hopkin
Studying the earliest events in visual development, Carla Shatz has learned the importance of looking at one’s data with open eyes—and an open mind.
Optogenetics: A Light Switch for Neurons
By Edward S. Boyden
This animation illustrates optogenetics—a radical new technology for controlling brain activity with light. Ed Boyden, the co-inventor of this technology,…
Sleep on it
By Megan Scudellari
Scientists invent a method to control the timing and duration of sleep in fruit flies and find that snoozing helps form long-term memories
Head trauma in the funny pages
By Richard P. Grant
Researchers are using real-world methods to study traumatic brain injuries in a comic book
Stress births neural stem cells
By Jessica P. Johnson
When mice are held in isolation, stem cells in the hippocampus make more of themselves and wait for better times
