Sleep May Help Clear Brain For New Learning:
A new theory about sleep's benefits for the brain gets a boost from fruit flies in the journal Science. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found evidence that sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning.
Mollusks Taste Memories To Build Shells:
University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Alistair Boettiger has amassed a beautiful collection of seashells, but not by combing the beach. He created them in his computer. He and George Oster, a UC Berkeley biophysicist, along with University of Pittsburgh mathematical neuroscientist Bard Ermentrout, have written a computer program that generates the complex patterns of seashells using simple principles developed to explain how the brain works and how memories are stored.
Huge Population Of Rare Dolphins Discovered:
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has just announced the discovery of a huge population of rare dolphins in South Asia--but warns that the population is threatened by climate change and fishing nets.
DNA Analysis Uncovers The Prehistory Of Norwegian Red Deer:
For his doctoral thesis, Hallvard Haanes discovered that Norwegian red deer are genetically different from other European red deer, due to their historical distribution. However, a century ago, red deer were imported from continental Europe to the island of Otterøya in Namsos, and these imported deer have created hybrid forms with the Norwegian red deer on the island.
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