Article archives

Mysterious vaults and neuronal regeneration

Mysterious vaults and neuronal regeneration

Molecular biologyNeurobiology

By Carlos Romá-Mateo

From a certain point of view, eukaryotic cells could be described as microscopic power plants equipped with factories and energy-generating platforms, inside of which highways and compartments are constantly built and rebuilt, and a fluent traffic provides a constant recycling of structures while getting rid of garbage. The trafficking also involves material coming in and […]

The rhythm of my nerves

The rhythm of my nerves

Neuroscience

By Isabel de la Fuente

Despite the large variety of musical tastes, we all tend to like or dislike certain combinations of sounds. This perception goes down to a basic level when two or more notes play simultaneously, such as in musical chords. A chord is called consonant when it is perceived as pleasant to our ears and dissonant when […]

The mechanical eye

The mechanical eye

Neurobiology

By Francisco J Hernández

About 95% of the photoreceptors in our retina are rods, which we use for nocturnal vision, since they can detect single photons. During the day, rods saturate, and we use the other 5% of photoreceptors, the cones, which mediate color vision and do not saturate even at the highest light levels. There is still a […]

MI weekly selection #13

MI weekly selection #13

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Bunnies implicated in the demise of Neanderthals in Iberia Excavations are shedding light on what might have been a significant factor in the demise of the Neanderthal: the inability to hunt small game. The remains of large animals are prevalent in Neanderthal cave excavations, but the bones of smaller animals such as rabbits were prevalent […]

Freeing the Language Within: on how babies extract words out of sounds.

Freeing the Language Within: on how babies extract words out of sounds.

Neurolinguistics

By Itziar Laka

Michelangelo famously claimed he merely carved out sculptures he saw trapped inside the stone. His genius involved a powerful internal vision that he masterly imposed on external matter. We can think of Michelangelo’s conception of sculpture when we look at human babies acquiring language, because babies, like sculptors, carve out the language they hear in […]

Laser spectrochemistry beyond Earth’s boundaries: Curiosity’s Chemcam

Laser spectrochemistry beyond Earth’s boundaries: Curiosity’s Chemcam

ChemistryPhysicsRobotics

By Paola Vega

It is well known that an accurate and energetic laser shot can melt, ionize and excite the material in which the light is focused, creating very bright plasmas after the interaction. Valuable information can be obtained from the light emitted by the plasma, such as the elemental composition of the material itself or the environment […]