Animal anatomy

Image: Maryna_Auramchuk (Shutterstock)A team of scientists in Japan is hoping to make their tooth-growing drug a reality in the near future. Following recent promising research in animals, the group is planning to conduct small-scale human trials of the drug starting next year. Should everything go well, the treatment could reach the public by the end of the decade.Teyonah Parris and John Boyega on Working With Jamie Foxx | io9 InterviewThe experimental treatment is being developed by scientists at the Medical Research…

What was once the realm of science fiction and grifters who claim to have psychic powers takes another step towards reality as a team of researchers from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) successfully developed a machine-learning algorithm that can decode a mouse’s brain signals and reproduce images of what it’s seeing.Can AI Help with Mental Health?Before you share this new research to your Facebook group or email friends and family in a panic telling them it’s time to don their tin foil hats, this…

A white-bellied pangolin rescued in Uganda last year.Photo: Photo by ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP via Getty Images (Getty Images)Mammals have a pretty basic blueprint. Among other things, we give birth to live young, we’re warm-blooded, and, perhaps most obviously, we all have hair. (Yes, even dolphins.) But in the churn of natural selection, some mammals ended up with appendages that look like they should be found on a reptile, bird, or insect. That’s convergent evolution for you: Why should reptiles be the only ones to enjoy the…

Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)In new research this week, scientists say they’ve been able to teach mice and human brain cells how to play one of the most enduring video games in history: Pong. The novel feat suggests that even neurons on an individual level can learn and exhibit a form of rudimentary sentience, the authors say. And the research may one day pave the way toward creating computers that use brain cells to perform certain tasks at a level that today’s computers couldn’t hope to accomplish.The research is…

Illustration: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)People might be more hotheaded than we thought. In new research this week, scientists say they were able to create the first maps of healthy people’s brain temperatures. Their findings indicate that brain temperature varies widely depending on many factors, like the time of day and region of the brain, but that it’s typically warmer than the rest of our body.The study was conducted primarily by researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory for Molecular Biology in…