Study offers most comprehensive inventory yet of the human microbiome and a basis for understanding how those microbes affect health.

Bacon, cheesecake and Ho Hos elicit addictive behavior in rats similar to the behavior of rats addicted to heroin. (p. 8)

Researchers pinpoint individual brain cells that respond to particular people and objects. (p. 9)

Magicians and neuroscientists may not seem like a likely match, but they have one important thing in common: A fascination with the brain, Science News reporter Laura Sanders reports in this blog filed from the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting in Chicago. As Science News pointed out in an article about science and magic in April, neuroscientists delve deep into the human mind to see how things like attention, perception and memory work, while magicians manipulate these very same things to confound their audience. This unlikely alliance was solidified October 17 at the Society for Neuroscience’s Annual Meeting in Chicago as two world-class magicians demonstrated some of their tricks to an audience of thousands of neuroscientists.

Study of rhesus monkeys shows running protects dopamine neurons from death. (p. 8)

New work suggests that the envisioned systems would be powerful enough to quickly process even trillions of variables. (p. 11)

Study in flies suggests low-protein diet works through power-producing organelles.

A new model suggests cells may be more sensitive to their environment than previously thought.