All Stories by Bethany Brookshire
- Psychology
Vocal fry
At the lowest registers of the human voice, a creaky, popping sound known as vocal fry emerges.
- Neuroscience
A mutated bacterial enzyme gobbles up cocaine
Cocaine is highly addictive, and those attempting to quit often relapse. Modifications to an enzyme that breaks down cocaine could help prevent abstinence setbacks.
- Neuroscience
The simplest form of learning is really quite complex
Habituation, the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli, is the simplest form of learning but may require a whole neural network.
- Neuroscience
Neurons pull together as a brain learns
Learning and memory in rats is linked with increases in cortical oscillations, or brain cells firing off in groups, a new study shows.
- Animals
Ant sperm swim as a team
The desert ant has sperm that swim in bundles for extra speed, perhaps increasing their likelihood of fertilizing an egg.
- Humans
There’s more to acing interviews than holding the vocal fry
A new study of vocal fry, a low razz in human speech, suggests job interviewees might want to hold the fry. But there's more to a job interview than a little vocal sizzle.
- Neuroscience
Stress and the susceptible brain
Some of us bounce back from stress, while others never really recover. A new study shows that different brain activity patterns could make the difference.
- Health & Medicine
Separating wheat from chaff in gluten sensitivity
Some people who think they are sensitive to gluten might not be after all: Fermentable short chain carbohydrates, or FODMAPs, may be to blame in people with irritable bowel syndrome.
- Life
A slow heartbeat in athletes is not so funny
Endurance athletes often experience sinus bradycardia, a slow heartbeat. A new paper shows this effect may be due to changes in the “funny channel” of the sinoatrial node.
- Neuroscience
To pee or not to pee
Mice recognize others’ scents through proteins in urine, suggesting that mouse pheromones produce more complex behaviors than previously thought.
- Neuroscience
You smell, and mice can tell
A new study shows that the smell of a man causes stress in lab mice. The findings show scientists have yet another variable to control: the scientist.
- Animals
Caiman tears make a salty snack
An ecologist observed a bee and a butterfly hovering around a caiman, engaging in lacryphagous behavior, slurping up the crocodilian’s tears.
