research

Differences in the patterns of genes that are turned on in brains of people and mice suggest glial cells may have helped humans develop brains that can acquire language and solve complex problems.

The National Institutes of Health has issued a moratorium on funding work that puts human stem cells into nonhuman embryos. The concern is that hybrids might develop human brain cells, sperm or eggs.

The yeast produce only tiny amounts of the drug. But eventually, the technology could lead to better painkillers and other medicines. Drug officials worry the microbes could fall into the wrong hands.

Sometimes one person's insight transforms medicine. Dr. John Clements is one of those people. In the 1950s he discovered a slippery lung substance key to breathing, and to the survival of tiny babies.

Try to look inside the brain, and you're not going to get very far. But photoacoustic imaging may be a solution for the shortcomings of conventional imaging. It uses lasers to make the brain sing.