Humans news stories

Categories of colour are not born of language but are rooted in biology, according to research that shows babies divide colours up into red, blue, green, yellow and purple.

New evidence suggests that the earliest traces of a language can stay with us into adulthood, even if we no longer speak or understand the language itself. And early exposure also seems to speed the process of relearning it later in life.

UK scientists have released the first batch of “groundbreaking” medical scans that reveal step-by-step how the human brain develops in babies.

Researchers around the world can use the data to understand what healthy growth looks like, say the Developing Human Connectome Project experts.

Welcome to marijuana 2.0, where the less product you use, the better it works

Our subconscious love for fractals may tell an evolutionary story.

Our fractal fluency begins with the movement of our eyes. When we look at a fractal, our eyes trace a fractal trajectory with a dimension of around 1.4 —no matter what the fractal’s dimension is. Nature’s most prevalent fractals share this dimension, falling within a range of 1.3 to 1.5. “If we lived on a planet where 1.8 was prevalent, we would have ended up with an eye trajectory of 1.8,” Taylor says. “Clearly what’s happened is our visual system has evolved.”

It ranks among the most curious phenomena in cognitive neuroscience. A handful of people in the world have “blindsight”: they are blind, but their non-conscious brain can still sense their surroundings.

Pet dogs provide valuable social support for kids when they’re stressed, according to a study by researchers, who were among the first to document stress-buffering effects of pets for children.

For far too long, we humans have suffered from an olfactory inferiority complex.

We’ve been led to believe that our sense of smell is sadly deficient compared with our mammalian cousins such as rodents and dogs.

Studies in mice have garnered attention for a remarkable result: When the feces of one mouse was transplanted to another mouse, the recipient mouse either gained or lost weight.

But can these transplants — which doctors call “fecal microbiota transplantations,” or FMTs, and which everyone else calls “poop transplants” — have the same effects in humans?

Researchers have traced the cause of a baffling brain disorder to a surprising source: a particular type of bacteria living in the gut.

Scientists increasingly suspect that the body’s vast community of bacteria — the microbiome — may play a role in the development of a wide variety of diseases, from obesity to perhaps even autism.

Recent research reveals that each individual neuron in a human brain may be genetically unique thanks to mutations that occur on a cell-by-cell basis. This area of research is providing insights into risk factors for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

You, too, could become a troll. Not a mythological creature that hides under bridges, but one of those annoying people who post disruptive messages in internet discussion groups – “trolling” for attention—and off-topic posters who throw out racist, sexist or politically controversial rants.

A controversial new study claims that men not only have bigger brains than women – but are actually more intelligent.

But not everyone is convinced by the new study – and other scientists suggest that while men do have bigger brains, women’s may be more efficient.

Chemical signatures left behind in the bones of people living thousands of years ago suggest that the introduction of new commodities provided an opportunity for men

In experiments with human colon cancer cells and mice, a team led by scientists say they have evidence that cancer arises when a normal part of cells’ machinery generally used to repair DNA damage is diverted from its usual task.

A man has dreamed in colour for the first time after undergoing radiotherapy to treat a tumour on his eye.

The 59-year-old Australian previously dreamed exclusively in black and white. But when he received radiation therapy to the front and side of his head for four weeks, he began dreaming in vivid colour.