En los medios

Twisted light sends Mozart image over record distance
Vienna demonstration shows that the technology can boost data capacity of laser beams over long distances.

“No hay pruebas de que las dietas que eliminan grasas o hidratos funcionen”
“Si preguntas por la calle cuál es el motivo de que una persona esté obesa, la mayoría de la gente te responderá que es porque come demasiado, y tienen razón. Pero la pregunta importante es: ¿por qué come demasiado?”. En 1994, Jeffrey Friedman bautizó la molécula que nos sugiere cuándo debemos comer y cuándo es momento de parar. La leptina se convertía así en protagonista de la lucha contra el sobrepeso, un problema creciente en las sociedades avanzadas que provoca numerosos problemas de salud.

Learning How Little We Know About the Brain
Research on the brain is surging. The United States and the European Union have launched new programs to better understand the brain. Scientists are mapping parts of mouse, fly and human brains at different levels of magnification. Technology for recording brain activity has been improving at a revolutionary pace.
Yet the growing body of data — maps, atlases and so-called connectomes that show linkages between cells and regions of the brain — represents a paradox of progress, with the advances also highlighting great gaps in understanding.

Unusual varieties of soul butterflies
New research challenges an age-old assumption about the basic structure and function of the neuron.

Underwater ‘storms’ may hold key to melting Antarctic ice
SCientists using robotic ocean gliders to wander frigid Antarctic waters say they may have discovered a mechanism behind the melting of polar ice shelves – miniature submarine «storms» that are lobbing packets of warmer water toward the continent.

Playing video games is good for your brain – here’s how
To add to a long line of studies demonstrating the more positive effects of video games is a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Vikranth Bejjanki and colleagues. Their newly published paper demonstrates that the playing of action video games – the sort of fast-paced, 3D shoot-em-up beloved of doomsayers in the media – confirms what other studies have revealed, that players show improved performance in perception, attention, and cognition.

Los genes revelan la gran historia de los insectos
Un extenso trabajo publicado en la revista Science permite reconstruir el camino evolutivo del grupo animal con mayor variedad de especies. El uso del análisis masivo de datos genéticos nos permite rellenar los huecos que quedaban en su árbol evolutivo.

Mixed Signals
Individual neurons in the dorsomedial striatum integrate responses to sight and touch.

Would Astronauts Survive an Interstellar Trip Through a Wormhole?
Well, it depends on your definition of «wormhole» …

Multiverse Collisions May Dot the Sky
Early in cosmic history, our universe may have bumped into another — a primordial clash that could have left traces in the Big Bang’s afterglow.