Like the seeds of a forest, a few cells in embryos eventually sprout into an ecosystem of brain cells. Neurons get the most recognition for their computing power. But a host of other cells provides ...

A study compared tested an array of AI models and 100,000 people. AI was better than average but trailed top performers.

Elephant trunks and garden hoses hardly seem like inspirations for a miniature 3D bioprinter. Yet they’ve led scientists at McGill University to engineer the smallest reported bioprinting head to date ...

Let a mouse nose around a house, and it will rapidly find food and form a strategy to return to it without getting caught. Given the same task, an AI would require millions of training examples and ...

The conversation started with a simple prompt: “hey I feel bored.” An AI chatbot answered: “why not try cleaning out your medicine cabinet? You might find expired medications that could make you feel ...

There’s a practice in farming not often talked about. To prevent accidental harm to human handlers and other cattle, bulls generally have their horn-producing cells surgically removed before the horns ...

The project explores how life adapts to extreme environments—and hopes to inspire new drugs or even treatments to aid space travel. We’ve only scratched the surface of what thrives in the deepest ...

Our cells are like the ultimate soft robots. Made mostly of a liquid interior wrapped inside a fatty shell, they split, stretch, roam, and squeeze into every nook and cranny of the body. Actual robots ...

The robots, each the size of a single cell, casually turn circles in a bath of water. Suddenly, their sensors detect a change: Parts of the bath are heating up. The microrobots halt their twirls and ...

As its whiskers flitter, the mouse’s brain sparks with activity. A tiny implant records the electrical chatter and beams it to a nearby computer. Smaller than a grain of salt, the implant is powered ...

Dr. Shelly Xuelai Fan is a neuroscientist-turned-science-writer. She's fascinated with research about the brain, AI, longevity, biotech, and especially their intersection. As a digital nomad, she ...