Optogenetics could arguably help restore motor function in patients with paralysis. This would involve using light to activate modified motor neurons, which would in turn trigger muscle contractions.

THE brain is a complex network of some 86 billion neurons. To find out how they operate, we need to be able to record the activity of these cells. That is why the methods developed by neuroscientist ...

Some big scientific discoveries aren’t actually discovered. They are borrowed. That’s what happened when scientists enlisted proteins from an unlikely lender: green algae. Cells of the algal species ...