One of the greatest, relatively underappreciated, discoveries in all of science was the discovery of the nerve impulse in the 1930s by the British Lord Adrian. Adrian did win a Nobel Prize for his ...

Researchers have found, for the first time, that a blood-clotting protein can, unexpectedly, degrade nerves--and how nerve-supporting glial cells, including Schwann cells, provide protection. The ...

Researchers have demonstrated an artificial organic neuron, a nerve cell, that can be integrated with a living plant and an artificial organic synapse. Both the neuron and the synapse are made from ...

Matthew Xu-Friedman receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders. A student who conducted some of the work described, Tenzin ...

Ten years ago, three research teams published a breakthrough — the first description of the molecular mechanism for transduction in fingertip sensory Merkel cells that can transduce gentle touch, a ...

In a new study, researchers describe a new technique they developed to find out exactly how Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects nerve cells from the very beginning. The paper, published in the journal ...

Learning lots of new information as a baby requires a pool of ready-to-go, immature connections between nerve cells to form memories quickly. Called silent synapses, these connections are inactive ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...

As you read these words, billions upon billions of electrical impulses are flying through your brain. In a complex symphony of activity all those impulses are somehow encoding your thoughts, feelings, ...