Elephants are among the world's most intelligent animals, with brains weighing around 5 kg and containing approximately 257 billion neurons. Their cognitive abilities, demonstrated through behaviors like tool use, communication, and problem-solving, are comparable to cetaceans and primates, leading researchers to argue they deserve moral protection from human harm.
An essay exploring how plants communicate through volatile organic compounds that humans perceive as scent. The piece examines the chemistry of plant emissions, the neurobiology of olfaction, and how breathing forest air constitutes a direct physiological and emotional participation in ecological systems.
Stanford researchers discovered that the human brain may develop from two distinct progenitor cells rather than one, with the hindbrain originating from a different developmental source than the forebrain and midbrain. By identifying this developmental divergence, they successfully grew functional human hindbrain motor neurons in a petri dish, enabling new avenues to study diseases like spinal muscular atrophy and ALS that progressively impair hindbrain functions.