After a massive five-year effort, researchers have unveiled an "atlas"that gives an unprecedented look at the intricacies of the human brain.

The atlas, which will be available to researchers everywhere, can be seen as similar to the atlases we all know: a book of maps.

But this one catalogues human brain c...

Anyone with a cat knows the calm, low rumble of purring, but how does such a small animal make such a low sound?

New research suggests it boils down to a pad embedded in feline vocal cord folds.

That's different than previously thought, which was that purring happened through a special mechanism, with cyclical contraction and relaxation of the muscles in the vocal folds within the ...

New research suggests that concert goers may synchronize their breathing and more as they listen to the intricacies of a classical symphony performance.

Previous studies have shown that music may be able to induce synchronization in listeners, but the authors of this study said there has been little investigation into whether concert audiences actually become synchronized.

This new ...

Extensive exercise regimens are keeping astronauts healthy and protecting their hearts during extended space missions, new research finds.

A study from scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas found no loss of heart mass or output, and no loss of function in the heart's ventricles, during flights that can last up to six months.

The findings could have implications...

Growing up in poverty may harm the structural wiring of a child's brain, a new study claims.

Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found a link between both neighborhood and household poverty and the brain's white matter tracts. These let the brain communicate between its regions and are important for processing information.

"White matter integrity i...

Space travel appears to weaken astronauts' immune systems, and researchers believe changes in gene expression are the culprit.

These immune deficits aren't permanent. They disappear when back on Earth, often within weeks, according to new research published June 22 in Frontiers in Immunology.

"Here we show that the expression of many genes relat...

Astronauts spending six months or longer in space should stretch their time between trips to three years, warns new research on the impact of space travel on the brain.

To study this, researchers examined the brain scans of 30 astronauts, looking at scans that depicted their brains both before and after their missions.

The research team included missions that were two weeks long, si...

The influence of Neanderthals is evident right in the center of the faces of modern humans.

New research finds that genetic material inherited from Neanderthals affects nose shape. A particular gene made the nose taller from top to bottom.

This may have been necessary as ancient humans adapted to colder climates.

"In the last 15 years since the Neanderthal genome has been seq...

A significant number of patients take far longer to recover from a concussion than expected, and they may not be getting the care they need, according to a new study.

Researchers from the United Kingdom who studied concussion patients found that almost half had changes in how regions of the brain communicate with each other. This may cause long-term symptoms, including fatigue, and impair...

People are often reminded that they are their own unique person -- and a new study says that's particularly true of the digestive tract.

Dissections of a few dozen deceased individuals revealed striking differences in gastrointestinal anatomy, even among a small group of people.

Some livers were larger, some intestines and colons were longer. Crucial discrepancies were observed betw...

Assessing heart roundness may be a new way to diagnose cardiovascular conditions, new research suggests.

While doctors now use measures like heart chamber size and systolic function to diagnose and monitor cardiomyopathy and other related heart issues, cardiac sphericity (how round the heart is) may be another good tool.

"Roundness of the heart isn't necessarily the problem per se -...

Groups of whales, dolphins and porpoises are regularly stranded in shallow waters around the coasts of the United Kingdom.

Researchers wanted to understand why, so they studied the brains of 22 toothed whales -- or "odontocetes" -- that were stranded in Scottish coastal waters.

The study included...

Humans have continued to evolve after splitting from chimpanzee ancestors nearly 7 million years ago, according to a new study that found 155 new genes unique to humans that suddenly arose from tiny sections of DNA.

Some of the new genes date back to the ancient origin of mammals, according to the researchers. They suspect a few of these "microgenes"have links to human-sp...

Women tend to be better able than men to recover from kidney injury, but why?

Apparently women have an advantage at the molecular level that protects them from a form of cell death that occurs in injured kidneys, a new study in mice has discovered.

"Kidney disease afflicts more than 850 million people worldwide every year, so it's important to understand why female kidneys are more ...

The risk of suffering a stroke at an early age may depend partly on a person's blood type, a large study suggests.

When it comes to the risk of ischemic stroke -- the kind caused by a blood clot -- studies have hinted that blood type plays a ro...

If you need to take a pill, you might want to take it lying down -- on your right side, that is.

Researchers studying how body positioning affects the absorption of pills found that one taken when a person was lying on the right side speeded pills to the deepest part of the stomach. That pill could then dissolve 2.3 times faster than if the person was upright.

"We were very surprise...

Genetically altered pig hearts could soon become a viable transplantation alternative for people with life-threatening heart disease, new experiments show.

A team at NYU Langone Health has successfully transplanted two such pig hearts into brain-dead humans on life support, making advances that may soon help address the nationwide organ shortage.

No signs of early rejection were obs...

Historically, not much has been recorded on the aging of amphibians and reptiles, unless they live in a zoo.

Now, a team of international researchers has changed that in a study that traversed the world.

The team of 1...

It's an icky truth: Everyone has millions of tiny mites living and mating on their skin.

Not to worry, though -- Demodex folliculorum skin mites actually help keep your pores clean and your skin healthy, stressed Alejandra Perotti, an associate professor of invertebrate biology with the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

However, her team's recent research suggest...

New research gives new meaning to the term "hotheaded" - your normal brain temperature is higher and varies much more than previously thought.

The findings could lead to future research into whether disruption of daily brain temperature rhythms might trigger

People with anorexia nervosa show significant shrinkage in three important areas of the brain, new research reveals.

The researchers said their study findings highlight the importance of early treatment, to prevent long-term structural brain changes in people with...

If you're taller than average, your genes may affect your risk for a variety of diseases, a new study suggests.

These include a higher risk for the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation and varicose veins, but a lower risk of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Other investigators have reported