Life Science

Compare neuroscientists with crackerjack detectives like Nancy Drew and Hercule Poirot, and the brain docs might come up short. After all, they have yet to crack the case on five big brain mysteries.

By Molly Edmonds

Laugh and the world laughs with you, the saying goes. In our image gallery, experience the range of human emotions from around the world.

You only use 10 percent of that big, wrinkled mass of smarts -- unless you listen to Mozart. At least, that's what we've heard about the brain. But how many common brain beliefs are just plain wrong?

By Shanna Freeman

Parents just don't understand. Scientists didn't understand either, until they got a good look inside the teenage brain -- and what they saw turned what we thought we knew on its head.

By Molly Edmonds

We've all seen the effects that hatred has on our society, but just what is this destructive emotion? And can it be overcome?

By Alia Hoyt

A mass extinction on Earth is long overdue, according to population ecologists. Find out what Earth's fossil record may be telling us about our future.

By Josh Clark

When you see someone else yawn, you often find yourself doing it. Yawning is contagious. But what does that have to do with the ability to feel empathy?

By Josh Clark

The results of three recent studies show that an uncircumcised man is twice as likely to contract AIDS from an infected woman as is a circumcised one.

By Julia Layton

With an ever-increasing number of studies finding a direct connection between sleep deprivation and weight gain, it's difficult to deny the cause-and-effect relationship.

By Julia Layton

Even if you're very ticklish, you probably are incapable of tickling yourself. Learn why.

Nature uses color in lots of different ways. Find out why some types of cabbage are purple and what this means.

How can children from the same parents look so different? I mean, why don't all kids from the same parents look exactly alike, since the parents just have one set of chromosomes each and they don't change?

We see faces in clouds, on buildings - heck, in grilled cheese sandwiches. But why is that? And how is this a help to our survival?

By Dave Roos

Sleepwalking is an intriguing phenomenon. How can a person be unconscious but still coordinate his or her limbs? And how do we know when we're really awake?

By Katie Lambert

According to DNA research, we may all have a common ancestor, an African woman who lived thousands of years ago. How did scientists reach this conclusion? Is it even possible?

By Josh Clark & Desiree Bowie

In this article, we'll look at laughter -- what it is, what happens in our brains when we laugh, what makes us laugh and how it can make us healthier and happier. You'll also learn that there's a tremendous amount that no one understands yet.

By Marshall Brain

There is a good chance that if you go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of grapes that they will be of the seedless variety. If the grapes are seedless, how are they able to produce new grapes? Find out the answer to that question in this article.

Collective hysteria can spread when a fear exists of exposure to a disease, combined with a contained environment. Learn more about collective hysteria works.

By Jacob Silverman & Austin Henderson

The journal "Nature" recently published a paper describing how a cell transplant had allowed blind mice to see again. What does this mean for humans?

By Tracy V. Wilson

Have you ever done something for someone else just because it was a nice thing to do? Do people perform unselfish acts because it feels good or is it just something society wants us to do?

By Josh Clark

Researchers are working on ways to engineer viruses to attack cancer cells, killing the disease without radiation, medicine or surgery. How do the viruses know what to kill?

By Josh Clark

Symbiosis is crucial to the survival of many species. In fact, you're a symbiote yourself.

By Ed Grabianowski

One of the top-prescribed sleeping pills may cause you to shuffle out of bed and sleepwalk to the fridge. Could Ambien be making you sleepy and hungry?

By Cristen Conger

When Australia became separated from the other continents, its species evolved in isolation. And yet, some of the Australian animals evolved in exactly the same way as the other animals in the world. How?

By Ed Grabianowski

Memory is your only personal record of the past and of who you are as an individual. What if you woke up one morning and your memory was gone?

By Cristen Conger