Stories by Melinda Wenner

Smaller fingers mean closer nerve endings and the ability to resolve finer detail

A video before bed or a recording played while asleep can enhance learning

Thoughts about love or sex make the mind more creative or analytical

Recent research shows a risk to fetuses and infants

Like humans, animals do not care for realistic animations of themselves

Also: Stimulating Brain Cells May Be Trickier Than We Thought

Stimulating brain cells may be trickier than we thought

Bilingual people process certain words faster than others

From solar power to powering our planet with garbage, Scientific American explores ideas that would improve our planet

It's not just obesity--more evidence links inflammation with type 2 diabetes

Complex diseases have complex causes. Luckily, they also leave a multitude of traces

From home sleep-cycle monitoring to a tap into the psychology of motivation, these clever products promise to get inside your head

Researchers are learning how the architecture of the nucleus affects gene expression

Where do rainbows come from? What about flying cars, love and LSD?

Making an emotional face—or suppressing one—influences your feelings

Lessons learned by James M. Wilson, the scientist behind the first gene therapy death

Preparing foods with fire may have made us humans what we are

An emerging class of medicines works its magic by targeting unusual sites on biological molecules

We each have two parents, but their genetic contributions to what makes us us are uneven. New research shows we are an amalgam of influences from mom and dad

A new sense for how variable numbers of genes cause disease

Bacteria devoted to growth instead of "quorum sensing" communication could beat antibiotic resistance

A novel brain-imaging technique uncovers the structural connections underlying personality, behavior and disease

Companies are poised to go commercial with gasoline substitutes made from grass, algae and the ultimate source: engineered microorganisms

Certain life experiences may lead to brain changes in suicide victims