How does our auditory system represent time within a sound? A new study investigates how temporal acoustic patterns can be represented by neural activity within auditory cortex, a major hub within the brain for the perception of sound.

Dr. Daniel Bendor, from University College London, describes a novel way that neurons in auditory cortex can encode temporal information, based on how their excitatory and inhibitory inputs get mixed together.

Your car moves when you press the accelerator and stops when you step on the brakes. In much the same way, a neuron's activity depends on the excitation and inhibition it receives from other neurons. But how these inputs combine together to make a neuron "go" or "stop" can also convey information.

In 2004, astronomers examining a map of the radiation leftover from the Big Bang (the cosmic microwave background, or CMB) discovered the Cold Spot, a larger-than-expected unusually cold area of the sky. The physics surrounding the Big Bang theory predicts warmer and cooler spots of various sizes in the infant universe, but a spot this large and this cold was unexpected.

Now, a team of astronomers led by Dr. Istvan Szapudi of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa may have found an explanation for the existence of the Cold Spot, which Szapudi says may be "the largest individual structure ever identified by humanity."

Most of today's anticancer drugs target the DNA or proteins in tumor cells, but a new discovery unveils a whole new set of potential targets: the RNA intermediaries between DNA and proteins.

This RNA, called messenger RNA, is a blueprint for making proteins. Messenger RNA is created in the nucleus and shuttled out into the cell cytoplasm to hook up with protein-making machinery, the ribosome. Most scientists have assumed that these mRNA molecules are, aside from their unique sequences, generic, with few distinguishing characteristics that could serve as an Achilles heel for targeted drugs.

There is concern about e-cigarettes that they may cause addiction rather than cure it - California advocates are spending millions claiming Big Tobacco is marketing them to children - but like nicotine patches and chewing gum, teens may try them but unless they already smoke, they don't embrace them.

Writing in BMJ Open, the researchers base their findings on the results of two nationally representative surveys of primary and secondary schoolchildren (CHETS Wales 2 and the Welsh Health Behaviour in School aged Children) from more than 150 schools in Wales carried out in 2013 and 2014. In all, 1601 children aged 10-11 and 9055 11-16 year olds were quizzed about their use of e-cigarettes.

Cancer mortality remains significantly elevated among African-Americans but if recent trends continue, cancer outcomes will disappear over time, according to a new analysis of "Health Equity" - defined by the US Department of Health and Human Services as the highest level of health for all people.

Half of all patients who survive a cardiac arrest experience problems with cognitive functions such as memory and attention, according to new research from Lund University. A control group comprising heart attack patients had largely the same level of problems, which suggests that it is not only the cardiac arrest and the consequent lack of oxygen to the brain that is the cause of the patients’ difficulties.