Sepsis constitutes the main cause of disease and death in people suffering from severe burns. This results from the dissemination of pathogens in the body, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the three bacteria most frequently responsible for this complication. This microorganism is all the more fearsome as its virulence and its resistance to antibiotics can be modulated by various factors present in its host. Researchers led by Karl Perron, microbiologist at the Faculty of the sciences of the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, studied the effect of exudates - biological fluids that seep out of burn wounds - on the survival and the virulence of these three bacteria.

Scientists have been studying how visual space is mapped in the cerebral cortex for many decades under the assumption that the map is equal for lights and darks. Surprisingly, recent work demonstrates that visual brain maps are dark-centric and that, just as stars rotate around black holes in the Universe, lights rotate around darks in the brain representation of visual space. The work was done by Jens Kremkow and collaborators in the laboratories of Jose Manuel Alonso at the State University of New York College of Optometry and will be published in the May 5, 2016 issue of Nature (advance online publication and press embargo lifted on April 27, 2016 at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern Time).

Specific regions of the brain are specialized in recognizing bodies of animals and human beings. By measuring the electrical activity per cell, scientists from KU Leuven, Belgium, and the University of Glasgow have shown that the individual brain cells in these areas do different things. Their response to specific contours or body shapes is very selective.

Facial recognition has already been the subject of much research. But what happens when we cannot recognize an animal or a human being on the basis of a face, but only have other body parts to go on? The mechanism behind this recognition process is uncharted territory for neuroscientists, says Professor Rufin Vogels of the KU Leuven Laboratory for Neuro- and Psychophysiology.

Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan have discovered a protein complex that helps direct the growth of axons -- the parts of neurons that make up our nerves, connecting our senses and muscles to the brain and spinal cord. Published in Cell Reports, the study shows how the protein myosin-Va acts as a calcium sensor that tells new pieces of axon where they should go.

Scientists have announced a major breakthrough in their understanding of how the fungus Aspergillus terreus - the cause of serious illness in humans - can move around the body, rather than remaining in the lungs as with similar fungal infections.

The study, led by researchers at The University of Nottingham and published in the academic journal Cell Chemical Biology, has discovered that infections from A.terreus could hitch a ride on immune cells in order to transport themselves and cause systemic infection.

The Rök Runestone, erected in the late 800s in the Swedish province of Östergötland, is the world's most well-known runestone. Its long inscription has seemed impossible to understand, despite the fact that it is relatively easy to read. A new interpretation of the inscription has now been presented - an interpretation that breaks completely with a century-old interpretative tradition. What has previously been understood as references to heroic feats, kings and wars in fact seems to refer to the monument itself.