The research team led by Liying Qu and Weisong Zhao from Harbin Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Peking University, has developed Adaptive-SN2N, an innovative self-supervised learning framework. By introducing a risk-aware adaptive normalization strategy, this method successfully eliminates background artifacts commonly induced by deep learning, preserving high biological fidelity and enabling highly accurate live-cell quantitative analysis.

Event cameras have mostly been used to track motion, where large brightness changes at moving edges generate dense event streams. In a new PhotoniX study, researchers in South Korea instead apply these sensors to functional brain imaging, a harder regime where activity-related brightness changes are noticeably smaller. By characterizing the camera for this regime and using it to record cortical vascular dynamics at kilohertz frame rates, they show that event-based acquisition can faithfully capture fast blood-flow signals in vivo. For the imaging of calcium activity in cultured neurons and the rodent brain, an unsupervised reconstruction method converts the sparse event streams to continuous ΔF/F₀ activity signals. The framework opens new possibilities for high-resolution, data-efficient functional imaging in biology.

Fish living downstream of wastewater treatment plants are accumulating antidepressants, opioids and other drugs of abuse in their bodies, according to a new study.

Using a new analytical method they developed, a team of researchers from the University of Waterloo discovered that several substances that affect the central nervous system, including fentanyl, methadone and venlafaxine, were detected in small fish living in rivers that receive urban wastewater.

We thought it was evolution, but an experiment with pencils shows that tips like teeth and thorns may owe their rounded shape to mechanical wear.

The New York Academy of Sciences and the Leon Levy Foundation have announced the 2026 cohort of Leon Levy Scholars in Neuroscience, building on a program that has nurtured more than 190 early-career neuroscience scholars since 2009. Supporting cutting-edge neuroscience across New York City’s research ecosystem, this distinguished scholarship recognizes up to ten postdoctoral scientists annually, chosen from a highly competitive, citywide applicant pool, to pursue bold ideas in neuroscience over three years as they move toward independent investigator roles.

Eccentric training is widely used to prevent hamstring injuries, but the mechanisms behind their effectiveness remain unclear. Researchers found that nine weeks of eccentric training allowed hamstring muscle fibers to operate at longer lengths during exercise without overstretching their microscopic contractile units. These adaptations likely occur through the addition of sarcomeres in series and may help explain why this training method reduces hamstring injury risk.

As we age, stem cells responsible for maintaining our blood and immune systems gradually lose their resilience, but why this happens has remained unclear. A novel study from Japan and the US turns the spotlight on MLKL, a protein traditionally associated with cell death, uncovering an unexpected new dimension to its role. The findings shed light on how cellular stress shapes stem cell aging and highlight potential pathways for developing therapies to counter age-related decline.

In the largest genomic mapping of Africa's elephants, an international team of researchers shows that elephant history is defined by the ability to move across large distances and exchange genes throughout the African continent. But as the elephants’ living space is becoming increasingly patchy, the study documents the visible genetic consequences of isolation – and points to approaches that help to incorporate genomics into current and future elephant conservation.