A study of more than 800 teens finds that lower dopamine early in adolescence is linked to greater substance experimentation, which often declines as the brain matures and dopamine increases, challenging long‑held assumptions about teen risk‑taking.

A drop of dye added to a glass of water undergoes ordinary diffusion. However, when placed on the surface of a foam, the dye spreads differently – diffusion becomes anomalous. An example of this is the pattern on the froth of a cup of cappuccino. Interestingly, the latest research suggests that diffusion equations in a heterogeneous environment can also describe social phenomena, such as election results or the behaviour of stock market traders.

University of Groningen neuroscientist Robbert Havekes and his team have shown that mice forget encounters with other mice due to sleep deprivation. They also found that these social memories have not been erased; the mice are simply unable to recall them.