AMHERST, Mass. — With pedestrian fatalities—particularly in public transit areas—continuing to rise across the country, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have determined the top risk factors of pedestrian-vehicle crashes at bus stops to recommend potential solutions. While their comprehensive analysis of bus stops focused on Massachusetts, the researchers are excited about the generalizability of the findings and application to other locations.

To navigate, the brain must convert changing sensations into a map-like sense of the world, which remains stable as the body moves. A new study finds that the fly brain sometimes performs the underlying navigational math using a previously unrecognized electrical trick: individual neurons switch between two signaling modes to indicate opposite directions in the world. The findings suggest that neurons operate more flexibly than previously thought.