Stem cells in most organisms typically take cues from adjacent cells. But new research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research reveals planarian stem cells ignore their nearest neighbors and instead respond to signals further away in the body. This discovery may help explain the flatworm’s extraordinary ability to regenerate — and could offer clues for developing new ways to replace or repair tissues in humans.

A groundbreaking project spearheaded by Binghamton University, State University of New York's Human Sexualities Research Lab did more than add to the history of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), the world’s first major HIV/AIDS service organization. It also breached a generational divide and pioneered new ways to conduct oral history.

Facial self-touching — particularly around the nose, chin and cheeks — strongly correlates with elevated stress during cognitive tasks, new University of Houston research showed.

This study used the concept of reinforcement learning to explain the navigation of chemotactic cells toward sparsely distributed targets, showing how decentralized information processing through environmental interaction can lead to highly intelligent behavior. Simulations showed that groups of simple agents could navigate mazes more robustly than a more intelligent single agent. This demonstrates that decentralized teams of simple agents can efficiently process information as a group, with potential applications in medicine, artificial intelligence, and robotics.