In a 2008 study, Susanne Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl, now of the University of Maryland, found that young adults who practiced a game also showed improvement in a fundamental cognitive ability known as "fluid" intelligence: the capacity to solve novel problems, to learn, to reason, to see connections and to get to the bottom of things. The implication was that playing the game literally makes people smarter.

Physicist Geoffrey West has found that simple, mathematical laws govern the properties of cities -- that wealth, crime rate, walking speed and many other aspects of a city can be deduced from a single number: the city's population. In this mind-bending talk from TEDGlobal he shows how it works and how similar laws hold for organisms and corporations. Physicist Geoffrey West believes that complex systems from organisms to cities are in many ways governed by simple laws -- laws that can be discovered and analyzed

SNUBBING the outdoors for books, video games and TV is the reason up to nine in 10 school-leavers in big East Asian cities are near-sighted, according to a new study. Neither genes nor the mere increase in activities like reading and writing is to blame, the researchers suggest, but a simple lack of sunlight.

Eat right and exercise is about as basic as medical advice gets. Follow it, and you'll benefit from better overall fitness, improved quality of life, and a reduced risk for chronic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. The American Cancer Society now says the evidence has piled up that diet and exercise can help cancer survivors manage, beat, and stay free of their disease, too. "There's just been an explosion of research in this area that gives us the confidence that these things matter," Colleen Doyle, director of nutrition and physical activity for ACS, tells Shots.

It turns out your brain is organized even if you're not. At least that's the conclusion of a study in Science that looked at the network of fibers that carry signals from one part of the brain to another. Researchers used cutting-edge imaging technology to look at places where these fibers intersect. And they found a remarkably organized three-dimensional grid, says Van Wedeen of Harvard Medical School, the study's lead author. The grid is a bit like Manhattan, Wedeen says, "with streets running in two dimensions and then the elevators in the buildings in the third dimension."

We speculate that the main selective pressures that have acted on regeneration are how first wounds are healed, and second, whether glial cells can retain access to embryonic genetic programmes to undertake neurogenesis. The latter may have limited CNS complexity in regenerative organisms.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that problems with a digestive process in cells can clog arteries.

Nessa Carey talks about how DNA is not a template to make lots of identical clones, but a script:  her example is Romeo and Juliet....the words can be the same but what comes out at the end on stage or screen can be totally different.

A Fremont school is taking part in a nationwide program that may be the first of its kind -- teaching groups of blind and visually impaired students to play tennis.

What are the genetic, physiological, biochemical and psychological limits to the human body? Former UK Athletics Performance Director, Professor Dave Collins, joins sports scientists Dr Yannis Pitsiladis and Professor Andy Jones, and nutritionist Professor Ron Maughan to discuss the physiologic, genetic, psychosocial and economic determinants of success, and the limits to performance. Citius, Altius, Fortius is the Olympic motto, but how far, how fast and how high can we actually go?

L'Ecorché is a groundbreaking, intuitive tool developed by artists, for artists to reference anatomy. It's not a book, it's not a sculpture. It's an elegant and painstakingly-detailed fusion of the two that takes the best of both and brings them into a whole new medium for learning.

While it's generally accepted that memories are stored somewhere, somehow in our brains, the exact process has never been entirely understood. Strengthened synaptic connections between neurons definitely have something to do with it, although the synaptic membranes involved are constantly degrading and being replaced - this seems to be somewhat at odds with the fact that some memories can last for a person's lifetime. Now, a team of scientists believe that they may have figured out what's going on. Their findings could have huge implications for the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's.

A proiect to build a virtual brain 

What if every scientist could share their data as easily as they tweet about their lunch? Michael Nielsen calls for scientists to embrace new tools for collaboration that will enable discoveries to happen at the speed of Twitter. A physicist turned writer, Michael Nielsen believes online communication and collaboration tools are revolutionizing the way we make scientific discoveries.

A fascinating explanation and exploration of the latest knowledge on cravings. Where they come from and how to get control over them

Beautiful 3d medical animations. 

Simple but elegant example tool exploring the difference between animal, bacteria and plant cell structure 

Your memory capacity as something you can train. 

Scientists and surgeons from France, Germany, United Kingdom and Switzerland have developed a "virtual liver", using EU research funding, which will help surgeons better plan and carry out tumour operations and ensure quicker patient recovery. Personally I just find it a shame that there is no open source repository where this work can be made available to the general public. There is definitely no way for the general public to get involved.