Search | New Scientist

Memories may be sorted by the thalamus before being stored long term

30 March 2023

The thalamus is the brain's relay station for sensory information, but a study in mice has found it may also play a role in memory processing

Two elephants embracing with their trunks through the bars of an enclosure

Elephants may remember the smell of a relative's dung for 12 years

24 February 2023

African elephants in captivity reacted to the smell of relatives they had not seen for years by flapping their ears and making rumbling sounds

Magic trick reveals sharp memory and future planning in Eurasian jays

19 August 2021

Jay's response to magic tricks show cognitive abilities that may come into play when they pilfer food caches hidden by other birds.

Semen seems to help female fruit flies remember things better

20 November 2019

A molecule in male fruit fly semen boosts females’ long-term memory – the first example of mating playing a role in cognition

Fish can judge distances accurately just like land animals can

14 November 2019

Trigger fish are remarkably good at estimating how far they have swum, perhaps because they have distance-tracking ‘grid cells’ in their brains just like we do

Watching lots of TV may worsen memory in older people

28 February 2019

The more hours of TV people watch the worse their memory is six years later – but the explanation for the link is unclear

Edge of Memory: Distrusting oral tradition may make us more ignorant

29 August 2018

Aboriginal stories about startlingly rapid rises in sea level describe real events at the end of the ice age, says a new book. Are we stupid to distrust oral traditions?

Seals only sleep with half their brain when they're out at sea

7 June 2018

Northern fur seals mostly sleep with half their brain while they’re at sea, but sleep with all their brain while on land – unlike any other animal studied

Cute but dim quolls have been taught to stop eating toxic toads

27 April 2018

Northern quolls are an endangered species thanks to an epidemic of poisonous cane toads in Australia, but now some of them have been trained to steer clear