Vampire Bat Friendships
Mutual grooming and blood regurgitation form the basis of vampire bat friendships, which can last for years. And new research shows that relationships forged in captivity can persist once bats are back in the wild.
Read my latest Animal Minds post: Vampire Bat Friendships Persist from the Lab to the Wild.
These Fish Navigate with Electricity
In my latest Animal Minds post, I take a look at some research with the African elephant-nose fish - an animal that uses self-generated electricity to navigate.
Read the article here: These Fish Navigate with Electricity.
What Has the BRAIN Initiative Accomplished?
Now at the midpoint, the BRAIN Initiative’s impacts on neuroscience are beginning to come into fruition. As of January, 2018, the National Institutes of Health had awarded 368 BRAIN grants to more than 500 investigators, resulting in over 330 publications.
So, what have we learned from the BRAIN Initiative so far? What’s currently in development that could transform our understanding of the brain? And what will the next five years bring?
See my latest article at Neuroscience Quarterly: BRAIN-Inspired Science: A Mid-Initiative Report.
Skin-to-Skin Care for Post-Surgical Infants
Multiple barriers prevent routine skin-to-skin care for infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), particularly for infants requiring surgical consultation. Now, a quality improvement project at Nationwide Children's Hospital shows that routine skin-to-skin care is possible for infants in the NICU who have had surgery.
Read the whole story: Skin-to-Skin Care Safe for Infants After Surgery.
Ants Discriminate Snake Friends and Foes
In Madagascar, there is an ant with two very different relationships to two kinds of snake. These ants open their nests up to one of the snakes, which may help protect them from the other.
Read my latest Animal Minds post for the whole story: Ants Discriminate Snake Friends and Foes.