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From Sinatra to Katy Perry, celebrities have long sung about the power of a smile - how it picks you up, changes your outlook, and generally makes you feel better. But is it all smoke and mirrors, or is there a scientific backing to the claim?

It is known that different regions of the brain help us prioritize information so we can efficiently process visual scenes. A new study by a team of neuroscientists has discovered that one specific region, the occipital cortex, plays a causal role in piloting our attention to manage the intake of images.

Mitochondria are small organelles that provide the energy critical for each cell in our body, in particular in the high fuel-consuming brain. Researchers have found that mitochondria also regulate a key event during brain development: how neural stem cells become nerve cells.

Fingolimod, an FDA-approved immunosuppressive drug used to treat multiple sclerosis, may be used to block HIV infection and reduce the latent reservoir.

Researchers have discovered which gut bacteria help our immune system battle cancerous tumors and how they do it.

Women are more likely than men to suffer adverse effects of medications because drug dosages have historically been based on clinical trials conducted on men, suggests new study.

Scientists have used measurements from almost 15,000 samples from objects dating back as far as 60,000 years ago, as part of a seven-year project to create new international radiocarbon calibration curves, key for archaeology and environmental science.

A newly developed method that identifies and measures five different plastic types simultaneously, found plastic traces in all seafood tested.

Key knowledge gaps exist in our understanding of how ocean microplastics transport bacteria and viruses – and whether this affects the health of humans and animals, researchers say.

Lesquerella is a member of the mustard family that's native to the U.S. Southwest. But scientists are now eyeing it as a home-grown source of butanol, a cleaner-burning alternative to gasoline.