Eating a strain of gut-loving bacteria reduces anxiety-like behaviour in mice – a finding that suggests a spoonful of microbes could help stress levels go down in people too. The human gut is home to about 1000 trillion bacteria, which prevent pathogenic bacteria infiltrating our bowels. Once thought to simply prevent diarrhoea, gut bacteria have [...]

Talk about an excuse to delay “growing up” – the adolescent brain is still being sculpted into its adult form continues throughout our 20s. New Scientist reports that as children, we overproduce the connections – synapses – between brain cells. During puberty the body snips away some synapses while allowing others to strengthen. Over a [...]