Changespotting: The bees' knees, and their brains too

Bees have surprisingly similar brain cells to those of humans. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

Tricks to stave off a loss of mental agility due to ageing have abounded, with brain trainers and Sudoku touted as beneficial. Researchers are also looking to bees for the answer as the industrious insects apparently have similar brain cells to our own. A Norwegian researcher has potentially found a solution to mental decline, by giving the older bees tasks normally delegated to the younger generation.

A new technological innovation in the world of music-making could have profound rehabilitative benefits for people who suffer severe levels of paralysis. Developed by composer Eduardo Miranda, an individual can calibrate this brain-computer interface to play certain notes in response to particular brain signals, restoring their sense of control.

Theoretical physicists Tom Weiler and Chui Man Ho have suggested that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), as well as generating the Higgs boson, may generate a particle called the Higgs singlet. This particle, if it exists, may travel in a fifth dimension where it is not subject to our universe's dimension of time. This means its decay particles could appear to scientists before its creation.