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Recent articles

Davi Bock standing in front of a poster showing visualizations of connectomes.

Beyond wiring diagrams: Inside a $19 million effort to expand access to connectome technology

Davi Bock’s lab took the millions of images that led to the complete connectome of a fruit fly brain. Now he wants to apply “this high-throughput flashlight across all areas of biology.”

By Calli McMurray
6 October 2026 | 11 min read
Illustration of pipa frog showing nerves in fingertips.

How the pipa frog hunts prey by touch

Each of the frog’s eight fingers branches into 16 ultra-sensitive tips, which together function as a fovea—potentially the first demonstration of this type of sensory structure outside of mammals.

By Calli McMurray
30 September 2026 | 7 min read

Reverse engineering neural circuits; success stories from computational neuroscience

Kevin Mitchell talks with Timothy Behrens about ring attractors, the role of innate structure, and an expanded view of cognitive maps.

By Kevin Mitchell
6 August 2026 | 60 min watch

Explore more from The Transmitter

Research figure of fly neurons transforming taste information into movements.

Fly taste connectome traces paths from sensation to action

The map—the first of its kind for an animal more complex than Caenorhabditis elegans—gives neuroscientists a trove of testable hypotheses about how neuronal circuits guide feeding behaviors.

By Lauren Schenkman
30 October 2026 | 5 min read
Gerry Fischbach at a podium.

Remembering Gerry Fischbach, ‘orchestra conductor’ who brought scientists together

Fischbach, who died 25 October, elucidated the dynamic changes in neuromuscular junctions. Beyond the lab, he shaped careers, academic departments and scientific societies.

By Claudia López Lloreda
29 October 2026 | 8 min read
Mouse wearing a white, cube-like device on its head.

WILD platform levels up ability to record brain activity, behavior in nature

The customizable rig combines multimodal recording, onboard processing and neuronal manipulation to power more complex experiments.

By Simon Makin
29 October 2026 | 6 min read