Researchers have developed a computational tool that shines a light on the genome’s most hard-to-translate segments. It may help scientists understand how DNA guides everything from growth and development to aging and disease.

Andrés Bendesky argues that deciphering the astounding diversity of animal behaviors will help to gain insight into ourselves. In appreciation of this work, he is now being recognized as one of the most promising early-career scientists in America.

Columbia researchers have identified the nerve cells that initiate a fly’s escape response. Their results provide a window into a survival mechanism so important that it has persisted across evolutionary time, and today exists in virtually all animals.

In a scientific first, researchers have observed in mice how the brain learns to repeat patterns of neural activity that elicit the all-important feel-good sensation. Until today, the brain mechanisms that guide this type of learning had not been measured directly.

Nima Mesgarani, a principal investigator at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute, deciphers how the human brain distinguishes and interprets the sounds we hear. Now, he’s being recognized as one of 2018’s top innovators for his achievements.