Scientists aren't sure how the circular indentations some 450 feet below the surface formed, but they hope to investigate further

Travis Gienger, who nicknamed his prize-winning pumpkin "Rudy," has been growing gourds for nearly 30 years

Prior to the new research, scientists had traced the source of just 6 percent of the known meteorites that fell on our planet

A new exhibition in New York celebrates Berthe Weill, an often overlooked but visionary figure who jumpstarted the careers of many of modern art's giants

A new exhibition in Paris demonstrates the influence that the Spanish artist had on the young American painter who would help usher in the Abstract Expressionist movement

A special committee has until January 15 to finalize the design, location and funding for a monument that will be erected on the lawn of the South Carolina State House

Geologists suggest the catastrophic impact of "S2" delivered key nutrients to the oceans, prompting microorganisms to thrive

Since her birth in 1909, Francis lived through two world wars, segregation, the fall of the Soviet Union, multiple pandemics and the invention of the cellphone

The banana duct-taped to a wall was created to be a "reflection on what we value." An upcoming auction may deliver an answer

A team of roboticists, paleontologists and biologists are building robots to simulate crucial evolutionary developments that can’t be tested with static fossils

After a years-long restoration, the unique device that recorded hits like "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" is now fully functional

A blockbuster exhibition in Paris is showcasing 500 artifacts and artworks in honor of the Surrealist Manifesto, which sparked a new artistic style that spread around the world

The owners inherited the valuable coin from their brother, who kept it locked in a bank vault for decades. He purchased it with his mother in 1978 to provide financial security for the family farm

Unlike other birds, which get pigments from their diets, parrots produce their own—but scientists never fully understood the underlying mechanisms, until now

A new exhibition spotlights the Spanish artist's printmaking talents, which he began honing in his 20s. In the decades that followed, he produced thousands of breathtaking creations

The pachyderm, named Kamala, was suffering from osteoarthritis when zoo staff chose to euthanize her

The votive plaque was found amid the ruins of an ancient Roman fortress. Researchers think a temple dedicated to the mysterious deity may have stood nearby

An exhibition in London is showcasing more than 600 artworks and artifacts—including costumes, props and sketches—from the famous filmmaker’s career

The beloved reptile in Australia died last weekend and was thought to be up to 120 years old, though that age is only an estimate. Research on his bones might reveal a more exact number

Once the first primate made a break, the 42 others followed suit in a simple case of monkey-see, monkey-do

This story and others have come to light during a project to translate and digitize a series of texts about archbishops in York, England

On this day in 1912, a team found the remains of Robert Falcon Scott and the crew of the "Terra Nova" expedition. A would-be rescuer said he was forever haunted by the "horrible nightmare"

Sławomir and Szymon Milewski were searching for a Roman road when they stumbled upon the cache of coins, which is worth more than $120,000

From Setsubun in Japan to Fèt Gede in Haiti, these festivals relish in the macabre

See the finalists of our 2014 photo contest and vote for the Readers' Choice winner

In summer months above the North and South Poles, glowing clouds occasionally form naturally at sunset under the right conditions

The trend is a result of women deciding to have children later in life and the use of medically assisted reproduction methods

Newfoundland filmmaker Justin Simms is releasing his latest film called Sons. It was prompted by the birth of his son and left him wondering how traditional masculine behaviour is learned.

Monday marks the first Remembrance Day ceremony at the National War Memorial in St. John's to include the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We're proud to present again two documentaries that tell a remarkable story.

Hundreds congregated in downtown St. John's Monday morning to pay tribute to Newfoundland and Labrador's fallen soldiers, and honoured the dead for the first time at the newly refurbished National War Memorial and tomb of the Unknown Solider. 

Building highways isn't the only solution to the growing problem of traffic congestion in and around the Halifax Regional Municipality, says the head of an organization that advocates for rail-based public transit.

Shilei Du, 36, was charged Monday morning with the premeditated murder of his partner, Guangmei Ye, whose body was found Sunday in a residence on Fontenelle Street in Candiac, Que.

Genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) allow for the noninvasive evaluation of neuronal activity in vivo, and imaging GECIs in Drosophila has become commonplace for understanding neural functions and connectivity in this system. GECIs can also be used as read-outs for studying sleep in this model organism. Here, we describe a methodology for tracking the activity of neurons in the fly brain using a two-photon (2p) microscopy system. This method can be adapted to perform functional studies of neural activity in Drosophila under both spontaneous and evoked conditions, as well as during spontaneous or induced sleep. We first describe a tethering and surgical procedure that allows survival under the microscopy conditions required for long-term recordings. We then outline the steps and reagents required for optogenetic activation of sleep-promoting neurons while simultaneously recording neural activity from the fly brain. We also describe the procedure for recording from two different locations—namely, the top of the head (e.g., to record mushroom body calyx activity) or the back of the head (e.g., to record central complex activity). We also provide different strategies for recording from GECIs confined to the cell body versus the entire neuron. Finally, we describe the steps required for analyzing the multidimensional data that can be acquired. In all, this protocol shows how to perform calcium imaging experiments in tethered flies, with a focus on acquiring spontaneous and induced sleep data.

Sleep studies in Drosophila melanogaster rely mostly on behavioral read-outs to support molecular or circuit-level investigations in this model. Electrophysiology can provide an additional level of understanding in these studies to, for example, investigate changes in brain activity associated with sleep manipulations. In this protocol, we describe a procedure for performing multichannel local field potential (LFP) recordings in the fruit fly, with a flexible system that can be adapted to different experimental paradigms and situations. The approach uses electrodes containing multiple recording sites (16), allowing the acquisition of large amounts of neuronal activity data from a transect through the brain while flies are still able to sleep. The approach starts by tethering the fly, followed by positioning it on an air-supported ball. A multichannel silicon probe is then inserted laterally into the fly brain via one eye, allowing for recording of electrical signals from the retina through to the central brain. These recordings can be acquired under spontaneous conditions or in the presence of visual stimuli, and the minimal surgery promotes long-term recordings (e.g., overnight). Sleep and wake can be tracked using infrared cameras, which allow for the measurement of locomotive activity as well as microbehaviors such as proboscis extensions during sleep. The protocol has been optimized to promote subject survivability, which is an important factor when performing long-term (~16-h) recordings. The approach described here uses specific recording probes, data acquisition devices, and analysis tools. Although it is expected that some of these items might need to be adapted to the equipment available in different laboratories, the overall aim is to provide an overview on how to record electrical activity across the brain of behaving (and sleeping) flies using this kind of approach and technology.

The technique of visualizing axon pathways in the embryonic ventral nerve cord using antibody labeling has been fundamental to our understanding of the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying nervous system wiring in Drosophila. High-resolution microscopic examination of the ventral nerve cord remains an essential component of many experiments in Drosophila developmental neuroscience. Although it is possible to examine the ventral nerve cord in intact whole-mount embryos, to collect the highest-quality images it is often useful to isolate the nervous system away from the other embryonic tissues through embryo dissection. This protocol describes methods for dissecting ventral nerve cords from Drosophila embryos that have been fixed and stained via immunofluorescence or horseradish peroxidase (HRP) immunohistochemistry. The process of making fine dissection needles for this purpose from electrolytically sharpened tungsten wire is also described. Dissected and mounted ventral nerve cords can be examined and imaged using a variety of microscopy techniques including differential interference contrast (DIC) optics, epifluorescence, or confocal microscopy.

The Drosophila embryonic central nervous system has been used for decades as a model for understanding the genetic regulation of axon guidance and other aspects of neural development. Foundational studies using antibody staining to examine the embryonic ventral nerve cord in wild-type and mutant animals led to the discovery of evolutionarily conserved genes that regulate fundamental aspects of axon guidance, including midline crossing of axons. The development of the regular, segmentally repeating structure of axon pathways in the ventral nerve cord can illustrate basic principles of axon guidance to beginning students and can also be used by expert researchers to characterize new mutants, detect genetic interactions between known genes, and precisely quantify variations in gene function in engineered mutant lines. Here, we describe a protocol for collecting and fixing Drosophila embryos and visualizing axon pathways in the embryonic ventral nerve cord using immunofluorescence or immunohistochemical staining methods. As embryogenesis in Drosophila takes ~24 h to complete, a 1-d collection yields embryos representing all stages of development from newly fertilized through ready-to-hatch larvae, allowing investigation of multiple developmental events within a single batch of collected embryos. The methods described in this protocol should be accessible to introductory laboratory courses as well as seasoned investigators in established research laboratories.

Transposon-mediated transgenesis has revolutionized both basic and applied studies of mosquito vectors of disease. Currently, techniques such as enhancer traps and transposon tagging, which rely on remobilizable insertional mutagenesis, are only possible with transposon-based vector systems. Here, we provide general descriptions of methods and applications of transposon-based mosquito transgenesis. The exact procedures must be adapted to each mosquito species and comparisons of some differences among different mosquito species are outlined. A number of excellent publications showing detailed and specific protocols and methods are featured and referenced.

A Two-Day Festival in the historic Arts & Industries Building brings community, artists and scholars together for a “Culture Lab”

By raising her son to be curious about the natural world, this mother helped shape the trajectory of the National Museum of Natural History

More than 50 Norman Wells residents gathered at the Royal Canadian Legion on Thursday night to voice frustrations over high heating fuel prices.

Tammy Roberts, Home Base's executive director, said before these services launched, there was "no place for youth to go" other than the emergency room or to RCMP cells. 

Former Dawson City Mayor Bill Kendrick has filed his defence against the town's encroachment violation lawsuit.

As people across the country mourn the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, some in the Northwest Territories justice system are reflecting on his contributions to the country — one of those being Gladue principles. 

A group of volunteers have been providing emergency services to West Dawson residents during the periods of freeze up and break up, when there is no reliable access across the Yukon River to town.

FIFA Football for Schools (F4S) has come to Canada, with a pilot program in the N.W.T. already underway and offering coach training. 

Historians say that Sarah Emma Edmonds exaggerated many aspects of her wartime experiences. Still, she bravely served in the Union Army, becoming one of hundreds of women who fought in the conflict in secret

Fifty years ago, on October 5, 1974, David Kunst completed the first verified circumnavigation of the globe on foot. Along the way, he met Princess Grace of Monaco, raised money for UNICEF and lost a brother to bandits

The bronze wreath immortalized the moment when the members of the Honor Guard removed their hats and placed them on the president's grave during his burial

A Romare Bearden print served as a starting point for the American playwright's 1987 drama, which follows a Black family's struggle to decide the fate of an ancestral heirloom

Maker of the “world famous buttermilk drop,” New Orleans actor Dwight Henry is expanding his baking empire