Researchers in New Zealand have cloned and characterized a gene which, when disrupted, allows apples to develop without seeds. This highly prized trait, fully developed in only a handful of other fruits, has proved a big bonus for growers and consumers alike. What's more, in apples the phenotype might offer other potential advantages for growers of this often difficult crop. Thousands of apple ...

Heat and cold transduction by peripheral sensory neurons is a fundamental step in the avoidance of dangerous thermal extremes. In this issue of Neuron, Dhaka et al. and Colburn et al. report that mice lacking the cold- and menthol-gated ion channel TRPM8 exhibit deficient behavioral responses to cold temperatures.

The 8 patients involved in this study were impaired on tests assessing knowledge of objects and on the demonstration of their use. The patients' success in object use was significantly correlated with their knowledge about the objects, providing further evidence that conceptual knowledge plays a key role in object use. Having a recipient present improved performance in the moderately impaired p...

The Minority Game is a model of interacting agents, who try to choose between two options every day, and those who are in the minority are winners. In an earlier paper, efficient stochastic strategies for this game was analyzed when the number of agents is 3, 5, 7. When the number of agents is large, the behaviour is qualitatively different, and as the discount parameter is varied, there is a s...