COS News

The onset of puberty has been creeping downward for decades. In the United States, the average age of girls reaching puberty ranges from 8.8 to 10.3 years old. The early start of puberty, which is associated with many health risks, can be triggered by chronic stress in children. New research by Northeastern scientists has identified...

The origins of consciousness have been debated by philosophers for centuries. Each conscious person has a sense of “being me,” which invariably gives rise to the question of where that sense originated — from within or outside the body, says Northeastern University psychology professor Iris Berent. “How do human brains give rise to this experience?...

Racquet sports are clearly having a moment. The pickleball revolution is continuing apace, with partnerships, leagues and playing courts springing up seemingly by the day. And in a world without Roger Federer and Serena Williams, tennis has maintained its popularity among most age groups, new polling suggests. What’s more, research suggests that picking up a racquet might...

Commencement is nearing for the Northeastern College of Science undergraduate class of 2024! This year, at the College of Science graduation, Sacha Sergent will be speaking to her fellow graduates and leaving them with a final hoorah. To get in the excitement of commencement, I interviewed Sacha to learn about her time at Northeastern and...

Imagine you’re at a carnival and want to win a big stuffed toy. You play different games and, if successful, collect tickets. But it’s not the tickets you care about, it’s the big toy they’ll buy. And you’re likely to stick to the easier games to earn as many tickets as possible. An experience like...

Matty Coleman and Federica Ciummo convened students and administration officials to enhance Northeastern’s mental health and wellness offerings.

Science and religion are typically thought to be at odds with one another, but Francis Collins doesn’t see it that way. The former director of both the National Institutes of Health and National Human Genome Research Institute, Collins is also a man of devout faith. Looking at the distrust and increasingly fractious divide between scientific...

The Create ceramics studio in Boston’s Roslindale neighborhood is a tapestry of gentle, sturdy neutrals. Earthenware pots, bowls and teacups awaiting paint jobs rest on light gray shelves; white drop cloths and stone potter’s wheels take up most of the wood floor, all of it bathed in low afternoon sunlight gushing through storefront windows. But...

Touchscreens have long been integral to our everyday life — humans use them to work, play, talk with loved ones and snag Lightning Deals on Prime Day. In recent years, they’ve shown potential for the animal kingdom as well, leading to a growing body of academic researchand a proliferation of consumer products promising to leverage...

A new offering for the spring 2024 semester, PSYC-4660 is a seminar in cognition, a subset of psychology that covers how people encode, represent and process information from the environment in the brain, according to Coley, a psychology professor with a dual appointment in environmental science. Humans & Nature zeros in on how those things...

Tell us about yourself. I am a third-year behavioral neuroscience student from a rural area called Perrysburg, about an hour south of Buffalo, NY. I love being outdoors. I grew up in the middle of nowhere and still find so much peace in places with more trees than people. I went to Iceland on dialogue...

Looking for a creative way to give back?  Community Palette is a new club on campus that aims to serve individuals in underprivileged, clinical, and community settings in Boston through creative and visual arts initiatives. To learn more about this organization, I interviewed the founder and president, Seher Abbasi.  Can you tell me a bit...