PennNeuroKnow – Breaking down the brain for everyone to understand

PENN neuroknow

Breaking down the brain for everyone to understand

T cells in the immune system: Friend or foe?

T cells are a type of immune cell that defend your body against disease. While these mighty cells normally serve to protect you from foreign invaders, what happens if they turn on you?

December 9, 2025
The blood brain barrier and its Trojan Horses

Ever wonder what delivering drugs to the brain and Greek mythology have in common? If so, come check out this article on Trojan Horses in science!

December 2, 2025
When good things turn bad: How your brain decides what you like and dislike

How do we decide what we like and what we don’t? Discover how the brain forms these judgments and how they can flip after just one bad experience.

November 18, 2025
Vaccines and autism: Let’s talk about it

The conversation around autism and vaccines has become an increasingly hot topic of late (to put it mildly), but did you know that this debate began over 25 years ago? Here is a brief overview of the history and the science around whether vaccines increase the risk of autism.

November 11, 2025
How to make a guy compost in 10 days

How can we use neuroscience to encourage environmentally-friendly decisions?

November 4, 2025
Recording everything everywhere all at once

Neuroscientists can now record from many parts of the mouse brain at once, helping us see how millions of neurons work together to guide behavior.

October 28, 2025
The brain behind the balance

Your brain is more than a thinking machine. Even when you rest, your brain is constantly monitoring, adjusting, and fine-tuning every heartbeat, breath, and chemical signal – keeping your body balanced. The key? A network of regulators hidden in your brain working every second of your life.

October 21, 2025
Mighty mitochondria, the powerhouses of your nervous system

Neurons require a lot of energy to keep your brain functioning, and this energy is overwhelmingly generated by certain cellular components: the mitochondria. Here, we discuss how mitochondria actually perform their most famous job of producing your cells’ energy, as well as the other roles they play in neuronal health.

October 14, 2025
Why our brains find conspiracy theories appealing

Discover why conspiracy theories grab our attention, and how the brain’s reward systems and social instincts make them so hard to resist.

October 7, 2025