Carl Zimmer’s got an interesting new column in Discover about brain cells called glia. Greek for ‘glue’, glia for a long time took a back seat to neurons, the brain cells that create and propagate electrical signals. Scientists first thought that glia’s function was simply to sustain neurons. Now, as Carl so nicely explains, they know differently:

Glia, in fact, are busy multitaskers, guiding the brain’s development and sustaining it throughout our lives. Glia also listen carefully to their neighbors, and they speak in a chemical language of their own. Scientists do not yet understand that language, but experiments suggest that it is part of the neurological conversation that takes place as we learn and form new memories. Read the rest!