Lab notes: it was all bones, brains and horrifying sushi this week in science

It's been quite an eclectic week in science, but all the richer for it, say I. For starters, the Developing Human Connectome Project released its first set of really rather stunning images. They're trying to map the connections in the human brain from womb to birth (that's right: this includes pics of the brains of unborn babies. Amazing.) in the hope that it will help them understand how conditions such as autism, cerebral palsy and attention deficit disorders arise. Meanwhile, at the other end of the age spectrum, it seems possible that a daily dose of cannabis extract could reverse brain's decline in old age. The results were quite dramatic in mice, so here's hoping that the human trial planned for later this year will be similarly impressive. Some interesting news from Lee Berger and his team: a new haul of Homo naledi bones has shed some surprising light on human evolution, with dating suggesting that the early human relative lived at same time as Homo sapiens and could even have made stone tools. Also interesting evolutionarily speaking, is a 36m-year-old fossil found in Peru. Mystacodon selenensis is the oldest known cousin of modern baleen whales and researchers say it could be the missing link in whale evolution. And finally we look up from the sea to the stars - specifically to the two enormous lava waves spotted on Io, one of Jupiter's moons. It seems that a hugely powerful active volcano has produced and 8,300 square mile dent in the surface, unleashing the waves.