Matthias Kaschube, a Theory Fellow at the Lewis-Sigler Institute, and his coworkers from Göttingen, Germany, Duke and Randolph-Macon have published results of new research into the factors determining development of the brain's neural circuits, in Science Express. The researchers studied the architecture of a part of the brain involved in visual processing in a diverse set of mammals whose last common ancestor lived more than 65 million years ago. It revealed a common design across species that cannot be explained by common descent or common evolutionary pressures.