Mice were given acetate and then performed tasks that tested their memory.Credit: fergregory/iStock via Getty A common metabolic by-product produced when the body breaks down alcohol, glucose and food high in fibre can enhance memory, at least in females, according to a study in mice1. In the study, published in Science Signaling, scientists injected acetate into mice then got the animals to perform two memory tasks that rely on the dorsal hippocampus, the brain’s memory‑forming region. The team introduced the mice to two matching objects and let them interact with these objects for 10 minutes. Twenty-four hours later, the mice were exposed to the objects again, but one object had been moved to a new location, says co-author Gabor Egervari, an epigeneticist at Washington University in St. Louis. If the mouse had an intact memory, it remembered that the object was in a different location yesterday, he says. The mice demonstrated this by playing more with the object that had moved.…