All Stories
- Science & Society
AI can take the friction out of life, but some effort can be good
Technologies, including chatbots, promise to make life easier. But removing the friction, or effort involved in thinking, has costs.
- Animals
Female rats like a different kind of tickling than males
Female rats prefer gentler tickling, a finding that could reshape animal happiness research.
- Archaeology
First evidence of Neandertal dentistry found in ancient molar
A 59,000-year-old Neandertal molar unearthed in Siberia was drilled with a stone tool – the earliest evidence of primitive dentistry.
- Health & Medicine
Hantavirus questions grow in the wake of a cruise ship outbreak
Scientists still don’t know why Andes hantavirus is the only one shown to spread from person to person.
- Physics
To get string theory, you need only four physics assumptions
Tenets of quantum mechanics and special relativity, among other theoretical ideas, lead inexorably to string theory.
- Earth
The crust under Africa is thinning in a way that hasn’t been seen before
Africa’s Turkana Rift Zone, a hotbed of hominin fossils, is caught in the act of “necking," a critical transition toward continental breakup.
- Animals
Territorial conflict may explain male primates’ large size
Male primates may be larger than females partly because of pressure from rival groups, not just competition with males inside their own group.
- Math
Jazz and classical music have become simpler, a new study finds
Mathematical analysis suggests that melodies and harmonies have become less complex as music evolves and musicians find new ways “to create great music.”
- Health & Medicine
Uterus transplants can provide a path to pregnancy and parenthood
Donated uteruses transplanted into women without a womb can allow for successful pregnancy and birth.
- Astronomy
Astronomers may have found a record-breaking pair of black holes
At some 60 billion times the mass of the sun, this dark void could be home to a pair of black holes that are due for a cosmic collision.
- Health & Medicine
Some South American rodent-borne viruses may spread as climate warms
Some rodents in South America carry arenaviruses and hantaviruses. Climate change may bring both to regions where neither is currently a threat.
- Psychology
Yawning is contagious — even in the womb
Rather than catching a yawn on sight, muscles squeezing the uterus could be the trigger for a fetus to catch a yawn from its mother.
