Humans
- Science & Society
Gender-affirming care improves mental health for transgender youth
Several state legislatures have taken steps to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender adolescents. That goes against medical guidelines.
- Anthropology
Ancient DNA shows the peopling of Southeast Asian islands was surprisingly complex
Ancient DNA from a hunter-gatherer skeleton points to earlier-than-expected human arrivals on Southeast Asian islands known as Wallacea.
- Psychology
Everyone maps numbers in space. But why don’t we all use the same directions?
The debate over whether number lines are innate or learned obscures a more fundamental question: Why do we map numbers to space in the first place?
- Psychology
‘Ghost games’ spotlight the psychological effect fans have on referees
Soccer teams won fewer games and received more fouls when playing at home during the 2019–2020 season, when many fans were absent, than before the pandemic.
- Health & Medicine
How coronavirus vaccines still help people who already had COVID-19
Coronavirus vaccines give the immune system of previously infected people a boost, probably giving those people better protection against new variants.
- Science & Society
How extreme heat from climate change distorts human behavior
As temperatures rise, violence and aggression go up while focus and productivity decline. The well off can escape to cool spaces; the poor cannot.
- Health & Medicine
New studies hint that the coronavirus may be evolving to become more airborne
More coronavirus RNA is in fine aerosols than in larger droplets, but masks can reduce the amount of virus in the air.
- Archaeology
A 1,000-year-old grave may have held a powerful nonbinary person
A medieval grave in Finland, once thought to maybe hold a respected woman warrior, may belong to someone who didn’t have a strictly male or female identity.
- Health & Medicine
How different COVID-19 testing plans can help keep kids safe in school
As children head back to school in the United States, here’s a look at various testing strategies that could keep kids safe during in-person learning.
- Psychology
How the strange idea of ‘statistical significance’ was born
A mathematical ritual known as null hypothesis significance testing has led researchers astray since the 1950s.
- Genetics
An Indigenous people in the Philippines have the most Denisovan DNA
Genetic comparisons crown the Indigenous Ayta Magbukon people as having the most DNA, 5 percent, from the mysterious ancient hominids.
- Health & Medicine
Colds and other common respiratory diseases might surge as kids return to school
Recent historically low levels of some respiratory illnesses may lead to outbreaks this fall and winter, creating disruptions as kids return to school.
