How Wishful Thinking Impacts Political Polarization
And vice versa
Want to Use AI to Improve Your Work? Have It Disagree with You
Prompting an AI model to fight with your point of view can raise novel solutions
Tourist Posts a Photo to a Facebook Group, Accidentally Discovering 120-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Footprint
Not your average vacation snap
The Monstrous Raptors That Threatened Our Ancestors
Did birds of prey shape human evolution?
Bizarre Fruit-Eating “Hell Chicken” Suggests Dinosaurs Played a Role in Flowering Plant Evolution
Its jaws were fruit-mashing machines
Latest Stories
A Collapsing Star Produced an Afterglow Brighter Than Its Galaxy
“The explosion packed roughly a billion years of the sun’s energy output into a pencil-thin beam”
Listen to the Earliest Known Recordings of a Nearly Dead American Language
These “lost” recordings of the Creole language offer unique insights that written transcripts can’t provide
A Cross-Species Same-Sex Love Story
In Ethiopia, scientists documented repeated sex and bonding between a bull and a male donkey
Read Stories from Our Newest Print Issue: The Stupid Issue
See moreThe Elegance of a Stupid Question
Are computers in mathematics rewriting the definitions of stupid and smart?
The Resistance Is Here
They didn’t plan to be activists. But scientists have united to overturn Trump’s drastic cuts to science.
The Return of a Discredited Pseudoscience
Eugenics is rearing its ugly head again in today’s crucible of politics and culture
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Cutting-edge science, unraveled by the brightest living thinkers.
Astronomy
See more Astronomy“We Will Find a Graviton Before We Find Dark Matter”
A quantum information scientist on the hunt for the elemental mediator of gravity and why AI can’t solve physics problems creatively
Dead Star Offers a Glimpse Into Our Solar System’s Future
A ring of debris hints at planetary survivors
Cloudy With a Chance of Incineration: Predicting Weather on Distant Worlds
How scientists decode climate light-years away
History
See more History
This Is the Oldest Peace Treaty Ever Discovered
Maybe there are a few things we can still learn from it
Psychology
See more PsychologyWhat Can We Learn About Happiness From the People Who Study It?
Happiness pioneers recently gathered to discuss the good life
Inside the Mind of a Narcissist
Their brains don’t sync the same way when it comes to processing empathy
Forensic Facial Specialists Can Identify People Using Just a Couple Facial Features
Your furrowed brow may be betraying you
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Environment
See more Environment
The World’s Largest Penguin Colony Suffers Catastrophic Loss
Something is amiss in Antarctica
Zoology
See more ZoologyCan Whales Sing with Their Mouths Full?
Their songs provide a new way to monitor their feeding behavior
This Bizarre Jurassic “Squid” Swam the Ancient Seas of Wyoming
And likely gobbled up its smaller cephalopod relatives for lunch
Vultures Help Eliminate Pathogens. Bird Flu Could Eliminate Them
Dwindling vulture populations are locked in a fight for their lives
Philosophy
See more PhilosophyThe Quest for Wisdom in Turbulent Times
A conversation with three Harvard professors about the practice of wisdom in everyday living
Could AI Have Consciousness That Isn’t Human-Like?
Philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith on AI consciousness and existential risk
What a Picture of a Dog Has to Do with Reason and Logic
People who can’t see images in their minds challenge an old philosophical standby
Meds Are Often the Go-to for Dementia Patients. Is There a Better Way?
Federal statistics show nursing homes still overuse medications to quell the behavioral problems that come with cognitive decline. Experts advocate for alternatives
Read more
See all postsIs Sleeping in on the Weekends Bad for Your Heart?
A new study links sleep regularity to cardiovascular health
The Mystery of Why Some Drugs Vanish
Disappearing versions of pharmaceutical molecules mean scientists can lose the ability to create some drugs, but why?
Can You Recognize the Subject of This Year’s Microscopic Photography Contest Winner?
The Nikon Small World contest shows off objects and animals as you’ve never seen them before
Ketamine’s Role in Alleged Cornell Rape Highlights Flood of Psychoactive Drugs on Campus
Ketamine and many other psychoactive substances can’t be detected by most standard drug screens, so it’s unclear how often they play a role in sexual assault.
Your Cells Keep a Record of Every Workout You’ve Ever Done
And those gains persist even after a break from exercise
