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Two Big Stick Insect Species Emerge from Australia

They were hiding in plain sight among their close relatives

Isaac Asimov Showed Us How to Avoid the AI Apocalypse

But the famed sci-fi author’s 80-year-old rules of robotics may need some updating

What Australia’s Hidden Caves Can Teach Us About Martian Terrain

The Nullarbor terrain isn’t that different than the red planet

U.S. Life Expectancy is Circling the Drain

We lack political will to deal with it

Does Earth’s Magnetic Field Affect Aging?

The secret may lie in the mitochondria


Read Stories from Our Newest Print Issue: The Stupid Issue

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The 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

How Do You Read Ancient Charred Scrolls? Make Your Own

A new technique could unlock the secrets of the Herculaneum scrolls

Did Wildfires Spark the Invention of Pottery?

Introducing the “natural kiln hypothesis”

Envy at the Ballot Box

Majority voting may make us less willing to tolerate advantages for others

I’m Part of the Team Writing the Next Bible of Psychiatry—For the First Time, the DSM Will Use Biology to Understand Mental Disorders

Part of the challenge of finding a biomarker for mental illness is the environment’s significant influence

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Are Our Antidepressants Harming Fish?

It’s hard to say, but we’re definitely exposing them to our monoamine drugs

This Dolphin Steals from Fish for Its Meals

Putting a dent in dolphins’ reputation as the “good guys of the sea”

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

What Makes Humans Stupid

It takes intelligence to get things spectacularly wrong. An essay on our undoing.