Kristen French

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    Falling Asleep Is More Like Plunging Off a Cliff Than We Thought

    It’s not the gradual slip into darkness that scientists assumed

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    A Trip Around Our Surprisingly Psychedelic Planet

    Inside Earth’s most hallucinatory ecosystems

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    Illustration of the silhouettes of children playing in and under a green leafy tree.

    Childhood Friends, Not Moms, Shape Attachment Styles Most

    A new study upends conventional wisdom about how we relate to those closest to us

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    The Secret Lives of Tree Roots

    A glimpse into the arboreal underworld tells us how trees will cope in a changing climate

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    The Worm That Survived Multiple Apocalypses

    A riddle wrapped in a question mark

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    How Super Recognizers See What the Rest of Us Miss

    The secret to their extraordinary ability lies not in the brain but the eyes

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    A photo of a teenager with blurry outlines. The edges of blurred with leaking stars from a galaxy.

    Should Teenagers Take Psychedelics for Mental Health?

    The potential risks are high, but scientists say we need to study the possible benefits

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    Illustration showing paper heads in skin-tone colors, all with their mouths taped over with red tape.

    When Do People Speak Out Against Tyranny?

    What a mathematical model can tell us about self-censorship

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    Chimps Can Change Their Minds. Why Can’t We?

    New evidence that rationality is wider than humanity

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    How Giraffes Got Their Very Long Legs

    Which came first, the neck or the legs?