Category Science

In a discovery that illuminates the deep roots of human cognitive development, researchers have found that great apes process visual information about social interactions in ways strikingly similar to adult humans. This finding suggests that some of the mental machinery…

The output of AIs is controlled by the interactions of huge networks of nodes or weights shulz/Getty Images An artificial intelligence model can be made to spout gibberish if a single one of the many billions of numbers that compose…

November 26, 2024 3 min read Wildfire Smoke Linked to Increased Risk of Dementia The particles that make up wildfire smoke may raise the risk of dementia even more than similar airborne pollutants from other sources By Chelsea Harvey &…

Many places are becoming increasingly unlivable. And around one-quarter of humanity is already dealing with drought and associated food insecurity. By 2070, one-fifth of the planet could become too hot for normal human life, causing up to 3.5 billion people…

As carbon dioxide levels continue to rise in our atmosphere, scientists have uncovered a crucial tipping point that could determine the future of global food production. New research using advanced mathematical modeling shows that while plants initially benefit from increased…

The severed pig’s head had come from the local abattoir. It would have typically been discarded, but Zvonimir Vrselja, a neuroscientist at Yale School of Medicine, and his colleagues had other ideas. Four hours after this particular animal was decapitated,…

November 26, 2024 4 min read How the Return of Salmon to the Klamath River Shows Us What’s Possible in Wildlife Conservation Once a tragic example of degraded wildlife habitat, the Klamath River’s dam removal demonstrates how people can halt…

In the real world, we have more than a century of experience figuring out how to share the world with children in order to keep them safe while still allowing adults to engage in adult-only activities, particularly those involving sex,…

Scientists studying high school football players have uncovered a previously overlooked pattern of brain activity changes following concussions, offering new perspectives on how these injuries affect developing brains. The research reveals that what was once dismissed as background “noise” in…

Sodium-ion batteries could have advantages over those containing lithium Juan Roballo/Shutterstock The following is an extract from our climate newsletter Fix the Planet. Find out about our range of newsletters and sign up here. The clean energy revolution depends on…