Peru’s penguins are on the brink. A super El Niño could make it worse.

The first time I was in Punta San Juan, the desert was flooded with birds. It was 2012, and I was making a short documentary film about the cormorants, pelicans…

Current and future RFK Jr. aides criticize his science-rejectionist vaccine views

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent years casting doubt on vaccines, but the people lined up to work for him keep saying the opposite. Since the White House…

Flawed AI Summaries Distort Eyewitness Memory

Summary: AI-generated summaries can manipulate eyewitness memory, causing people to misremember events they witnessed firsthand. In a controlled experiment, exposure to misleading automated summaries nearly halved participants’ recall accuracy, implanting…

Mitochondria in the Brain’s Reward Hub Drive Nicotine Dependence

Summary: Supported by a $943,000 NIH grant, neuroscientists at the University of Central Florida are investigating how nicotine alters neuronal mitochondria within the nucleus accumbens. By examining the subcellular mechanisms…

Firsthand Experience Dictates Social Judgment

Summary: When public reputation clashes with direct personal experience, people prioritize their own history over social gossip to judge non-cooperation. A new study reveals an asymmetric moral calculus: while helping…

Chronic Stress Shapes Cognitive Aging

Summary: A longitudinal study of nearly 3,900 older adults revealed that while robust social support helps shield attention from age-related decline across all demographics, it does not counteract the harmful…

Viewpoint: 4 very real AI doomsday scenarios

An engineered pandemic, a nuclear war, a planet paved over with paper clip factories: AI researchers have floated plenty of ways the technology could end humanity. Now the debate over…

Cell Membrane Lipid Governs Retinal Light Sensitivity

Summary: Using cryogenic electron microscopy and synthetic model membranes, researchers have mapped how the membrane phospholipid PIP2 binds to cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) ion channels in retinal rod cells. Even at…

Can Humor Treat Depression? – Neuroscience News

Summary: A comprehensive review of clinical psychology and neuroimaging research shows that while humor can build resilience and protect against depressive relapse, it often does more harm than good during…

Meet the newest living cat species, the first described in 100 years

Genetic testing of two tiny tiger cats from Bolivia revealed a new species, adding a new branch to the feline family tree.