Neuroscie
Working Nights May Increase Cancer Risk
Summary: Chronic circadian disruption — such as night-shift work, irregular schedules, or frequent jet lag — accelerates the development and spread of aggressive breast cancer. Researchers found that disrupted internal…
Consciousness May Require a New Kind of Computation
Summary: A new theoretical framework argues that the long-standing split between computational functionalism and biological naturalism misses how real brains actually compute. The authors propose “biological computationalism,” the idea that…
Cues Can Hijack Decision Making in Some People
Summary: Some individuals rely heavily on visual and sound cues when making decisions, and this sensitivity can lead to persistent maladaptive choices. When cue–outcome associations shift, these individuals struggle to…
Smiling Faces Trigger Mimicry, and Make Us Trust Them More
Summary: People instinctively mimic others’ facial expressions, but new research shows we do this far more with joyful faces than with sadness or anger—and that the intensity of mimicry predicts…
Life
Nature
Newfound bat skeletons are the oldest on record
Two fossilized bat skeletons unearthed in western Wyoming represent a new species and are the oldest set of bat bones yet discovered, researchers say. The incredibly complete fossils of Icaronycteris…
Astronomy
Asteroid 2024 YR4 was Earth’s first real-life defense test
Artist’s depiction of an asteroid floating in space. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), Martin Kornmesser (ESA), Serge Brunier (ESO), Nick Risinger (Photopic Sky Survey) At this point in…
How do you fire someone into the sun?
Firing our villain straight at the Sun results in a big miss. Credit: Michael Brown, CC BY To point a rocket directly at the sun and hit would require great…
Cosmic ray puzzle resolved as scientists link ‘knee’ formation to black holes
LHAASO experiment. Credit: LHAASO Collaboration Milestone results released by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) on November 16 have solved a decades-old mystery about the cosmic ray energy…
If the supernova standard candle is wrong, it could solve the Hubble tension
An illustration showing how Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) expand with the universe. Credit: Gabriela Secara, Perimeter Institute CC-BY-4.0 Last time I wrote about new data that overturns the standard cosmological…
