Neuroscie
War Impacts Child Development, Alters DNA
Summary: War exposure in Syrian refugee children triggered unique DNA methylation changes, marking genes involved in brain development and stress responses. These epigenetic changes suggest potential long-term effects on health…
How AI Could Shape Human Evolution in Subtle Yet Profound Ways
Summary: Artificial intelligence is becoming a pivotal force in human lives, prompting questions about its evolutionary effects. A new study explores how AI may influence human evolution through everyday interactions,…
How Hunter-Gatherer Kids Learn Lifelong Skills by Age Six
Summary: Hunter-gatherer children in the Congo Basin learn critical skills like hunting, gathering, and childcare by age six or seven, thanks to a unique social learning environment. Unlike Western societies,…
Robots Help Unlock the Mystery of Human Sense of Self
Summary: A new study explores how robots can model and test aspects of the human sense of self, offering new insights into this complex phenomenon. Robots can simulate processes like…
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
Chandra and Hubble tune into ‘flame-throwing’ Guitar Nebula
Outline of the guitar shape in the X-ray and optical image. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./M. de Vries et al.; Optical: (Hubble) NASA/ESA/STScI and (Palomar) Hale Telescope/Palomar/CalTech; Illustrated outline: NASA/CXC/K. DiVona;…
New DESI data shed light on gravity’s pull in the universe
DESI observes the sky from the Mayall Telescope, shown here during the 2023 Geminid meteor shower. Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Sparks Gravity has shaped our cosmos. Its attractive influence turned tiny differences…
How we’ll land large payloads on the Red Planet
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Back in 2007, I talked with Rob Manning, engineer extraordinaire at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he told me something shocking. Even though he had successfully…
A new way to detect daisy worlds
Daisy Worlds are planets where the biosphere regulates the environment to keep it habitable. Earth is one, sort of. Can we use information theory to identify agnostic biosignatures from these…
