Neuroscie
Music Choice Can Harm Productivity
Summary: A new study shows that background music in workplaces can harm employee mood, energy, and job performance when it doesn’t match individual needs. This “music misfit” effect leads to…
The Subtle Power of Self-Deprecating Humor
Summary: Self-deprecating humor, when used thoughtfully, can help people regulate emotions, build trust, and foster connection—especially in therapeutic settings. Far from being purely negative, this type of humor signals humility,…
Serotonin Signals the Brain’s Best Guess About Future Rewards
Summary: A new study reveals that serotonin neurons in the brain may play a crucial role in helping us estimate the value of future rewards. Rather than simply responding to…
How Psilocybin Lifts Mood Without the Hallucinogenic Trip
Summary: Researchers have uncovered two key brain mechanisms—specific neurons and a serotonin receptor—that help explain how psilocybin produces long-lasting antidepressant effects. Their study identified pyramidal tract neurons in the medial…
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
Blue Origin plans an all-female space flight—but astronaut memoirs reveal the cost of being exceptional
Mae Carol Jemison was the first black woman to travel to space. Credit: NASA For the first time since Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo flight in 1963, a spacecraft will…
Four space tourists return to Earth after a private flight over the poles
In this image from video provided by SpaceX, a Dragon capsule carrying four space tourists prepares to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Friday,…
A chance alignment in Lupus
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker The subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is the stunning spiral galaxy NGC 5530. NGC 5530 is situated 40…
