Sleep
The Scientific Secret to Soothing Fussy Babies
Some animals’ babies physically relax when their parents whisk them away from danger. The same thing works for tiny, wailing humans.
Stories by Karen Hopkin
Animals
Why Your Dog Might Think You’re a Bonehead
The verdict is in: female dogs actively evaluate human competence.
Behavior
It’s the Bass That Makes Us Boogie
Concertgoers danced more when music was supplemented with low-frequency bass tones.
Animals
These Hawks Have Figured Out How to See the Bat in the Swarm
New research shows that birds of prey attempting to grab a bat from a roiling mass of the flying mammals have developed a way to cope with the confusion.
Memory
Naps Not Needed to Make New Memories
Rats kept awake after exploring novel objects remembered the original items but not where they’d seen those objects, raising interesting questions about human sleep.
Animals
These Spiders Use Their Webs like Huge, Silky Ears
A study of orb-weaving spiders shows that the arachnids’ webs pick up a range of sounds—and that they are always “listening” for vibrations coming in over them...
Animals
These Bats Buzz like Bees to Save Their Own Lives
New research has discovered the first case of acoustic mimicry between a mammal and an insect—an acquired skill that could just save certain bats’ skin.
Animals
Dogs Actually Tear Up When Their Owners Come Home
Our puppies’ eyes well up, a reaction caused by oxytocin, which makes us want to take care of them even more.
Animals
Researchers Created a Potion That Turns Loud Lions into Placid Pussycats
A single whiff of oxytocin, a chemical that some call the “love hormone,” promotes tolerance among lions at a wildlife sanctuary.
Animals
For Some Dolphins, the Key to Mating is Rolling with a Tight, Noisy Crew
A pair of studies show that male bottlenose dolphins rely on wingmen when wooing mates—and that they cultivate these friendships by being vocal.
Microbiology
A Remote-Controlled Carnivorous Plant?
Researchers design an artificial neuron that can trigger closure of a Venus flytrap.
Diversity
Female CEOs Change How Firms Talk about Women
Appointing women to leadership positions renders organizations more likely to describe all women as being powerful, persistent and bold.
Animals
Hedgehogs Host the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance
Bacteria resistant to methicillin emerged in hedgehogs long before the drug was prescribed to treat infections.
Animals
Meerkats Are Getting Climate Sick
For meerkats in the Kalahari Desert, rising temperatures spark deadly outbreaks of tuberculosis.
Neurology
Science Finally Has a Good Idea about Why We Stutter
A glitch in speech initiation gives rise to the repetition that characterizes stuttering.
Neuroscience
Does This Look like a Face to You?
Science—and experience—show that we most definitely see faces in inanimate objects. But new research finds that, more often than not, we perceive those illusory faces as male...
Culture
Researchers Analyzed Folk Music like It Was Mutating DNA: They Found Amazing Parallels between Life and Art
Using software designed to align DNA sequences, scientists cataloged the mutations that arose as folk songs evolved
Language
What Is the Shape of This Word?
What shape do you see when you hear “ bouba ”? What about “ kiki ”? It turns out that nonsense words that evoke certain shapes have something to say about the origins of language...
Physiology
The Surprising Physics of Finger Snapping
You might not think that you can generate more body acceleration than a big-league baseball pitcher, but new research shows you can.
Robotics
To Better Persuade a Human, a Robot Should Use This Trick
A new study finds that, for robots, overlords are less persuasive than peers.
