Household cats are a secretive species. Unlike dogs, they are masters at masking their feelings and intentions—possibly because of their evolutionary history as solitary hunters. This built-in stoicism makes it hard for cat owners and veterinarians to read signs of pain in a cat’s facial expressions and behaviors, but new artificial intelligence programs may be… Continue reading Cats Can Hide Their Pain–But Not from AI
Public Education’s Alarming New 4th ‘R’: Reversal of Learning
Call it the big reset – downward – in public education. The alarming plunge in academic performance during the pandemic was met with a significant drop in grading and graduation standards to ease the pressure on students struggling with remote learning. The hope was that hundreds of billions of dollars of emergency federal aid would… Continue reading Public Education’s Alarming New 4th ‘R’: Reversal of Learning
The Part of the Brain That Controls Movement Also Guides Feelings
In recent decades, neuroscience has seen some stunning advances, and yet a critical part of the brain remains a mystery. I am referring to the cerebellum, so named for the Latin for “little brain,” which is situated like a bun at the back of the brain. This is no small oversight: The cerebellum contains three-quarters… Continue reading The Part of the Brain That Controls Movement Also Guides Feelings
How Civics Can Counter Antisemitism on Campus
The shocking scenes of college students, faculty, and staff defending Hamas’s October 7th massacre of Israeli civilians as a “legitimate act of resistance” have rightly been called antisemitism. Our father’s antisemitism was the centuries-old hatred of Jews just because they were Jews, different in their beliefs and customs. But this new form of antisemitism is… Continue reading How Civics Can Counter Antisemitism on Campus
55 Books Scientific American Recommends in 2023
The Scientific American editorial team learned a lot this year. We debated why we’ll never live in space, explored the deep ocean (sort of), and asked how dinosaurs got so big. We also read a ton of books. While of course there were quite a few science fiction books (we can’t help ourselves), we also… Continue reading 55 Books Scientific American Recommends in 2023
Cells Across the Body Talk to Each Other About Aging
Aging can seem like an unregulated process: As time marches along, our cells and bodies inevitably accumulate dings and dents that cause dysfunctions, failures and ultimately death. However, in 1993 a discovery upended that interpretation of events. Researchers found a mutation in a single gene that doubled a worm’s life span; subsequent work showed that… Continue reading Cells Across the Body Talk to Each Other About Aging
Astronomers Spy First Star-Forming Disk beyond the Milky Way
Making stars is a messy business. Although the process takes far longer than any human life span, we’ve sufficiently studied its various stages in stellar nurseries scattered around our galaxy to gain a decent overall grasp of how it works. It starts, in general, with a huge swirling cloud of gas and cosmic dust—like the… Continue reading Astronomers Spy First Star-Forming Disk beyond the Milky Way
Bad Science and Bad Statistics in the Courtroom Convict Innocent People
The city of New York recently witnessed a record payout to George Bell, falsely convicted of murder in 1999, after it emerged prosecutors had deliberately hidden evidence casting doubt on his guilt, giving false statements in court. Bell is the latest in a long line of people, especially Black Americans, unfoundedly convicted. More recently, Jabar… Continue reading Bad Science and Bad Statistics in the Courtroom Convict Innocent People
1982 Chicago Tylenol Murders
Podcast: Download MYS294: In 1982, 7 people suddenly died in Chicago, having taken Extra Strength Tylenol just before, and police learned the pills had been tampered with. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss what happened, who was responsible, and how these events changed American permanently. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow by… Continue reading 1982 Chicago Tylenol Murders
How to Choose an Environmentally Friendly Christmas Tree
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Every year, Americans buy somewhere between 35 million and 50 million Christmas trees, and many more pull an artificial tree out of storage for the season. In all, about three-quarters of U.S. households typically have some kind of Christmas… Continue reading How to Choose an Environmentally Friendly Christmas Tree