A leading theory for why primates have bigger brains than other mammals has been debunked. The “fruit-diet theory” contended that foraging ability and intelligence go hand in hand in a sort of fruit-foraging feedback loop. Essentially, it posited that animals with larger brains can find fruit easily, then eating that fruit fuels brain growth, which, in turn boosts foraging ability. But, a study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B that compared larger-brained primates fruit foraging with sm ...read more

Phobos and Deimos are potato-shaped, heavily pock-marked rocks that are gravitationally bound to Mars. They are also two of the strangest moons in the Solar System.For a start, they are tiny compared to their host—Phobos is just 20 kilometers across. They are much less dense than Mars and heavily cratered, suggesting a colorful past. They also have some peculiar features, such as the grooves on the surface of Phobos that stretch for over a kilometer. The puzzle for astronomers is to determine ...read more

More than 53,000 Americans are projected to die from colorectal cancer this year. Although colorectal cancer is the second-most common cause of cancer deaths in the United States, it can be cured if caught early. Detecting a tumor as soon as possible can help you get treatment as soon as possible, giving you the best chance for survival.In my work as a gastroenterologist, I treat patients from every background and walk of life. Uniting them are a growing number of insurance barriers threatening ...read more

When you think of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), you might imagine an array of mind-boggling visuals. Yet psychoactive substances can be good for more than just a tremendous trip. For thousands of years, they’ve been used to treat psychological disorders and promote well-being. In fact, when taken in small doses, experts say they can even produce comparable effects to antidepressants. Called microdosing, this idea is nothing new, but it’s taken off i ...read more

An EF-4 tornado carved a path of destruction through Greenfield, Iowa, on May 21, 2024. With peak winds of 185 miles per hour, the twister's rampage through the little town is visible in this image captured by the Sentinel 2 satellite on May 25. (Credit: Modified Copernicus Sentinel data processed by Tom Yulsman)It has been quite a spring for twisters in the United States. So far this year, the preliminary tally from the Storm Prediction Center has reached 1,035 tornadoes, with 872 of them occur ...read more

Houston just can't seem to catch a break. After a band of extreme thunderstorms rampaged through on May 16, knocking out power to large parts of the city, new storms have caused continuing misery there — and, for that matter, large swaths of the Lone Star State and beyond. On Tuesday, May 28, powerful storms pummeled Texas with high winds and baseball-sized hail, tragically causing one death. Houston was not spared: Streets were flooded for the second time in two weeks, and more than 100,000 C ...read more

The French Broad River winds through the mountains of western North Carolina, fed by dozens of mountain streams, and crosses the city of Asheville. At over 2,000 feet above sea level and more than 250 miles from the coast, it is an unlikely place to prepare for a hurricane.Yet, the remnants of several hurricanes have swept through this region over the years, sending rivers in the region raging out of their banks.When these storms hit back to back, the devastation can be enormous. In September 20 ...read more

Plato’s Theory of Forms addresses the question of how we know that an object, such as a table, is what it is, even though we may never have seen it before and even though it might look entirely different to any table we have ever seen. Plato’s answer is that a table gets its “tableness” because it partakes of the perfect Form of a table. This Form is an ideal, absolute, timeless entity that is the essence of tableness but that we cannot experience directly. In his Allegory of the Cave, P ...read more

You’ve heard of diets like the paleo diet, which claim to harken back to the foods of our ancestors, recreating the diets that we would have eaten during the Paleolithic or Stone Age. It’s a reference to eating the way we’re naturally supposed to eat, identifying the foods that are healthiest for human consumption.However, according to experts, these diets present a number of unlikely scenarios. First, early humans didn’t shop at the health foods store or choose foods that best suited th ...read more

You have probably heard of sensory deprivation tanks. A number of celebrities swear by them for relaxation, and they have steadily grown in popularity over the past few decades. They work by minimizing sensory inputs from the external world: The tank is filled with high salinity water that allows the user to float freely on the surface; the water is body temperature; earplugs are worn to reduce sound; and the tank is usually situated in a dark room or enclosed space.The potential therapeutic ben ...read more