Do we gain insight by comparing President Trump to a chimpanzee? Can we learn something useful about gender-based violence among humans by studying other primates? Can observing chimpanzees or bonobos tell us why humans go to war or how we can get along better? The urge to try and find the animal “roots� for human behavior is enticing because humans are animals. We are mammals, primates and hominoids (the superfamily of apes). Due to these realities, we s ...read more

Without an insulating coat of fat or fur, what’s an insect to do to survive cold winters? Some insects, like the mealworm beetle, are blessed with antifreeze proteins that keep them from freezing from the inside out. For decades, scientists knew this natural antifreeze existed, but they only had a vague idea of how it worked. Somehow, the proteins attach to tiny ice crystals that begin forming in cold water to keep the crystals from growing larger and harming the insect. Che ...read more

The early universe is a mystery. It's quite literally surrounded by a veil that obscures its distant, early light. But a new glimmer through that void could give us a glimpse into this mysterious era. Two papers released in the Astrophysical Journal (first paper, second paper) detail the discovery of a quasar dubbed PSO J352.4034-15.3373, or P352-15 for short. Quasars are the active centers of large galaxies where supermassive black holes shoot out jets of gas. The image is faint, but sho ...read more

In the why-aren’t-you-watching-this television show The Expanse, humanity has spread out into the solar system. Mars and Earth stand as bitter rivals, with Ceres settlers somewhere in between. A few companies even have settlers in the outer regions of the solar system. You wouldn’t necessarily want to live in the world of The Expanse, as fantastic as it is. Yet the show still plays to the dreams of those of us who long to wander the final frontier. However, ...read more

It all starts with Professor George Church’s vision. Church is a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. In 2005, he launched the Personal Genome Project (PGP), which collects data on a person’s DNA, environmental background, and relevant health and disease information from consenting participants. The premise of the PGP is grounded in open science, meaning that all this data i ...read more

We're down to eight countries in the 2018 Geology World Cup. Cast your ballot here to see which make it to the final 4 standing. Game 1: Russia vs. Perú Few volcanic events on Earth have been as big as the Siberian Traps in Russia. These massive lava flows and explosive ash deposits happened ~252 million years ago and lasted for hundreds of thousands of years. The eruptions may have dumped over 1 million cubic kilometers of volcanic material on the surface! That would have relea ...read more

Before their lineage reached its pinnacle, pun intended, with enormous, aptly named titanosaurs, the sauropodomorph dinosaurs — best known as those long-necked, whip-tailed, four-legged herbivores — started small. The sheer size of the later behemoths of the Jurassic and Cretaceous worlds have made many of us puny humans wonder how they got so big. Paleontologists thought they had it figured out. But new Triassic fossils from Argentina say hang on, there is ...read more

Does idle chat and unhappiness go together? Eight years ago, a study was published (Mehl et al. 2010) suggesting that they do. The authors reported that "Well-Being Is Related to Having Less Small Talk and More Substantive Conversations", triggering many alarming headlines. Now, however, the same researchers have carried out a much larger study and have failed to confirm the chat-unhappiness association. The new paper is published in Psychological Science, the same journal where the ori ...read more

By Sharman Apt Russell  The lazy days of summer are perfect for kicking back and watching the clouds float by. Why not contribute to citizen science from the comfort of your hammock with this cloud-observing project from NASA? Help NASA understand clouds by reporting your observations with the citizen science project S’Cool  Clouds are so democratic. You don’t need to be rich or famous or smart or athletic to enjoy th ...read more

Experiments on a neural circuit hidden within a mysterious part of the brain may have revealed new ways to control hunger, a new study finds. Given the vital role that food plays in survival, it's not surprising that scientists have previously discovered many brain regions linked with eating. For example, hunger can trigger the release of the hormone ghrelin, which can in turn trigger neurons that stimulate feeding. However, so far efforts to control feeding and unhealthy eating behavi ...read more