Science & Society
- Health & Medicine
Smartphones may serve as digital security blankets
In a new study, students in awkward social situations experienced less stress if they had — but didn’t use — their smartphones.
- Physics
Dazzling laser advances bring physicists a Nobel Prize
The winners of 2018 Nobel Prize in physics helped usher in new laser feats, such as making optical “tweezers” and creating amazingly bright beams of light.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists enlist computers to hunt down fake news
Who can you trust? What can you believe? Scrolling through a news feed can make it hard to decide what’s real from what’s not. Computers, however, tend to do better.
- Computing
Computers can now make fool-the-eye fake videos
Hackers can now use computers to move facial expressions (and more) from someone in one video to a person in another. The results look totally real, ushering in a whole new type of fakery.
- Climate
Climate change sets people on the move
As their homelands experience uncomfortable changes to weather, many people have begun migrating to places with a better climate.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is a clinical trial?
Scientists perform these to compare the effects of a new drug or therapy in treated — and untreated — people. Always people.
- Animals
What ‘The Meg’ doesn’t quite get right about megalodon sharks
A paleobiologist helps separate shark fact from fiction in the new Jason Statham film The Meg.
- Archaeology
Cremated remains hint at who was buried at Stonehenge
A chemical analysis shows that people carried bodies from far away to be buried at the mysterious ancient monument known as Stonehenge.
- Archaeology
Putting hats on Easter Island statues may have required some rock and roll
Fitting huge stone hats on 3-story-high Easter Island statues may have required only a small workforce armed with ropes and ramps.
- Animals
Uh oh! New approach to saving this species imperiled it
After years separated from predators, these endangered quoll lost their fear of them. This jeopardizes the safety of any quoll released back to their home range.
- Math
Supreme Court shies away from test on the math of voting rights
Mathematicians are taking aim at gerrymandering — drawing election district maps that seek to benefit one party over another. The courts have become involved too.
- Science & Society
Women are closing the participation gap in science, but slowly
In many STEM fields, current rates of progress aren’t enough to close the gender gap for decades or even centuries, a new study suggests.
