It’s a late-night debate in college dorms across the world: Is my red the same as your red? Two neuroscientists weigh in on this classic “Intro to Philosophy” puzzler in research published September 8 in the Journal of Neuroscience. Their answer is a resounding maybe. There were two possibilities when it comes to how brains…
Artist’s impression of the planet TRAPPIST-1e NASA/JPL-Caltech There are promising signs that one of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 star system, which lies about 40 light years from Earth, has an atmosphere capable of supporting life. But scientists will need to image it 15 times more to make sure. TRAPPIST-1 is a small red dwarf…
Citations E.K. Francispillai, S.M. Dietsch and L.J. Chapman. Effects of temperature on fish aggression and the combined impact of temperature and turbidity on thermal tolerance. Journal of Thermal Biology. Vol. 125, October 2024, 103987. doi: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2024.103987. H.M. Choi et al. Temperature, crime, and violence: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Environmental Health Perspectives. Vol. 132, October 2024, 106001. doi: 10.1289/EHP14300. S. Pappas. How heat affects…
A false colour image of the quantum router circuit MIT SQUILL foundry Quantum computers may be able to run useful algorithms more quickly, thanks to a new quantum router that helps data get to the right place faster. Traditional computers avoid becoming slow when faced with a complicated program in part by using random access…
Marsquakes, Vaccine Politics and Mammoth Microbiomes A common nasal spray shows promise in reducing COVID risk, but vaccine access remains tangled in policy in the U.S. By Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi & Alex Sugiura SCIEPRO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Let’s kick off the…
September 7, 2025 3 min read These Ants Are Different Species but Share a Mother Ant queens of one species are sexual parasites that clone ants of another species to create hybrid workers that do their bidding By Max Kozlov & Nature magazine Queen Iberian harvester ants (Messor ibericus) can give birth to ants of…
Think of your favorite piece of art—a painting, a song, a novel, a movie or even a video game—and try to remember why it made such a strong impression on you. Was it the color, the cadence of notes, the way the writer made you feel understood, the deep emotion of the actors? Now imagine…
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. [CLIP: David Muir appearing on ABC News’s World News Tonight with David Muir: “Breaking headline as we’re on the air tonight, just in from the CDC: the sudden shake-up.”] [CLIP: Symone Sanders Townsend appearing on MSNBC’s The Weeknight: “At this hour, folks, we are trying…
There is no shortage of programs or practices that promise to increase happiness. People may meditate for 30 minutes every morning, block off full evenings to deeply connect with close friends or commit to a 12-week daily gratitude journaling exercise. Some of these activities, which emerged from the field of positive psychology, can reliably and…
A map of a mouse’s brain showing 75,000 neurons Dan Birman, International Brain Laboratory The first complete activity map of a mammalian brain has revealed unprecedented insights into how decisions are made – and may even hint at the roots of that mysterious feeling we call intuition. For decades, neuroscientists have wanted to capture activity…
