SCIENCE
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Rainwater Could Help Satisfy AI’s Water Demands
November 7, 2024 5 min read Rainwater Could Help Satisfy AI’s Water Demands A few dozen ChatGPT queries cost a bottle’s worth of water. Tech firms should consider simpler solutions, like harvesting rainwater, to meet AI’s needs By Justin Talbot Zorn & Bettina Warburg In late September Microsoft announced that it had reached a deal to reopen the Three Mile…
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These Bird Nests Show Signs of an Architectural ‘Culture’
November 5, 2024 2 min read These Bird Nests Show Signs of an Architectural ‘Culture’ Culture may play a role in how birds build collectively in the Kalahari Desert By Gennaro Tomma White-browed Sparrow-Weaver nests and roosts. Wolfgang Kaehler/Alamy Stock Photo From long and winding migration flights to intricate songs and clever tool use, many bird behaviors are known to…
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Voting Has Never Been More Secure Than It Is Right Now
Now is the best time in the history of the U.S. to cast a vote. Yes, American elections have flaws. They’re marred by voter disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, the inherent weirdness of the electoral college and recent cases of ballot box arson. But the act of voting itself has been unfairly tarnished, most notably by former president Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that…
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Fastest Known Planetary System May Have Been Pushed by Our Galaxy’s Supermassive Black Hole
October 30, 2024 2 min read Fastest Known Planetary System May Have Been Pushed by Our Galaxy’s Supermassive Black Hole This blazingly-fast star is shooting through the Milky Way with a planet in tow By Jonathan O’Callaghan Hubble Space Telescope’s view of the dense region of stars near the Milky Way’s center, called the galactic bulge. Our solar system orbits…
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Shaken Baby Syndrome Has Been Discredited. Why Is Robert Roberson Still on Death Row?
October 26, 2024 5 min read Shaken Baby Syndrome Has Been Discredited. Why Is Robert Roberson Still on Death Row? Convicted of a crime that never happened, Roberson’s case is a prime example of how the U.S. legal system often fails to recognize advances in scientific knowledge By Jeff Kukucka & David Faigman Protesters from the Innocence Project in the…
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Anyone Can Learn Echolocation in Just 10 Weeks—And It Remodels Your Brain
October 24, 2024 2 min read Anyone Can Learn Echolocation in Just 10 Weeks—And It Remodels Your Brain Human echolocation repurposes parts of the brain’s visual cortex for sound, even in sighted people By Simon Makin Human echolocation has at times allowed people to ride bikes or play basketball despite being completely blind from a very young age. These echolocators…
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How Your Brain Processes Zero (It’s Not Exactly ‘Nothing’)
October 21, 2024 3 min read How Your Brain Processes Zero (It’s Not Exactly ‘Nothing’) What we think about when we think about “zilch” is surprisingly complex, neuroscientists find By Michaela Maya-Mrschtik & Daisy Yuhas The invention of zero made many mathematical calculations possible. Many mathematical equations can only be solved thanks to a special human invention: the number zero.…
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Ancient ‘Age of Dinosaurs’ Seafloor Found beneath Pacific Ocean
October 17, 2024 3 min read Ancient Seafloor Discovered Slowly Sinking into Earth’s Mantle A vast, ancient slab of seafloor plunged beneath the Pacific Ocean and has hovered in Earth’s mantle for more than 120 million years, a new study suggests By Jeanna Bryner The Nazca plate is located to the west of South America’s Pacific coast. On the western…
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Tiny Babies Who Can Smell Their Mother Recognize Faces Better
October 15, 2024 2 min read Tiny Babies Who Can Smell Their Mother Recognize Faces Better A smell’s effect on facial recognition is key at first—but decreases as a baby’s eyesight improves By Simon Makin StefaNikolic/Getty Images Babies experience a torrent of sensory information from the moment they are born. Knowing nothing about the world, they must learn to sort…
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Human Origins Look Ever More Tangled with Gene and Fossil Discoveries
October 11, 2024 4 min read Humanity’s Origins Paint Our Ancestors as Lovers, Not Fighters Fossil and gene discoveries paint an ever-more-intertwined history of humans combining with vanished species like Neandertals By Daniel Vergano The reconstructed face of Krijn, the oldest Neanderthal found in the Netherlands, displayed at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden on September 6, 2021. Bart…
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