Why was one gene mutation that affects hair, teeth, sweat glands and breasts ubiquitous among ice age Arctic people? New research points to the advantage it provided for ancestors of Native Americans.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Analysis and Comment
In a complex environment with massive numbers of internet-connected devices, the key barrier to better cybersecurity isn't funding: It's ensuring staff at all levels take action against the threat.
E. coli bacteria are the frequent culprits behind outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. But not all strains are harmful; some are even helpful.
Humans and machines perceive the world differently and respond in different ways to what they perceive. This lays the groundwork for conflict – and crashes.
Using nanostructures on a flat piece of glass can make lenses smaller, lighter and much cheaper – while providing better image quality.
Building features can be analyzed in the same way that facial recognition software works, revealing previously hidden elements of history.
Airplanes could be safer with technology at the helm. A key sticking point is human opinion.
Human beings seem to be born wearing rose-colored glasses. Psychologists are interested in how this bias toward the positive works in the very young – and how it fades over time.
Facebook says it's going to continue to respond to widespread concerns about its practices and role in society. Researchers of privacy and online trust offer ideas for immediate action.
Facebook is realizing it has broad obligations to society. Here's how it could start meeting them.
For years, watchdogs have warned of the potential problems of sharing data with online companies. The Facebook data crisis has made these concerns much more real. What should be done now?
The current reckoning with data has been a long time coming, a historian of privacy in the US writes.
Four scientists talk through the ways they now build outreach into their work as a way to spread their research's impact – something that wasn't the norm for past generations of academics.
US privacy laws focus on informing consumers what's happening with their data; other countries specifically restrict data collection and analysis.
When NASA first started planning the Kepler mission, no one knew if the universe held any planets outside our solar system. Thousands of exoplanets later, the search enters a new phase.
March Madness
A basketball computer program simulates millions of trajectories in search of the ideal shot.
For 30 years, sports fans have been told to forget about streaks because the 'hot hand' is a fallacy. But a reanalysis says not so fast: Statistics show players really are in the zone sometimes.
Can a computer model correctly predict the results of the first round in this year's tournament? These mathematicians think so.
Influenza 1918–2018
Don't believe these 10 common myths about the 1918 Spanish flu.
Doing science
What are research dollars actually spent on? Rather than looking at artifacts like publications and patents, a new initiative directly tracks the people and businesses that receive research funding.
Research and Expert Database
Editors’ Picks
Were foreign diplomats and tourists attacked with a 'sonic weapon' – or was it something else? Ultrasound researchers demonstrate a rational, evidence-based explanation.
Persistence and self-control are valuable traits that can help kids succeed in school and beyond. A new study suggests infants can learn stick-to-itiveness by watching adults persist in a difficult task.
The FBI and police officials say they need to decrypt secure communications to fight crime. But they have other options, and modern threats make clear the importance of strong encryption.
Victorian attitudes influenced what scientists thought they were observing about sexual behaviors in the animal world. But modern techniques reveal the myth for what it is.
Today's news can often involve mind-bogglingly large numbers. A math professor shares some tricks for understanding it all.
Mathematics and art are generally viewed as very different. But a trip through history – from an Islamic palace to Pollock's paintings – proves the parallels between the two can be uncanny.
To get us to Mars and beyond, a team of students from around the world has a plan involving lunar rovers mining ice and a space station between the Earth and the moon.
From the Amazon to Nicaragua, there are humans who never learn numbers. What can these anumeric cultures teach us about ourselves?
We tend to think of archaeological sites as dead silent – empty ruins left by past cultures. But this isn't how the people who lived in and used these sites would have experienced them.
Twitter recently blew up with posts wondering about the feline fascination with taped squares on the ground. An animal behavior expert explains it's not magic that draws Fluffy to the #CatSquare.
Let's say you want the perfect mix of friends and strangers at your next party. Mathematicians have been working on a version of this problem for nearly a century, and the answer is complicated.
People who think like hackers have some really good ideas about how to protect digital privacy during turbulent times. We can learn from them.
Most Read past week
- Operation Gunnerside: The Norwegian attack on heavy water that deprived the Nazis of the atomic bomb
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- Your next pilot could be drone software
- Why prime numbers still fascinate mathematicians, 2,300 years later
- Does social media help the government-citizen relationship? Depends who you ask
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