I research play – and here’s why recess is much more important than just a fun break
Offering daily recess to young children and teenagers alike can help strengthen students’ executive functioning skills, focus and creativity, among other benefits.
Science
Why do blind people and musicians hear pitch better? New research suggests they have less internal noise
The brain’s ability to process sound more consistently may influence how well you’re able to discriminate between different sounds.
AI agents with friendly faces and adorable bodies can distract you from serious risks
Cute designs can make AI technology feel harmless, but real hazards are still present.
An ADHD diagnosis can be a map to guide a person through challenging territory – not to avoid it altogether
Using an ADHD diagnosis to avoid hard tasks, rather than to plan around them, is linked to more anxiety and lower quality of life.
400,000-year-old teeth reveal a stunning twist in human evolution
A groundbreaking discovery is rewriting the story of human evolution, revealing that an ancient human species once thought to be an evolutionary dead end may have left genetic traces in people alive today.
Goodbye, cavities? Scientists create gel that could regrow tooth enamel
Scientists have developed a revolutionary gel that could regrow lost tooth enamel by harnessing minerals naturally found in saliva, potentially overcoming one of dentistry’s biggest limitations.
Physicists sank a telescope 1.5 miles under the sea to put Einstein's relativity to the test
Fireballs could light up the sky tonight as the Southern Taurids peak
A tiny supercurrent could unlock quantum information without destroying it
Researchers have proposed a breakthrough technique for reading quantum information without destroying the delicate states that make quantum computers work.
Typhoons batter East Asia as El Niño makes Pacific 'burn with fever'
Even for countries where typhoons are a way of life, the last few months have brought unusually wild weather.
I study polling failures – this time, pollsters were mostly right, if not precise
Polls had signaled important gains for Democrats ahead of Election Day, in the most reassuring performance since accurately anticipating Barack Obama’s presidential election in 2008.
Florida just voted for lower property taxes – and that could mean cuts in government services and new housing construction
Amendment 3, which cuts property taxes for most homeowners, will also mean a 30% drop in tax revenue for Florida counties.
Why one positive E. coli sample put a Pittsburgh-area community under a boil-water advisory
A boil-water advisory in Beaver County has residents and schools adjusting. Water researchers explain what E.
NASA’s Swift telescope has burned up, months after a robot sent to save it failed – here’s why it’s so hard to boost a satellite
If you bump a spacecraft in orbit, it may start tumbling uncontrollably. To save a falling satellite, the rescuer must be incredibly steady and precise.
Pennsylvania Democrats now have power to push forward on election reform, marijuana legalization and minimum wage increases
Pennsylvania has had a split legislature since 2000. No more.
Midterms are bad for incumbents – and even worse when energy prices are high
The US economy is built on energy prices. When people’s bills are high, they tend to vote against incumbents and their parties.
Drawings of near-death experiences reveal patterns in what people remember seeing
How a French philosopher’s warnings about speed and power describe today’s AI race
Paul Virilio, a French philosopher, died in 2018. But his writings on technological ‘accidents’ help explain dilemmas the world faces today amid increasing use of artificial intelligence.
Why a company donating $20,000 a month counts for more than $240,000 once a year in the eyes of customers
New research suggests that some ways that companies boast about their charitable giving are more effective at brand-building than others.
A Feejee Mermaid on display in Colorado may shock and intrigue – but it’s no longer considered a ‘missing link’ on the evolutionary tree
All hoax – no science – the Feejee Mermaid startled American audiences that imagined it a real sea creature.
NASA’s Swift Observatory has burned up in the atmosphere – the indispensable telescope helped astronomers track fast-moving events in space
The Swift Observatory allowed astronomers to study events that happen quickly in the universe, such as stars exploding.
How space weather powers auroras in the sky and threatens power grids on the ground
When an aurora lights up the sky, electric currents can also flow through the ground beneath your feet.
Are schools a great equalizer? They help kids catch up, but wealthier children still pull ahead
By some measures, schools are a great equalizer for children coming from different backgrounds. But this isn’t the full story.
Short supplies of crucial equipment stymie changes to US electricity grid
Whether you want renewable energy, fossil fuel power plants, data centers or reduced storm vulnerability, it will require equipment that’s hard to make out of materials that are hard to get.
A surprising discovery could help aging muscles repair themselves
Scientists have discovered a compound that transforms a natural muscle-repair protein into a more powerful version dubbed "Super HGF," more than doubling its ability to bind to a key receptor while protecting it from age-related chemical damage.
Scientists may have finally explained why our brains and bodies are cross-wired
Scientists propose that the brain’s mysterious cross-wiring, which connects each hemisphere to the opposite side of the body, may have originated more than 500 million years ago in the visual systems of ancient fish.
Permanent daylight saving time has a dark side, scientists warn
A new study warns that permanent daylight saving time could force American children to make at least 2 billion additional school commutes in darkness, potentially increasing safety risks and disrupting their biological clocks.
MIT scientists break a 20-year rule and unlock never-before-seen crystal structures
MIT scientists have challenged two decades of conventional thinking by discovering that flexible molecular connections, rather than rigid ones, can unlock entirely new ways to arrange nanoparticles.
William meets firefighters who tackled summer blazes
The prince says 2026 was the first summer he felt "worried about the scale of the wildfires".
NASA is racing against time to save the Hubble Space Telescope
NASA is exploring a daring plan to save the legendary Hubble Space Telescope from its eventual fiery plunge into Earth's atmosphere.