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The Biology of Kindness

We tend to think about kindness as a quality that helps others, not ourselves. But a new book, The Biology of Kindness: Six daily choices for health, well-being, and longevity, unpicks the impact of being kind on our bodies and lifespan, as well as the...

The Future of Language

After linguist Philip Seargeant’s grandmother suffered a stroke, her thoughts remained trapped in her body. Although she had no cognitive damage, her paralyzed muscles didn’t allow her to speak or write. To communicate, she would point to letters printed on one side of a tattered...

By U.S. Dept. of Transportation -- Bear Underpass

Crossings — How Road Ecology is Changing the Future of the Planet

Anyone who has crossed a busy road in a metropolis without well-regulated traffic, in say Mumbai, India, can understand the plight of a deer trying to cross a two-lane highway, in rural United States. Evolution has not prepared deer for encounters with automobiles. Over one...

The Power of Language

At the pediatrician’s clinic, a nurse told Viorica Marian, who is a native speaker of Romanian, to use only English with her American-born daughter. Speaking another language would “confuse” the child and hurt her long-term, the woman had said. This was a good decade ago....

Vera Rubin

Ashley Jean Yeager VERA RUBIN began her career at a time when women were denied access to telescopes at leading observatories. Eventually her work helped scientists rethink the content of the cosmos. In Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond, science writer Ashley Jean Yeager traces the...

Darkness Manifesto

In the twilight, bats, which nest in the old church of Suntak in Sweden, fly around, hunting for insects. The twelfth century church’s façade is not lit up at night. So, as in the past, the church remains a sanctuary for bats, remarkable creatures which...