Neuroscience People with narcolepsy collapse when they laugh or feel joy. Scientists just found the brain circuit responsible, and it runs through the love hormone Jul 19 · 9 min read · Nature
Physics Roger Penrose proposed in 1969 that energy could be pulled out of a spinning black hole. A lab in New York just proved he was right Jul 13 · 8 min read · Nature
Psychology A new study shows children are not moral blank slates: prosocial gut feelings appear at age 3 and deliberate reasoning spends the next five years catching up Jul 7 · 6 min read · Nature Human Behaviour
Psychology Social psychology’s most influential theory says mixing different groups reduces prejudice. A re-analysis of 31 studies and 33,000 people found the causal evidence for that is largely a statistical artifact Jul 17 · 8 min read · Nature
Physics One of physics’ oldest unsolved problems is why time exists at all. A new experiment built a universe small enough to fit in a laboratory and found the first experimental answer Jul 11 · 8 min read · Physical Review Journals
Psychology The largest mental health study ever conducted on researchers surveyed 138,000 PhD students and postdocs and found that nearly one in three are clinically depressed or anxious, and one in five has had suicidal thoughts Jul 4 · 8 min read · Nature Human Behaviour
Neuroscience A five-year study of 10,000 adolescents found that the pandemic damaged every teenager’s mental health, then hit the most genetically vulnerable ones with additional harm on top Jul 15 · 8 min read · Nature Translational Psychiatry
Psychology A study of 544,000 couples across 29 countries confirmed that relationships fail more often when women earn more, then ruled out almost every explanation researchers assumed was responsible Jul 9 · 7 min read · Journal of Marriage and Family
Medical Research & Innovations Scientists spent 30 years trying to find what carries Alzheimer’s from one brain cell to the next. A new study just identified it, and it turns out to be a protein the brain uses to carry memories Jul 2 · 8 min read · Cell