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Original science news reporting in Plain English
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In a 92-country survey of nearly 54,000 people, well-being kept rising with income with no clear point where more money stopped helping, but the lead researcher says each step up the ladder buys a little less
The lead researcher of a 92-country survey of nearly 54,000 people explains why more money keeps helping but buys a little less each time, why young adults came out lowest, and why we say "mental health" when we mean "mental illness".
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Pet dogs looked longer at a round shape for ‘bouba’ and a spiky one for ‘kiki’, a University of Parma study of 70 dogs found
Pet dogs spent more time looking at a round shape when they heard 'bouba' and at a spiky one for 'kiki', though the difference was about one second per trial.
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Australian jumping spiders twitch through REM-like sleep and, after a disturbed night, get about 80% more of it
A jumping spider showed regular REM-like bouts and, after one night of fly disturbance, spent about 80% more time in them, though the study used only 13 spiders and tracked behaviour, not brain activity.
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A doctor cracked one hand’s knuckles for 50 years. Neither hand got arthritis.
Donald Unger’s one-man experiment answered a family warning. Larger studies have since tested it properly, and the answer they found is more careful than “cracking is harmless.”
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Tiny snakes escape danger by rolling like a wheel at up to 8.3 mph, about four times faster than they can slither
Filmed on a lab track, dwarf reed snakes rolled at peak speeds near 8.3 mph, which in body lengths rivals a cheetah's best burst, though the figure is a single peak from a tap-triggered test and not a chase.
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Sewer crews in French colonial Hanoi killed 20,114 rats on 12 June 1902 alone, so the city paid a bounty per tail, and an official later found villagers breeding rats outside town to cash in
When colonial authorities offered bounties for rat tails to clean up Hanoi's streets, enterprising villagers simply started breeding them instead.
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The 1960s and 70s accidentally produced one of the most emotionally durable generations in modern history — not through better parenting but through benign neglect that forced children to self-regulate, problem-solve, and develop emotional calluses that modern comfort has made nearly impossible to…
A generation raised by absence rather than instruction may have stumbled onto the emotional resilience that anxious modern parenting is actively training out of children.
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Wild orangutan mothers arrange play dates, spending time and energy travelling to patches of forest so their infants can meet others their age, a PNAS 2026 study by Jacobson and colleagues suggests.
The social lives of wild orangutans are far more deliberate than we realized—and far more like our own.
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Sharks were thought unable to pick up sound from far off, but wild blacktip sharks off Palm Beach County, Florida, turned away from an underwater speaker from at least 62 metres away in drone video, while a 10-kilohertz tone above their hearing range drew no reaction
Drone video of wild blacktip sharks fleeing a loud underwater speaker puts a number on how far away they react to sound, though the study cannot yet say how they sense it.
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Time spent close to a cat tracked positive mood, not the years of ownership, in a one month Kyoto University study of 29 cats and 19 owners that used Bluetooth beacons on collars, published in iScience.
Quality of time with your cat matters far more than how long you've owned it, according to new data on feline companionship.
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When Florida released eight Burmese pythons in 1992 for a university tracking study, the snakes were meant to stay in a fenced area, but Hurricane Andrew hit weeks later and destroyed the enclosure, and today tens of thousands of their descendants occupy the Everglades
A hurricane, eight pythons, and an ecological catastrophe—but the origin story everyone tells about Florida's snake invasion might not be true.
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Wild elephants gesture on purpose, checking whether another elephant is watching and gesturing again or switching gestures if the goal is not met, across more than 90 hours of University of Vienna-led observation in two South African parks
Filmed in two South African parks, wild elephants looked at a rival before gesturing and kept gesturing when ignored, which fits deliberate signalling, though the study covers only conflicts.
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A honey bee stinger removed from the bee keeps pumping venom on its own as a double-piston pump, high-speed video of stingers in a clear skin-like gel shows
High-speed video shows a detached honey bee stinger driving itself into a skin-like gel and pumping venom with two valves that take turns, like a double-piston pump. How a sting begins, though, has still never been filmed.
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Singapore fought dengue by releasing more mosquitoes, Wolbachia-carrying males whose mates lay eggs that never hatch, and a trial across eight clusters averted an estimated 2,351 cases
A Singapore trial found that releasing non-biting, Wolbachia-carrying male mosquitoes cut dengue sharply, though the 2,351 cases it says were averted come with caveats.
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Soil organic matter ran 3.61 percent on north Texas multi-paddock ranches against about 2.4 percent under heavy continuous grazing, but a 2026 review found no carbon gain in its 10 best studies.
Texas multi-paddock ranches held 3.61 per cent soil organic matter, 2.4 under heavy continuous grazing. A 2026 review's best studies found no carbon gain.
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Sleeping mice cleared amyloid twice as fast as awake ones in a 2013 Rochester study, while a 2024 Imperial College London team found brain dye clearance about a quarter lower in sleeping mice
A 2013 Rochester study found sleeping mice cleared amyloid twice as fast as awake ones. A 2024 Imperial College London study found about a quarter less dye cleared during sleep. The two labs still disagree about how to measure clearance.
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Six hundred backyard traps laced with larvicide and fungus cut mosquito eggs by 70% in Melbourne suburbs, and a hint of fewer flesh-eating Buruli ulcer cases in the treated zones
The traps clearly worked on mosquitoes, but whether they stopped any infections is a much shakier question, and so is what else they might kill.
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The Tidal Thames was declared biologically dead in 1957 with zero fish species, and over 115 have been recorded since, ZSL’s 2026 report says, though species per sample have slipped since 1992.
A river declared dead nearly seventy years ago now teems with life, yet recent decades suggest the recovery may be stalling.
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David Sabatini led a Whitehead Institute lab in Cambridge for 24 years until he was forced out in 2021. A Boston jury has now found that Kristin Knouse defamed him and awarded $6 million plus interest. Her lawyer says she will appeal.
A Suffolk County jury found on 16 October 2026 that Kristin Knouse defamed biologist David Sabatini and awarded him $6 million. Her lawyer says she will appeal.
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From 1923 to 1945 California moved 338 beavers into 29 of 58 counties, for fur as well as water storage and erosion control. In October 2023 it released seven in Plumas County.
California moved 338 beavers between 1923 and 1945 for fur and water storage. In October 2023 it made its first beaver conservation release in nearly 75 years, seven animals in Plumas County.