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Psychology

Collage featuring a brain, hippocampus, rabbit and neuronal activity.
The Mind

It began with a rabbit: Unraveling the mystery of memory

Half a century after the discovery of long-term potentiation, we’re still learning how the brain remembers

Two people conversing.
The Mind

Speech interjections aren’t throwaway lines

PODCAST: Turns out, the best listener isn't quiet, as our host learns in a chat with two linguists. All those ums, ohs and mm-hmms have unexpected value.

Two people conversing. Their speech bubbles contain short interjections.
The Mind

Huh? The valuable role of interjections

Utterances like um, wow and mm-hmm aren’t garbage — they keep conversations flowing

Photograph of a couple sitting on a couch. They are reading quietly.
The Mind

Quiet couples: Alone time together

The right kind of silence can be golden, revitalizing and strengthening a relationship

People doing different things in a crowd: walking, standing and talking, rushing, carrying things, pushing strollers, walking dogs.
Society

Bustling through the physics of crowds

COMIC: Using tools from fields like fluid dynamics to better understand how groups of people move around can improve flow and make large gatherings safer

Photograph of a small child sitting in a waiting-room chair with fists covering their face.
Health & Disease

Severe irritability in children and teens: A new understanding

Kids with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder have explosive outbursts well past toddler age. Scientists are trying to work out the causes and what treatments help.

Illustration of a woman reading to two children. There is an image of a cat in the book she is reading, and the girl says “Cat!”, while the boy says “¡Gato!”
Society

How a child becomes bilingual — and what can be done to help them get there

Kids from immigrant backgrounds in the US often struggle to develop fluency in two languages. Many factors — parental misconceptions, the lack of support in schools and social attitudes — play a role.

Hands type at a computer with bar graphs on screen, other hands hold questionnaires.
Society

Can you believe the polls? It depends

A veteran of survey research explains why high-quality polling matters — and warns of the proliferation of shoddy gimmicks

Photograph of a warning label on the side of a cigarette pack. It says SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy.
Health & Disease

The tussle over cigarette warning labels, and the hazy future of vaping

Regulatory hurdles, industry objections and legal fights have gone on for decades over traditional tobacco. What’s in store for the next generation of smoking?

A conceptual illustration shows a city street with people standing on each side, some holding placards. One side is colored red, the other blue. There are political posters on the walls and a huge chasm in the middle of the street.
Society

Divided we stand: The rise of political animosity

Scientists peered into the partisan abyss. Here’s what they found.

Drawing of tiny people holding, carrying and trying to push the metal balls of an outsized Newton’s cradle.
Society

Are you a workaholic? Here’s how to spot the signs

In a major shift, psychologists now view an out-of-control compulsion to work as an addiction with its own set of risk factors and consequences

Cartoon drawing of a magician in red suit and top hat performing shell game for several birds, two monkeys and a cuttlefish.
Living World

Abracadabra! How magic can help us understand animal minds

By performing tricks for birds, monkeys and other creatures, researchers hope to learn how they perceive and think about their world

In a cartoon, an assortment of people — young and old, male and female — queue for a restroom, waiting to relieve their full-to-bursting bladders.
Health & Disease

To pee or not to pee? That is a question for the bladder — and the brain

How do we sense the need to urinate? The basic urge is surprisingly complex and can go awry as we age.

Conceptual illustration shows a person vaulting over a book and calendar away from bad habits and poor willpower, as depicted by unhealthy food and money and scrunched-up paper.
The Mind

Time for half-year resolutions?

If your good intentions from a few months ago haven’t led to much, take note. A psychologist tells us what we can learn from studies on willpower.

Conceptual collage shows two upset parents with some large, accusing fingers pointed at them. In the background is a teenager holding a placard with his details on it, as if posing for a mug shot.
Society

When are parents responsible for their kids’ behavior?

A researcher weighs in on who’s accountable, when and why, in the eyes of the law — and whether the measures work as intended

Drawing of a man with his back to us, hand scratching his head, looking at a convoluted map of lines and landmarks
Society

Why do some people always get lost?

Research suggests that experience may matter more than innate ability when it comes to a sense of direction

Conceptual illustration includes a state capitol building, tall mushrooms, a statue of Justice holding a scale, a pack of pills, and a bright pink, yellow and orange sky with molecules and other wavy patterns visible in it.
Society

Psychedelic drugs and the law: What’s next?

The push to legalize magic mushrooms, MDMA, LSD and other hallucinogens is likely to heighten tensions between state and federal law, drug law expert Robert Mikos says

Growing polarization on climate policy
Food & Environment

How to overcome political polarization on climate change

Conversations — in real life — can help bridge the partisan divide, but the trick is to have some structure to the discussion, says a human ecologist

Conceptual illustration shows a person speaking words that appear as aspects of the natural world, like plants and animals.
Society

Indigenous languages are founts of environmental knowledge

Peoples who live close to nature have a rich lore of plants, animals and landscapes embedded in their mother tongues — which may hold vital clues to protecting biodiversity

An array of yellow balls that have happy faces on them.
The Mind

Scientists scrutinize happiness research

From meditation to smiling, researchers take a second look at studies claiming to reveal what makes us happy

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