Smart people tend to perform better at work, earn more money, be physically healthier, and be less likely to subscribe to authoritarian beliefs. But a new paper reveals that a key aspect of intelligence – a strong “pattern-matching” ability, which helps someone readily learn a language, understand how another person is feeling or spot a stock market trend to exploit – has a darker side: it also makes that person more likely to learn and apply social stereotypes.

It's a common refrain from whiskey enthusiasts: Adding a few drops of water to a glass opens up the flavors of the drink. Chemists in Sweden provide a molecular explanation for why this works.

The technique could eliminate one of the biggest problems in bioprinting.

Glowing "jellyfish" galaxies have revealed a new way to power some of the most powerful objects in the universe. The same process that feeds the most voracious black holes at the galactic centers may also create dangling "tentacles" of newborn stars, a new study found.

A new study from ANU on a 400 million year old fish fossil has found a jaw structure that is part of the evolutionary lineage linked to humans. The fossil comes from ancient limestones around Lake Burrinjuck, 50 kilometres northwest of Canberra. The area is rich in fossil shells and corals, but also home to the rare skulls of extinct armoured fish called placoderms.

Jhonathan Miranda never expected to be into birds. But when the Venezuelan biologist got a job at a bird lab as a university student, he set his mind to learning as much as he could about the class Aves. As he organized trips around the country, one particular species lodged in his mind: the Táchira Antpitta, a round, leggy brown bird a little longer than a pencil.

Data from the 2016 US National Science Foundation report [PDF] on global Science & Engineering Indicators shows the stunning ascendancy of China’s research and development funding and output. The report paints a sobering picture for the future of US leadership in science, showing that China is graduating more scientists, rapidly increasing the quality of its research and even more rapidly increasing its research and development funding.

How do touch screens work? And why do bananas work just as well as your finger but pens don't?

Campaigning vegans will change nothing if they embrace bad science and conspiracy theories when making the health case for their diet, says Anthony Warner

In a major step towards creating a tricorder, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have invented a device that allows smartphones to perform the kinds of lab-grade medical diagnostic tests that previously had to be done on large and expensive instruments. The device, called a spectral transmission-reflectance-intensity (TRI)-Analyzer, plugs into a smartphone and is able to run tests on a patient’s blood, urine, or saliva as reliably as clinic-based instruments that cost thousands of dollars. The researchers say their TRI Analyzer costs only $550.

There has been many arguments made about how a super intelligent AI might be a catastrophe for the human race more profound than a nuclear holocaust. Many of these arguments consider the scenarios where the AI might be evil, might have a amoral goal or destroy humanity like we destroy ants who lie in the way of a new skyscraper.

Honey and other bee products have a life-giving, almost mystical quality according to alternative medicine practitioners and "back to nature" enthusiasts. In truth, they don't. Bee colonies aren't tiny pharmaceutical companies. Sure, honey tastes good, but from a chemistry standpoint, honey isn't all that different from high-fructose corn syrup.

A sleeping brain can form fresh memories, according to a team of neuroscientists. The researchers played complex sounds to people while they were sleeping, and afterward the sleepers could recognise those sounds when they were awake. The idea that humans can learn while asleep, a concept sometimes called hypnopaedia, has a long and odd history. It hit a particularly strange note in 1927, when New York inventor A. B. Saliger debuted the Psycho-phone. He billed the device as an "automatic suggestion machine."

A 94-million-year-old climate change event that severely imperiled marine organisms may provide some unnerving insights into long-term trends in our modern oceans, according to a Florida State University researcher. In a study published today in the journal Science Advances, Assistant Professor of Geology Jeremy Owens traces a 50,000-year period of ocean deoxygenation preceding an ancient climate event that dramatically disturbed global ocean chemistry and led to the extinction of many marine organisms. He also draws parallels to similar rates of oxygen depletion observed in our contemporary oceans.

Five years after a major sexism scandal, Silicon Valley's misogynist culture remains strong and pervasive – and history reveals the stakes could be as high as the entire US tech sector.

Potential math challenge solution greeted with skepticism

More than 300 years ago, the philosopher René Descartes asked a disturbing question: If our senses can’t always be trusted, how can we separate illusion from reality? We’re able to do so, a new study suggests, because our brain keeps tabs on reality by constantly questioning its own past expectations and beliefs. Hallucinations occur when this internal fact-checking fails, a finding that could point toward better treatments for schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

Striking at a myth with facts may only shore it up, a new study suggests. Researchers found that three main intervention strategies for combating anti-vaccine lies and falsehoods were ineffective at changing minds. But perhaps more concerning, they found that over-time exposure to the interventions strengthened participants’ belief in those lies and falsehoods, researchers recently reported in PLOS One. The researchers speculate that the mere repetition of a myth during the process of debunking may be enough to entrench the myth in a believer’s mind.

The Monument is one of London’s most famous landmarks. But this tribute to an epic fire also has a secret second use – as a giant piece of scientific equipment.

Usually, tunnels are made either by human engineers or flowing water. But near the town of Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, there are tunnels large enough to drive a car in that were dug by neither - instead, these are the work of ancient, giant sloths.

Wrinkles, grey hair and niggling aches are normally regarded as an inevitable part of growing older, but now scientists claim that the ageing process may be reversible. The team showed that a new form of gene therapy produced a remarkable rejuvenating effect in mice. After six weeks of treatment, the animals looked younger, had straighter spines and better cardiovascular health, healed quicker when injured, and lived 30% longer.

New research shows that knee osteoarthritis, a painful and disabling condition in which cartilage wears down and bones rub against each other, has doubled in the last 50 years. This surprising spike raises serious questions about what causes the disease, and suggests it may be more preventable than previously thought.

Awaken not the Elder Things, lest they and their shoggoths again battle foul Cthulhu

A simple vitamin supplement could have the potential to prevent miscarriages and birth defects, according to a 12-year study by scientists in Australia.

If we don't do anything to cut emissions and limit climate change, the worst case scenario involves severe heat waves, acidic oceans, and superstorms.

Whether or not octopuses should be viewed as charming or terrifying very much depends on your personal perspective. But it’s hard to deny their intelligence. Octopuses can squirt water at an annoyingly bright bulb until it short-circuits. They can tell humans apart (even those who are wearing the same uniform). And, according to Peter Godfrey-Smith, a philosophy professor at University of Sydney and City University of New York, they are the closest creature to an alien here on earth.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is to many one of the most reliable voices when it comes to fact-based, reasoned arguments on many major issues. Tyson has guided an entire generation by appearing on television shows, hosting Carl Sagan remake “Cosmos,” and serving as a voice of reasoned, science-based rebuttals to even the most ignorant counter-arguments.

For many, the commute to and from work is a lengthy, stressful process. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it takes the average American about 26½ minutes to get to work. That’s nearly an hour each day — to work and back — to face traffic snarls and congested highways. That commute can also be hazardous to your health, exposing drivers to an increased amount of air pollutants that have been linked to a whole host of medical maladies, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory issues and even lung cancer.

Astronomers know that there are rogue, Jupiter-sized planets roaming the galaxy on their own, without a star to call home. But how many dark and lonely planets are out there? Six years ago, a study found that they might be so abundant, they outnumbered the stars two to one. The result had implications not only for how these dark planets might form, but also for the general messiness of the early years of planet formation.

The smartest people in the world use mental models to solve difficult problems, avoid stupidity, increase productivity, and free up time.

Reprinted with permission from Quanta Abstractions. The pipeline of women pursuing mathematics and physics is still dreadfully leaky.…

Price labels influence our liking of wine: The same wine tastes better to participants when it is labeled with a higher price tag. Scientists from the INSEAD Business School and the University of Bonn have discovered that the decision-making and motivation center in the brain plays a pivotal role in such price biases. The medial prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum are particularly involved in this. The results have now been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Ultrafast wi-fi, which is 100 times quicker than today’s mobile networks is on the horizon, after scientists proved they could send complex data using high-frequency radiation. The researchers sent video signals using terahertz, rather than traditional microwaves, at speeds of 50 gigabytes per second. Most wireless networks only operate at top speeds of 500 megabytes a second.

The results of the largest functional brain imaging survey ever conducted suggest female brains are more active than male brains. Scientists surveyed the results of 46,034 brain imaging studies involving single-photon emission computed tomography, or SPECT, a type of 3D gamma ray imaging.

Despite what you might've seen in 1950s monster movies, it's difficult to raise mutant ants. For years biologists have altered the genetics of organisms as varied as mice and rice. Mutant fruit flies are a laboratory staple. But ants' complex life cycle hampered efforts to grow genetically engineered ants — until now.