AI-generated science is now "good enough"

The "AI Scientist" is mediocre and uninspired. Don't dismiss it.

How do social movements win?

Timo Damm blends qualitative and quantitative research to understand how small groups push for change

You and a frog might have the same taste in music

Citizen science revealed a shared "taste for the beautiful" across species

Are the Stardew Valley wiki authors scientists?

Science is the generational project of finding out true things about the real world — and that project needs catalogers

The asteroid Ryugu contains every letter of the genetic alphabet

This is awesome, but does not mean life fell to Earth from space

Is your willpower stronger than a proton beam?

How much are researchers — especially marginalized researchers — expected to endure just to stay in science?

Stingers and spikes across nature have the same shape. Here's why.

Not everything in biology evolved for a purpose.

Networks are math squares disguised as drawings

This is why neural networks are linear algebra under the hood

A tiny scrap of the genetic molecule RNA can *almost* copy itself.

Here's what it means for the origin of life

Complexity is less than the sum of its parts, not more

Patterns are a shorthand for reality

Elon Musk wasn't stupid to buy Twitter

New research shows that the X algorithm pushes people to the political right

The origin of life wasn't fat-free

James Sáenz studies how fatty molecules might have helped life get started