theconversation.com

The human brain can change – but usually only slowly and with great effort, such as when learning a new sport or foreign language, or recovering from a stroke. Learning new skills correlates with changes in the brain, as evidenced by neuroscience research with animals and functional brain scans in people. Presumably, if you...

Back when there were Arctic alligators and turtles, ‘polar stratospheric clouds’ kept their world warm. Research suggests these clouds contribute to the ‘missing warming’ in climate models.

A study on online companies employing dark patterns. Dark patterns are clever tricks built into apps and websites to encourage you to do things you may not necessarily want to do, for the gain of the companies.

An expert on Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricane Maria explains why it’s hard for the US to deliver disaster aid in places like Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Conspiracy theories: how social media can help them spread and even spark violence::Conspiracy theories may be baseless, but they can have a range of harmful real-world consequences, including spreading lies, undermining trust in media and government and inciting violence.

The murderous attacks launched by Hamas on October 7, which triggered the Israel-Hamas 2023 war, have had a unifying effect on Israeli society. The social divisions that marked the confrontations over the judicial overhaul have given way to a rare moment of social unity and rallying around the flag....

Despite numerous studies, many questions still remain as to the origin of Indo-European: where was the original Indo-European language spoken in prehistoric times? How long ago did this language group emerge? How did it spread across Eurasia? New Study Reconciles Two Dominant Hypotheses About Their Origin. There are two main,...

Thousands of protesters and counter-protesters in cities across Canada have clashed over the rights of trans children and youth. The “1 Million March 4 Children” on Sept. 20 is part of a widespread and growing “parental rights” movement targeting inclusive public education....

TheConversation.com

Based on data on 2,900 founders of new ventures in Germany in 2008–2017, we found that for every ten more years of age increases a founder’s likelihood to introduce a market novelty by up to 30 percent. Thus, those late-career entrepreneurs who are highly innovation-oriented and managerially experienced are more than three...

If you ask Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant AI system, whether Amazon is a monopoly, it responds by saying it doesn’t know. It doesn’t take much to make it lambaste the other tech giants, but it’s silent about its own corporate parent’s misdeeds.