Rabbits are capable of digesting their teeth as they wear down and reusing the calcium to grow new ones.
Chinese scientists successfully raised to adulthood mice born of two fathers and then dissected them.
Mice who inhale xenon gas stave off dementia.
Estrogen receptor 1–expressing neurons in Barrington’s nucleus were found to act as the master controller of mouse urination, and a survey of 1,328 urinary events found that, unlike contagious yawning, the contagious urination of chimpanzees appears to be correlated to social rank rather than social closeness.
Researchers in Namibia who shone lasers on wild chacma baboons found that the monkeys failed to recognize themselves in mirrors but also did not regard their reflections as strangers.
Coyotes in dense areas of Chicago die younger if the average human income is high.
Scientists found no evidence that radiation is to blame for the genetic differentiation among dogs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Birds who drape snakeskin on their cavity nests deter predators, and it is possible that songbirds who migrate at night socialize with one another in flight and speak to other species.
Costa Rican white-faced capuchins were more likely to survive El Niño if their feces exhibited higher levels of stress hormones during preceding droughts.
Suicides appeared to rise following droughts but not floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes; nor, among the Maori, do they appear to correspond to lunar cycles
A medieval Italian fresco was found to depict a church’s altar draped in an Islamic tent, and a skull previously thought to belong to Cleopatra’s sister was found to be that of an Italian boy with a deformed jaw.
Experimental reenactments suggested that, at Little Muck Shelter, trimming ostrich-eggshell beads before perforating them was slightly more successful than perforating before trimming.
The moon, which the World Monuments Fund declared to be at risk, was found to be more geologically dynamic than previously thought.
Neolithic Danes may have sacrificed sunstones following the disappearance of the sun, Iron Age Britons were matrilocal, and a Viking grave in Norway appeared to contain a vulva stone.
French archaeologists discovered a Gaulish curse tablet tucked between a skeleton’s legs
Fifty-two experts were consulted to produce a six-criteria test for predicting vasectomy regret.
Researchers unveiled an androgen clock that measures hormone exposure in mice and sheep by examining their DNA and concluded that the more fights a male mouse wins the less essential dopamine becomes to his aggression.
“Forestalgia” is more effective than nostalgia in vacation marketing.
An infradian clock may control the alternation between depression and mania.
Ambien inhibits the brain’s ability to wash itself during deep sleep.
Swedes with a history of psychosis-induced violence exhibit a lower threshold for resisting auditory startles, and Swedes born prematurely likely receive too little pain medication.
American college students gain muscle rather than fat during the holidays; American parents tend to exhibit a slight preference for their offspring who are younger, female, or more agreeable; and the recent increase in the number of American babies lost to sudden unexpected infant death may be attributable to respiratory viruses, parental opioid use, and unsafe co-sleeping practices popularized through social media.
Severe autism reduces the time children spend looking at cute stimuli.
Chance that a large asteroid will strike Earth on December 22, 2032: 1 in 32
Percentage decrease last year in global champagne sales: 9
Chance that an average American attended a party on any given weekend in 2004: 1 in 16, In 2024: 1 in 25
Average number of people in a U.S. household in 1970: 3.1, In 2023: 2.5
Factor by which the number of unoccupied bedrooms in the United States has increased since 1970: 8
Year in which U.S. deaths are projected to begin exceeding births: 2033
Average number of years by which people diagnosed with ADHD have shorter life expectancies: 7.7
Chance that an American man convicted of a crime was older than 50 in 1990: 1 in 25, In 2023: 1 in 7
Estimated percentage of violent crimes in New York City that are committed on the streets: 43, In the subway: 3
Estimated number of crimes committed in the New York City subway for every million hours people spend there: 1
Percentage of Republicans who say that corporate DEI programs have had no effect on their careers: 53, Who say that these programs have benefited their careers: 26
Hindered their careers: 21
Percentage by which Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they expect to drink alcohol almost every day in 2025: 30
Estimated amount of microplastics, in grams, in the average American’s brain in 2016: 4.7, In 2024: 6.8
Percentage of Americans who cannot distinguish between right and left: 15, Who say they rely on a “hand-related strategy” to do so: 45
Percentage of U.S. engineers with Ph.D.s who were born abroad: 56
Portion of job-seeking Harvard Business School students who were unemployed three months after graduation in 2022: 1/10, In 2024: 1/4
Percentage increase since 2022 in job turnover among U.S. CEOs: 80
Percentage of funds deposited into online gambling apps that come from the top 3 percent of bettors: 69
Chance that an online gambler has ever withdrawn any winnings: 1 in 10
Percentage increase over the past year in new American learners of Mandarin on Duolingo: 216
Minimum number of monthly users of character.ai, a website that offers AI-generated conversation partners: 20,000,000
Number of minutes per day that the average user spends on character.ai: 90
Percentage chance that an American is able to identify whether a poem was written by Shakespeare or by ChatGPT: 42
Percentage of Americans who, in a blind comparison of poems by Shakespeare and by ChatGPT, find the latter more beautiful: 61
Portion of Gen Z Americans whose favorite movie is Avengers: Endgame: 1/4
Average length, in minutes, that Americans think a movie should be: 92
Average length, in minutes, of a movie nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards: 150
Number of minutes that the average American says they would spend watching movies or TV on a perfect day: 186, That they would spend with friends: 84
Number of perfect days the average American says they had last year: 12