Tiny brains of extinct human relative had complex features

Tiny brains of extinct human relative had complex features

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The New York Times reports: What makes humans so smart? For a long time the answer was simple: our big brains. But new research into the tiny noggins of a recently discovered human relative called Homo naledi may challenge that notion. The findings, published Monday, suggest that when it comes to developing complex brains, size isn’t all that matters. In 2013 scientists excavating a cave in South Africa found remains of Homo naledi, an extinct hominin now thought to have…

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Trump has put America in the worst of all possible worlds

Trump has put America in the worst of all possible worlds

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Anne Applebaum writes: In retrospect, the era of American hegemony — the moment of the “sole superpower,” when the United States was the “essential” country — was remarkably brief. It began in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, probably peaked just before 9/11, and for the past decade — under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama — it has been drawing slowly and unevenly to an end. Even while it lasted, this hegemony was partly a game…

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‘Epidemic of dishonesty’ in Washington more dangerous than terrorism, says Bloomberg

‘Epidemic of dishonesty’ in Washington more dangerous than terrorism, says Bloomberg

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Associated Press reports: Americans are facing an “epidemic of dishonesty” in Washington that’s more dangerous than terrorism or communism. That’s according to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who warned in a commencement speech on Saturday at Texas’ Rice University that “an endless barrage of lies” and a trend toward “alternate realities” in national politics pose a dire threat to U.S. democracy. The 76-year-old billionaire, who flirted with an independent presidential run in 2016, did not call out any…

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As tensions flare with Iran, Israel embraces Russia

As tensions flare with Iran, Israel embraces Russia

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Maxim A. Suchkov writes: Sandwiched between two days this week in which Israel attacked Iranian assets in Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met cordially May 9 with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The visit came amid reported Russian efforts to ease tensions between Iran and Israel, and followed less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal. Israel reportedly delivered strikes May 8 on a Syrian army base at…

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USA Today read every one of the 3,517 Facebook ads bought by Russians. Here’s what they found

USA Today read every one of the 3,517 Facebook ads bought by Russians. Here’s what they found

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USA Today reports: The Russian company charged with orchestrating a wide-ranging effort to meddle in the 2016 presidential election overwhelmingly focused its barrage of social media advertising on what is arguably America’s rawest political division: race. The roughly 3,500 Facebook ads were created by the Russian-based Internet Research Agency, which is at the center of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s February indictment of 13 Russians and three companies seeking to influence the election. While some ads focused on topics as banal…

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In the fate of the Delta smelt, warnings of conservation gone wrong

In the fate of the Delta smelt, warnings of conservation gone wrong

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Sharon Levy writes: Peter Moyle, an eminent authority on the ecology and conservation of California’s fishes, stands on the narrow deck of a survey boat and gazes out over the sloughs of Suisun Marsh. The tall, tubular stems of tule reeds bend in the wind as a flock of pelicans soars past, their white wings edged in black. It’s an idyllic scene that hints at an earlier time, back before the Gold Rush, when undisturbed creeks and tidal marsh covered…

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Evolution tracks predictable ways of being

Evolution tracks predictable ways of being

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Ed Yong writes: Most people go to Hawaii for the golden beaches, the turquoise seas, or the stunning weather. Rosemary Gillespie went for the spiders. Situated around 2,400 miles from the nearest continent, the Hawaiian Islands are about as remote as it’s possible for islands to be. In the last 5 million years, they’ve been repeatedly colonized by far-traveling animals, which then diversified into dozens of new species. Honeycreeper birds, fruit flies, carnivorous caterpillars … all of these creatures reached…

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Why we need to figure out a theory of consciousness

Why we need to figure out a theory of consciousness

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All in the mind. Shutterstock By Adam Barrett, University of Sussex Understanding the biology behind consciousness (or self-awareness) is considered by some to be the final frontier of science. And over the last decade, a fledgling community of “consciousness scientists” have gathered some interesting information about the differences between conscious and unconscious brain activity. But there remains disagreement about whether or not we have a theory that actually explains what is special about the brain activity which produces our miraculous…

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Putin may have given Israeli PM Netanyahu the green light to wipe out Iran in Syria in a massive air war

Putin may have given Israeli PM Netanyahu the green light to wipe out Iran in Syria in a massive air war

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Business Insider reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Moscow’s Victory Day parade on Wednesday. Hours later, a massive air war broke out in which, Israel says, it destroyed dozens of Iranian sites in Syria. Statements from Netanyahu suggest that Putin may have given the green light before the attack. Netanyahu left Russia saying that “there is a need to ensure the continuation of military coordination between the Russian military and the Israel Defence…

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Who ordered Black Cube’s dirty tricks?

Who ordered Black Cube’s dirty tricks?

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Trita Parsi writes: I had no reason to be suspicious. I receive dozens of media requests a week and this one was no different. Last summer, I received an email from someone who said that he was a journalist—from an outlet I hadn’t heard of before—and that he wanted to ask a few questions about the Iran nuclear deal. At the time, my book on the subject, Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy, had just appeared….

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Costa Rica to ban fossil fuels and become world’s first decarbonised society

Costa Rica to ban fossil fuels and become world’s first decarbonised society

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The Independent reports: Costa Rica’s new president has announced a plan to ban fossil fuels and become the first fully decarbonised country in the world. Carlos Alvarado, a 38-year-old former journalist, made the announcement to a crowd of thousands during his inauguration on Wednesday. “Decarbonisation is the great task of our generation and Costa Rica must be one of the first countries in the world to accomplish it, if not the first,” Mr Alvarado said. “We have the titanic and…

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Climate denial is a form of American exceptionalism

Climate denial is a form of American exceptionalism

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Brian Kahn writes: America is already great, my friends, at least when it comes to climate denial. New research published this week in Nature Climate Change shows the U.S. is without peers when it comes to denying the basic science of climate change. Scientists surveyed people in 25 countries around the world, and found there’s no country quite like the U.S, where climate denial is much more closely tied to one’s political persuasion than any other country. The researchers say…

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Look, a federal agency is pushing for urgent climate action

Look, a federal agency is pushing for urgent climate action

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Eric Holthaus writes: It’s well-understood at this point that the Trump Administration is no friend to science-based governance. But there’s one federal agency bucking that trend. The Bureau of Reclamation, a division of the Department of Interior, raised fresh alarm in a press release this week about the dire drought in the Southwest. “We need action and we need it now,” said Trump appointee Brenda Burman, who runs the bureau, in the release. “We can’t afford to wait for a…

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