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Comics

Conceptual illustration of neuroscience and the law. Included are a man’s head, nerve cells, gavel, eye and brains, one of which is balanced on legal scales.
The Mind

The brain, the criminal and the courts

States of mind that the legal system cares about — memory, responsibility and mental maturity — have long been difficult to describe objectively, but neuroscientists are starting to detect patterns. Coming soon to a courtroom near you?

Photograph of an otter lying on its back. It is playing with two small rocks.
The Mind

The puzzle of play

The purpose of play — for children, monkeys, rats or meerkats — has proved surprisingly hard to pin down. Scientists continue to toss around ideas.

Three pages of an old manuscript lavishly illustrated with plants and animal life. There is a lot of brown writing on the pages too.
Society

Can statistics help crack the mysterious Voynich manuscript?

The meaning of the cryptic text has eluded scholars for centuries. Their latest efforts include computational analyses seeking new insights into the medieval enigma.

A photo shows a baby fitted with electronic sensors on its head meant to measure brain waves as part of a study on language.
The Mind

Out of the mouth of babes

Learning a language is child’s play, but linguists are still trying to understand how children do it so easily

Conceptual illustration shows a woman, head in hands, sitting on a chair. Images surrounding her depict a death she may have caused through negligence: an ambulance, bicycle on its side, damaged car, grave site and a cell phone opened to a texting app.
Health & Disease

The lasting anguish of moral injury

Psychologists are finding that moral code violations can leave an enduring mark — and may require new types of therapy

Photo of woman with shopping cart in front of many types of salad dressing on shelves in a supermarket. People are surprisingly loyal to brands. Figuring out the reasons has been challenging for researchers.
Society

The power of brands, conscious and unconscious

Economists explore the complex forces that shape what ends up in your shopping cart and how that might change in the online marketplace 

Photo shows multiple, booth-sized metal cages in a room together, each with a prisoner inside. They are able to talk and see each other but cannot move freely.
Society

The hidden damage of solitary confinement

Meant to punish or protect, social isolation in prison creates a ripple of unintended effects on the psyche

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The Mind

The baby brain: Learning in leaps and bounds

VIDEO: Learn how the baby brain changes from gestation to toddlerhood, and what parents, teachers and policymakers can do to ensure kids are set up for success

Photo shows a small boy by himself running down the nondescript hall of a shelter.
The Mind

Treating the growing trauma of family separation

War, disasters, trafficking and immigration are tearing millions of children from their parents all around the world. A psychologist explores how to help them recover.

Photograph of a man walking on a wooden jetty at the water, under cloudy skies. Despair-induced suicidal thoughts and actual attempts are recognized as distinct things by researchers, who are working to better understand the progression and so intervene more effectively.
The Mind

Short-circuiting the suicide cascade

Psychologists are seeking better ways to cut the link between dire thoughts and fatal action. Among their strategies: individualized plans for pulling back from the brink, and limiting access to deadly means, especially guns.

Image shows a married couple depicted in an oil painting by artist Jan Van Eyck painted in 1434. It is part of the National Gallery of London’s collection.
The Mind

Sex strategies of the evolutionary kind

For women, a short-term fling may involve a quest for good genes or just a good time. It’s a puzzle for the researchers looking at how people choose mates.

Illustration of a doughnut on a mousetrap
Society

In promoting health, when to tiptoe — and when to stomp?

Inform, incentivize, legislate: There’s a ladder of escalating approaches for changing citizens’ behavior — and nudges for every rung

Climate Change Long Hero
Society

Unpersuasive: Why arguing about climate change often doesn’t work

COMIC: In the US, where political parties have increasingly staked claims on one side of the issue or the other, beliefs may be more about belonging than facts

An illustration shows anguished people with opioid use disorder being treated remotely by a doctor on a laptop computer.
The Mind

Does online opioid treatment work?

The Covid-19 pandemic brought a sudden shift to virtual health care. That has increased access — and possibly outcomes, too — for patients with opioid use disorder.

Photo shows a young sleeping infant wearing an array of electrodes on its head. The electrodes record brain activity while the baby sleeps.
The Mind

How learning happens in the brains of sleeping babes

Neuroscientists have long known that shut-eye helps consolidate memories in adults. Napping may play an equally crucial role in infants and young children.

A grey-haired man wearing a beret whistles through his fingers, with mountains in the background.
The Mind

Speaking in whistles

Dozens of traditional cultures use a whistled form of their native language for long-distance communication. You could, too.

Social pressure opener
The Mind

Feeling the pressure

How we want to be perceived influences how we act, and that presents persuasion opportunities. But the social factors involved are not easy to unravel.

A collage of pictures of children caring for aging parents, along with siblings arguing and a man in distress.
The Mind

When siblings become caregivers

Collaboration is vital when caring for an aging parent. Yet there are many stumbling blocks to good teamwork, from unequal division of tasks and differing perceptions of a parent’s needs to old, lingering resentments.

A 2012 photo shows a crowd of marchers, including two young black boys, walking down 5th Avenue in New York City. Their sign reads: “Stop Racial Profiling. End Stop & Frisk.”
The Mind

Curbing implicit bias: what works and what doesn’t

Psychologists have yet to find a way to diminish hidden prejudice, but they do have strategies for thwarting discrimination 

Still photograph from the 2015 movie The Revenant. Frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is brandishing a rifle and shouting in fury, beneath trees.
The Mind

Revenge is bittersweet at best

Research is starting to reveal how the urge for vengeance may have evolved, when it can be useful and what could prevent the violence it can provoke

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