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A common tactic for recovering a lost cell phone is calling the handset and hunting in the direction of the ring. Previous studies indicated that a brain region called the planum temporale (located above and behind the auditory cortex) is responsible for localizing sounds in space. At least, that is, when keeping an ear out for them. New research now shows that the planum temporale activates automatically when there is noise, even if a person is not anticipating it....

In the past decade, psychologists have made a welcome leap, expanding beyond a narrow focus on the North America, Europe and Australia in their research to include people from all over the world. One benefit has been greater insight on global distribution of cultural features—the society-level differences in psychological phenomena such as happiness, individualism and aggressiveness. Greater knowledge about the distribution of such features across the earth may help us better understand the many roots of cultural similarities and differences....

UNINTENTIONAL COMEDY I have been really enjoying your magazine since I started reading it last year. In the “Humor in the Brain” sidebar in “Laughing Matters,” by Steve Ayan, the picture of the brain with eyeballs actually looks pretty hilarious. I keep visualizing Slinky-style springs behind the eyeballs going “Sproing!” Anyway, keep up the good work. Meghan O’Connell via e-mail RISKS AND REWARDS I feel that “Knowing Your Chances,” by Gerd Gigerenzer, Wolfgang Gaissmaier, Elke Kurz-Milcke, Lisa M....

The Supreme Court has overturned constitutional protections for abortion, and several states have now immediately outlawed essential care that is used by roughly one in four Americans who can become pregnant. As many people in the health professions have said, these prohibitions will undermine bodily autonomy, criminalize a wide range of pregnancy outcomes and limit the personal and professional lives of millions of Americans. They will also undoubtedly increase pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality....

Roast turkey. Stuffing. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Pie. Thanksgiving conjures up all sorts of flavors. If you close your eyes you can almost taste them. In fact, one day you may be able to—without food. Scientists from Columbia University have figured out how to turn tastes on and off in the brain using optogenetics—a technique that uses penetrating light and genetic manipulation to turn brain cells on and off. They reported their findings in an article published last week in Nature ....

Researchers have been searching for an ideal substance that can soak up carbon dioxide (CO2) in smokestacks before the greenhouse gas enters the atmosphere. Existing CO2 sponges have drawbacks: they may be too expensive, take too much energy to operate, do not capture much carbon or are unstable over long periods. Now chemical engineer Christopher Jones of the Georgia Institute of Technology and his colleagues have developed a solid adsorbent that is both strong and long-lasting....

When it comes to predicting the weather, no two experts agree. The same apparently holds true in space weather. Nevertheless, a panel of 12 international experts, ranging from solar physicists to modelers, has managed to forge a consensus around the next solar cycle. The prediction: solar minimum—the period of the fewest average number of sunspots and solar storms but the maximum for cosmic rays—will come within six months of March of next year....

Predicting the behavior of the El Niño weather cycle is a challenge for forecasters and climate scientists, and the stakes are high. El Niño and its counterpart La Niña, driven by changes in sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, can have major effects on weather conditions hundreds and thousands of miles away. Studies have linked catastrophic floods, droughts, disease outbreaks, wildfires and even social unrest to the weather cycle, known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation....

For at least 50 years Alaska’s Bristol Bay has been one of the most valuable fisheries in the U.S. On average, fishermen net about 25 million sockeye salmon annually in the bay’s chilly waters. In 2009 the catch was worth more than $120 million. Scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle’s (U.W.) School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences think they know why Bristol Bay is so productive year after year: Several hundred discrete populations of sockeye salmon inhabit the network of rivers and lakes that empty into the bay, and this tremendous population diversity buffers the entire fishery against the vicissitudes of the environment....

Every day, countless new articles, videos and blogs are uploaded to the Internet. Most of these languish in relative obscurity. But a few go viral: they explode across the web, attracting the attention of hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of people in short order. Content that goes viral may remain in the public consciousness for days, weeks, or longer. So for those who want to reach a large audience—whether it’s for a corporate marketing campaign or to promote a personal cause or to show the world your cat’s amazing yodeling ability—the question of what makes content go viral online important....

CHARLESTON, W.Va.—Three weeks after a leak at a chemical storage facility left more than 300,000 West Virginians without access to potable water, many residents continue to avoid drinking from their taps. A “Do Not Use” order has been lifted since January 17. The incident took place on the morning of January 9 and resulted in the leakage of about 38,000 liters of a chemical mixture from a storage facility into the Elk River, which supplies much of the area’s tap water....

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China tested a domestically-produced drone aircraft designed to disperse smog on Saturday, official media reported, in an important step for the country’s domestic aviation industry. At the opening of an annual parliament meeting last week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China will “declare war on pollution. Almost all Chinese cities monitored for pollution last year failed to meet state standards. The environment has emerged as one of Beijing’s key priorities amid growing public disquiet about urban smog, dwindling and polluted water supplies and the widespread industrial contamination of farmland....

Many large galaxies—our Milky Way among them—are orbited by a retinue of smaller, fainter companions: dwarf galaxies. Some are probably nearly as old as the universe itself, isolated islands of ancient stars that never managed to glom onto a larger galaxy; others are younger, born from the shredded remains of bigger galaxies that collided and ripped one another apart. Regardless of whether any given dwarf galaxy is a primordial building block or a late-stage leftover from a galactic merger, studying these diminutive objects is arguably one of the best ways to learn about how galaxies and other large cosmic structures emerge, interact and grow....

The killer machines are coming. Robotic weapons that target and destroy without human supervision are poised to start a revolution in warfare comparable to the invention of gunpowder or the atomic bomb. The prospect poses a dire threat to civilians—and could lead to some of the bleakest scenarios in which artificial intelligence runs amok. A prohibition on killer robots, akin to bans on chemical and biological weapons, is badly needed. But some major military powers oppose it....

For the past two decades scientists have been trying to unravel a mystery in young girls. Breast development, typical of 11-year-olds a generation ago, is now occurring in more seven-year-olds and, rarely, even in three-year-olds. That precocious development, scientists fear, may increase their risk for cancer or other illnesses later in life. Time has not resolved the puzzle. Nor is there any indication that this trend is slowing. More and more families are finding themselves in the strange position of juggling stuffed animals and puberty talks with their first and second graders....

Flame retardants in U.S. furniture are on the rise, with a new study finding them in nearly all couches tested. The findings, published today, confirm that household furniture remains a major source of a variety of flame retardants, some of which have been building up in people’s bodies and in the environment. In the new tests, three out of every four couches purchased before 2005 contained the chemicals, with a now-banned compound in 39 percent....

Physicists who have been roaming the “landscape” of string theory—the space of zillions and zillions of mathematical solutions of the theory, where each solution provides the kinds of equations physicists need to describe reality—have stumbled upon a subset of such equations that have the same set of matter particles as exists in our universe. But this is no small subset: there are at least a quadrillion such solutions, making it the largest such set ever found in string theory....

Dear EarthTalk: What is the best way to measure how close we are to the dreaded “point of no return” with climate change? In other words, when do we think we will have gone too far? — David Johnston, via EarthTalk.org While we may not yet have reached the “point of no return”—when no amount of cutbacks on greenhouse gas emissions will save us from potentially catastrophic global warming—climate scientists warn we may be getting awfully close....

Two millennia ago, millions of giant tortoises roamed Madagascar, an island nation off the southeastern coast of Africa that is rich in species found nowhere else on Earth. Those tortoises kept Madagascar’s unique ecosystem in check by munching on low-lying foliage, trampling vegetation and dispersing large seeds from native trees like the baobab. When humans began settling on the island about 2,300 years ago, Madagascar’s large vertebrate populations were the first casualties....

Coal is down but not out thanks in part to a pro-coal rider passedin theomnibus spending bill [pdf]. Are we looking at pro-export policy or just a little mutual back-scratching? Kentucky Is Coal Country The Bluegrass State’s coal industry has been singing the blues of late, but they’ve beenhandeda small victory courtesy of Representative Hal Rogers (R-KY), who, surprise, surprise, has the coal industry to thank forfilling his election coffers. When it comes King Coal in the United States, Wyoming and West Virginia are at the top, responsible for 39 and 12 percent of total coal production, respectively....