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Most people can share a laugh with a total stranger. But there are subtle—and detectable—differences in our guffaws with friends. Greg Bryant, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues previously found that adults from 24 societies around the world can distinguish simultaneous “co-laughter” between friends from that between strangers. The findings suggested that this ability may be universally used to help read social interactions. So the researchers wondered: Can babies distinguish such laughter, too?...

Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory by Michael Rossato-Bennett (DVD available October 21, 2014) More than 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and many of them become unreachable as their cognitive impairment advances. Incredibly, though, when these same people listen to personally meaningful music, they can sometimes reconnect with their emotions, memories and identities. Filmmaker Rossato-Bennett follows social worker Dan Cohen as he brings iPods into nursing homes around the country....

David Macdonald, director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford, UK, found his research thrust into the limelight this week, after the killing of one of his team’s lions made global headlines. Cecil the lion, who Macdonald’s team had tagged with a GPS–satellite collar and had been tracking since 2008, is one of Zimbabwe’s most-famous big cats. He is alleged to have been lured out of Hwange National Park and killed unlawfully by a US tourist, who had paid for what he thought was a legal trophy hunt....

SAN JOSE, March 12 (Reuters) - Costa Rica’s Turrialba volcano belched a column of gas and ash up to 3,280 feet (1 km) into the air on Thursday in its most powerful eruption in two decades, and local authorities started to evacuate residents from the surrounding area. Four explosions emanated from the volcano in central Costa Rica on Thursday, and ash reached parts of the capital San Jose some 30 miles (50 km) away, where the airport was closed....

Greg Dunn knows firsthand the twists and turns of the creative process. After finishing his graduate studies in neuroscience, he switched careers and became a painter. But it was an insect’s unwanted visit that triggered the flash of inspiration for what has since become one of his signature techniques. He now often paints scientific subjects in a sumi-e style, in which the artist applies dark ink over washes of color. Today, Dunn combines his interests by portraying the beautiful intricacies of neurons and circuit boards through his own hybridized artistic techniques....

SAVANNAH, Ga.—Gamma rays shining from the center of the Milky Way could be the result of dark matter particles colliding, scientists say. If so, the signal, gleaned from NASA’s Fermi space telescope, would mark the first-ever indirect detection of the particles that make dark matter, the stealthy and elusive substance that contributes most of the matter in the universe. In theory, the amount of unseen dark matter far exceeds the regular matter in stars, galaxies and us, but it has been impossible to measure directly....

Although most people in developed countries get plenty of calories daily, their diets are often lacking in key nutrients that their bodies have evolved to expect. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as those found in fish and walnuts, are one category of crucial ingredients that the body cannot make on its own. Although these beneficial fatty acids are known to be good for heart health, researchers are just beginning to learn how omega-3s impact our brains—and by extension, our moods and behavior....

Climate change will not be kind to wild potatoes, and even less so to wild peanuts. Temperature shifts in the South American highlands, which many varieties of wild potatoes call home, will drive them further up the mountainsides. Meanwhile, the wild peanut, which thrives in the hot, flat savanna, will find itself increasingly subjected to droughts and extreme temperatures, potentially leading to the extinction of as many as 31 out of 51 species and a range reduction of as much as 94 percent by the 2050s, according to Bioversity International, a Cali, Colombia–based research organization devoted to the conservation of agricultural biodiversity....

A subscriber to a Web site could sign on as a legitimate, registered user without revealing any identifying information by using anonymous authorization. The Web site would not even be able to associate the user with his or her previous visits. Such a protocol is an example of a zero-knowledge proof, in which one party proves a fact without revealing anything about the proof but its validity. Imagine Alice and Bob play a game with a graph, three colored pens and some paper cups....

In a move which analysts hope will liven up international climate policy efforts, European Union (EU) leaders have agreed on a set of mid-term climate and energy targets for the world’s third-largest economic bloc. The EU’s new climate and energy policy framework, finalised in the course of an all-night session of the European Council, obliges the bloc’s member states to collectively reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030, relative to 1990 levels....

The food in Anita’s bowl is not your average dog chow. Although the dish contains pellets and wet food, there is also a sprinkling of green powder—the product of a trailblazing experiment to address a potentially lethal complication of haemophilia treatment. Anita, so named because her red coat reminded breeders of the character from the animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, is a keagle (a mix of a beagle and a Cairn terrier) with haemophilia B....

At the tender age of 10 days or so young rats first venture outside the nest, leaving the comforting presence of their mother. The world outside is full of perils and promise and the pups must learn the difference. But the presence or absence of their mother may make all the difference in determining which is which, according to new research published online yesterday in Nature Neuroscience. Stephanie Moriceau and Regina Sullivan of the University of Oklahoma tested how baby rats responded to the pairing of an unfamiliar odor–peppermint–and a weak electric shock to their tails....

Before NASA kicks off the design and construction of its next large-scale space telescope, an independent review board will evaluate the scope and expected cost of the project, the agency announced Thursday (April 27). The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) was officially approvedas a NASA mission in 2016. The space-based telescope will study the cosmos with a field of view 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope. Like Hubble, it will help scientists study many aspects of the universe, and will be especially well suited to help scientists learn more about the mysterious force driving the expansion of the universe....

Scientists find more proof that sex is good. Worms that mate rather than reproduce asexually mix genes, which allows them to adapt quicker to environmental changes. A major study conducted on twins shows that environmental factors may be at least as important as genes in causing autism. Astronomers spy one of the brightest and longest gamma-ray bursts ever seen, caused by a black hole swallowing a star. The six crew members of the International Space Station prepared to abandon ship when NASA spotted a piece of space junk hurtling toward them at 29,000 miles per hour....

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 report from the group working on global warming’s impacts contained at least one error. “Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world (see Table 10.9) and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate,” the report notes....

The human mind is a remarkable device. Nevertheless, it is not without limits. Recently, a growing body of research has focused on a particular mental limitation, which has to do with our ability to use a mental trait known as executive function. When you focus on a specific task for an extended period of time or choose to eat a salad instead of a piece of cake, you are flexing your executive function muscles....

Most Americans have the luxury of knowing almost nothing about tuberculosis. Because it is typically not a fact of life for us or anyone we know 99 percent of its victims are the poor residing in developing countries TB can sit comfortingly on the horizon of our awareness, perhaps colored by wisps of romanticized claptrap about John Keats and other consumptive poets whose presentiment of their looming mortality is imagined to have spiritually illuminated their genius....

Could it happen here? That was the big question in the U.S. in the hours and days after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and destroyed the surrounding region. Most American worries focused on the integrity of our nation’s rapidly aging nuclear power plants, many of which are still churning through uranium long past the reactors’ original expected lifetimes. Fears were piqued again August 23 when a magnitude 5....

When an older friend or relative slows down people take notice—and often start to worry. Although walking pace is a seemingly basic measure to make, it has been gaining traction in the gerontology world as a reliable marker for overall health and longevity for those 65 and older. A new analysis of walking speed studies shows that—down to the tenth of a meter per second—an older person’s pace, along with their age and gender, can predict their life expectancy just as well as the complex battery of other health indicators....

Researchers say that a World Health Organization (WHO) report on the pandemic’s origins offers an in-depth summary of available data, including unseen granular details. But much remains to be done to establish the provenance of the virus—knowledge that will help to prevent future pandemics. The report was the result of a joint investigation between Chinese and international researchers that included a four-week trip earlier this year to Wuhan, China, where COVID-19 was first detected....