💡 The Top Science News

The latest from Nautilus and the wider world of science. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( This Tuesday, check out the top science news—plus your free story of the day below [READ NAUTILUS]( DISCOVERIES The Top Science News This Week [Researchers Created the Most Powerful “Sound Laser” Ever Made]( Noise can be shot in a stream of particles, called phonons, and this new device can beam a sound laser that’s 10 times “brighter” than prior lasers, a “giant enhancement.” [arXiv→]( [How to Change Your Personality]( Researchers discuss four mechanisms—preconditions, triggers, reinforcers, and integrators—that, in theory, produce effective change, as well as the forces that keep your personality stable, which work against attempts to make changes stick. [Nature Reviews Psychology→]( [What Mammals Made of Our Absence During the Pandemic]( Over 100 “camera-trapping” projects around the world sampled the amount and timing of animals’ behavior across 163 species. Their activity varied widely, with meat-eaters being the most sensitive, becoming more nocturnal than other mammals. [Nature Ecology & Evolution→]( [Antidemocratic Attitudes Among Americans Are Uncommon on the Left and Right]( Researchers consider what it means for there to be such a “stark disconnect between the behavior of Republican elites and the attitudes of Republican voters.” [PNAS→]( [The Effects of the Flint Water Crisis on Kids’ Education]( Researchers found decreases in math achievement and increases in special needs classification, even among children living in homes with copper (rather than lead) water service lines. [Science Advances→]( [The Case for Eating Snakes]( Fans of Metal Gear Solid 3 will recall how nutritious a reticulated python could be. [Scientific Reports→]( [Why NASA Beamed This Cat Video 19 Million Miles]( Cutting-edge laser communication technology can stream ultra-high-definition video in record speed. [BBC→]( [Become a Better Lie Detector]( Relying on a sense of your own honesty can lead to worse lie detection, but people can improve spotting untruths when they use statistical cues that indicate how likely a given statement is a lie. [Communications Psychology→]( You Deserve the “Good Ice” You might not be able to wrangle glaciers for crystal clear ice, like the subjects of [this Nautilus article](, but the [Igloo Countertop Ice Maker]( is the next best thing. This portable ice machine takes up minimal counter space and can produce 9 fresh ice cubes in just 7 minutes. It also runs whisper-quiet and cleans itself. [Get yours now for 18% off.]( [BUY ON AMAZON]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... If you could know the answer to one mystery before you die, which one would you solve? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by [“Mysteries Are to Be Embraced, But Also to Be Solved.”]() Top Answers to Our Previous Question (On the Family Tradition You’re Striving to Keep Alive) • Every year on February 2nd I keep my daughter home from preschool to celebrate Groundhog's Day, my self-declared favorite holiday. It started in 2019 when she was just 4 months old, and continued through the pandemic when I was stuck at home with her, desperately needing small ways of breaking up our everyday routine. No gifts to buy, no fancy food to prepare, just utter silliness as we don our custom-knit groundhog hats, tune into the livestream from Punxsawtawney, Pennsylvania, and chant "Phil, Phil!" along with hundreds of other groundhog fans, eagerly awaiting news of an early spring. – Sherri W. • The family tradition we’re keeping going (20-plus years) is a red tablecloth that we bring out every Christmas. Each person around the table writes their name, year, favorite memory of the year and favorite gift they received for Christmas. It’s interesting to look back over our daughter’s past ex-boyfriends, memories we have forgotten, and what gift people liked the best—it’s rarely the most expensive. We even took it to Disney one year with the entire family (13 of us) and had Chip and Dale and others sign it. Great memories. – Mark W. • We strive to celebrate the winter solstice by each secretly placing a wrapped gift in a specified place. Then in a circle, one at a time, we choose the gift that appeals to us. The fun is that once a gift has been chosen, it can be chosen again by a different person or the same person on a subsequent round, and thus the back and forth snatching of a favored gift can be quite amusing. After a predetermined number of rounds, usually three, exchanging stops and everyone opens the gift they are holding. Often the gifts are quite unexpected and not what the wrapping alluded to. – Louise M. Your free story this Tuesday! [COMMUNICATION]( [Mysteries Are to Be Embraced, But Also to Be Solved]( Science doesn’t rob the world of wonder. It amplifies it. BY JIM AL-KHALILI One of my favorite TV shows as a teenager was a series called Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World. [Continue reading for free→]( Want to Fight Climate Change? Waste Less Food Doing something about the climate crisis can feel overwhelming, especially for an ordinary person. Luckily, there’s something that we all can do to make a real difference: waste less food. Food overproduction uses up a lot of energy and rotting food generates greenhouse gasses. To help with this crisis, our partners at [One5C]( have written a deeply sourced guide to everything you need to know about food waste. From the big picture to the shopping, food storage, and cooking tips, [One5C]( has you covered. Check it out by following the link below. [READ IT HERE]( P.S. The English sci-fi writer, author, futurist, and TV host Arthur C. Clarke died on this day in 2008. Clarke, who co-wrote the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey, once led a TV series called Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World. It looked at all manner of unexplained events, weird phenomena, and urban myths from around the world, divided into three kinds—scientifically solved mysteries that once baffled our ancestors (like earthquakes); scientifically tractable mysteries that don’t yet have an explanation (like dark energy); and scientifically intractable mysteries which [won’t be solved because they’re not “true mysteries; they are fictions,”]( wrote the Iraqi-British theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili, who was a fan. “Some of them may at one time have been considered Mysteries of the Second Kind, when there might have been hope of a rational explanation. Yet they remain important to us—even after we’ve learned that they are not true—as mythologies, folklore, and fairy tales, and of course fodder for Hollywood movies, for without them our lives would be poorer.” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading.[Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, if you find our content valuable, consider [becoming a member]( to support our work, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2024 NautilusNext, All rights reserved.You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext360 W 36th Street, 7S,New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Unsubscribe](