Rethinking One of Psychology's Most Infamous Experiments
In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram's electric-shock studies showed that people will obey even the most abhorrent of orders. But recently, researchers have begun to question his conclusions—and offer some of their own.
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The Definitive April Fool's Prank Bracket
March Madness is old news, guys. It’s April now, and you know what April 1 brings? Madness. Absolute madness. And…
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The State Department Is Spring Breaking, Badly
You know how sometimes, little kids will make up really bad jokes that don’t make sense? Ones where the punchline…
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Jacky Naegelen / Reuters How a Distant Ancestor's DNA Helps Reveal What Makes Us Human
Modern Melanesians share genes with Denisovans, but it’s the missing ones that are most telling.
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Finbarr O'Reilly / Reuters Bonobos Just Want Everyone to Get Along
New research suggests that unlike humans, the peaceful primates pay more attention to bonding opportunities than they do to threats.
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Wikimedia A New Skeleton and an Old Debate About Syphilis
The recent discovery of ancient remains with signs of the disease shows how mysterious its origins are.
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CBS A New Way to Appreciate Those Awkward Jeopardy! Interviews
"My Latin teacher was great" and other contestant fun facts, collected on one dedicated Twitter account
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Marta Mirazon Lahr / Nature A Prehistoric Mass Grave Suggests Hunter-Gatherers Weren’t So Peaceful
The discovery of 27 skeletons in Kenya hints that warfare has been with us for a very long time.
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AS400 DB / Corbis A Mammoth, a Spear, and a New Timeline for Humans in the Arctic
A new paper uses prehistoric animal injuries to argue that people populated the region thousands of years earlier than previously believed.
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STR New / Reuters Secrets From a Prehistoric Mummy's Gut Bacteria
The Iceman cometh, and he’s raising some questions about ancient migration patterns.
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Image Source / Corbis Don't Lick the Tinsel
A tale of Christmas-tree decorations and lead-poisoning prevention
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Olivia Harris / Reuters Second Helpings: Delicious Journalism
Staff picks of our favorite science, technology, and health stories from 2015
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Alexandra Mlejnkova / AP Can a Predator Really Be Friends With Its Prey?
The murky science of interspecies bonds
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Dylan Martinez / Reuters Fat-Shaming on the London Underground
The cards Overweight Haters Ltd. is handing out to passengers on the Tube aren’t just cruel; they’re ineffective.
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Marcos del Mazo / Corbis The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Single-File Line
What do an airport and a Star Wars premiere have in common?
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Brian Snyder / Reuters Save the Gourds
A new study argues that they would have gone extinct if humans hadn’t intervened.
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Alabama Department of Archives and History / Wikimedia A Newspaper Written Entirely by Mental-Health Patients
The Meteor, staffed by residents of Alabama’s first psychiatric hospital, was part of an experiment in the way the U.S. cared for the mentally ill.
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Bernhard Richter / Shutterstock How Poop Made the World Go 'Round
Extinct? More like ex-stink.
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Kevin Lamarque / Reuters The Changing Vocabulary of Mental Illness
Why your doctor no longer says you’re “going mad”
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Bogdan VASILESCU / Shutterstock There Will Be Blood
The backlash to the man who founded the Museum of Menstruation raises the question: Is there a right way for men to talk about periods?
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Yuna Shino / Reuters Americans Are More Afraid of Robots Than Death
Technophobia, quantified
