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Lately I’ve been finding solace by watching videos of animals being just this side of cheeky. I’ve convinced myself that I’m conducting an informal study of the human tendency to see human characteristics in other species.
Case in point: A husky emphatically howling “No!” at being told to come inside from the snow.
So when neuroscientist Kelly Lambert of the University of Richmond told me about the raccoon that broke into a liquor store in Ashland, Virginia, and got totally sloshed, my interest was piqued. The drunken escapade of this masked bandit happened just a few blocks from the lab where Lambert began studying the raccoon brain, sussing out the neural workings that enable these mischievous creatures to behave in humanlike ways. In her work, she makes the case for studying raccoon intelligence to better understand human cognition.
As I queue up another video of a raccoon feeling its way around the world with cleverness and derring-do, I, too, remain struck by what Lambert described as “one of the most underestimated and understudied brains in the animal kingdom.”
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Vivian Lam
Associate Health and Biomedicine Editor
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The moment you look away from those adorable eyes, these mischievous creatures will sneak out of your lab.
Joshua J. Cotten/Unsplash
Kelly Lambert, University of Richmond
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Health + Medicine
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Zachary W. Binder, UMass Chan Medical School
A particularly infectious subvariant of influenza is keeping emergency room numbers high and causing especially severe illness in children.
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Economy + Business
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Sarah Stroup, Middlebury College; Jennifer Hadden, Brown University
Doing more with less may not be sustainable for an exhausted workforce over the long term.
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Jordan Kraft Lambert, Colorado State University; Jennifer Martin, Colorado State University; Kim Stackhouse-Lawson, Colorado State University; Sara Place, Colorado State University
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Politics + Society
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Jennifer Selin, Arizona State University
Can the president use the Insurrection Act and send the military into U.S. cities? A web of legal provisions try to balance presidential power with the power of state leaders.
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Science + Technology
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JT Torres, Washington and Lee University; Jeff Saerys-Foy, Quinnipiac University
Reading comprehension scores are tanking, and fewer Americans are picking up books. But practicing deep reading can help you process content more carefully and keep you from falling for misinformation.
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Amanda Meng, Georgia Institute of Technology; Alberto Dainotti, Georgia Institute of Technology; Zachary Bischof, Georgia Institute of Technology
Iran’s internet shutdown cuts off most communication with the outside world during violent repression of national protests.
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International
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Dudley L. Poston Jr., Texas A&M University
The Asian giant is grappling with a dramatic population decline, with a fertility rate of 1.0, well below the 2.1 replacement rate.
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Arts + Culture
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Richard Nedjat-Haiem, University of California, Santa Barbara
The 75-year-old pop star is part of a generation of Iranians in the diaspora who are watching, with bated breath, as their compatriots seek to topple the Islamic Republic.
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Environment + Energy
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Peter Simons, Hamilton College
The US government used to have American farmers’ backs, but that support has been dwindling for decades. New subsidies signal big changes for farmers.
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Jonas Gamso, Arizona State University; Hossain Ahmed Taufiq, Arizona State University
The expansion of Arctic shipping, scramble for seafloor mining and overfishing are all straining international relationships. But the powers of diplomacy go beyond ocean treaties.
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Ethics + Religion
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Christy Cobb, University of Denver
The Christian apocrypha, texts not included in the Bible, include stories of Jesus’ female followers – including St. Thecla.
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