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Hunter-gatherers agree on what is moral, but not who is moral
Two people in traditional Tanzanian clothing sitting on the ground outdoors.

Photo: Eduardo Azevedo

Hunter-gatherers agree on what is moral, but not who is moral

In determining whether there is a universal concept of moral character, research could provide insight into ways to improve our interactions with one another.

Michele W. Berger

Inferno in the rainforest
Map of Brazil and other parts of South America showing myriad points of orange

Sensors on NASA satellites Terra and Aqua captured a record of thousands of points of fire in Brazil in late August. The fires pose a threat to the Amazon rainforest and to people living in and around it. (Image: NASA Earth Observatory)

Inferno in the rainforest

Satellite images have detected more than 100,000 points of fire in the Amazon this year. Scientists Reto Gieré and Alain Plante illuminate some less obvious impacts of the fires, including health threats and climate impacts.

Katherine Unger Baillie

A molecular ‘atlas’ of animal development
An abstract depiction of data features an elongated shape with various projections in pixels of different colors.

Each cell of a developing nematode worm embryo is catalogued at the molecular level in a new paper out in Science. In this visualization of the dataset, each dot represents a single cell, its color represents the age of the embryo it came from (orange=early, green=mid, blue/red=late), and the dots are arranged so that cells with similar transcriptomes are near each other. Visualized this way, the data form various thin “trajectories” that correspond to tissues and individual cell types. (Image: Cole Trapnell)

A molecular ‘atlas’ of animal development

Scientists have studied the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans for decades, making essential contributions to basic science. In the latest milestone, a team uses cutting-edge technology to individually profile the genes expressed in more than 80,000 cells in a developing C. elegans embryo.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Crowdsourcing 10,000 years of land use
A brown cow standing in a mountain landscape in the Italian Alps.

To predict what will happen in the future, its important to understand what happened in the past. Thats the idea behind ArchaeoGLOBE, a project that looks at land use around the world—like in the Italian Alps, seen here—during the past 10,000 years. (Photo courtesy: Lucas Stephens) 

Crowdsourcing 10,000 years of land use

More than 250 archaeologists from around the world contributed their knowledge to ArchaeoGLOBE, an effort to better understand the prevalence of agriculture, pastoralism, and hunting and gathering at different points in human history.

Michele W. Berger

‘Information gerrymandering’ poses a threat to democratic decision making
Pixelated image of a brain with red, blue, and purple regions

Information gerrymandering can change the way we think about political decisions, as depicted in this image of a gerrymandered mind. People must integrate disparate sources of information when deciding how to vote. But information does not always flow freely; it can be constrained by social networks and distorted by zealots and automated bots. Researchers showed that certain structures in a social network can sway the voting outcome of towards one party, even when both parties have equal size and each player has the same influence, a phenomenon they called “information gerrymandering." (Image: Alexander Stewart)

‘Information gerrymandering’ poses a threat to democratic decision making

Concern over fake news and online trolls is widespread and warranted, but researchers have identified another impediment to the free flow of information in social networks. The phenomenon, which they term “information gerrymandering,” arises from the structure of a social network and introduces bias into collective decisions.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Climate lecture series will call for ‘unprecedented action,’ 1.5 minutes at a time
Wide-angle view of a heavily mined landscape with a refinery or energy facility in the background.

Climate lecture series will call for ‘unprecedented action,’ 1.5 minutes at a time

With a nod to the stated goal of the Paris Agreement of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst effects of climate change, a new 90-second lecture series kicks off today to give faculty and students a platform to briefly share how their work addresses climate change, and what we can do to help.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Polarization can happen even when rational people listen to each other
A cartoon drawing of six people. Two are holding megaphones, one is holding a sign that says "Yes," one is holding a sign that says "No," and one is holding a cane.

Polarization can happen even when rational people listen to each other

Using computer models, philosopher Daniel J. Singer, political scientist William Berger, and colleagues found that divides over factual issues can stem from humans’ limited memory capacity rather than from one side or the other being irrational.

Michele W. Berger

Is it a cult, or a new religious movement?
Osho seated with disciples kneeling before him, circa 1980s

Is it a cult, or a new religious movement?

Many religious movements started off as fringe groups, and many modern-day cults have no religious doctrine. Why are cults and new religious movements conflated, and what makes them different?