Stories by Gary Stix

Mapping explorers of Wikipedia rabbit holes revealed three different styles of human inquisitiveness: the “busybody,” the “hunter” and the “dancer.”

The winter solstice is the culmination of a period every year when each cell in our body literally craves more light

The outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election could set the climate agenda, reshape public education and shift the dynamics of global science collaboration.

Brain studies show that language is not essential for the cognitive processes that underlie thought

Both presidential candidates would restrict immigration but Donald Trump would try to implement an extreme anti-immigrant agenda

Myopia is projected to affect half of the world’s population by 2050. A new report says it needs to be countered by classifying it as a disease and upping children’s outdoor time

A species of legged fish uses taste receptors to search for hidden prey, providing an ideal window for scientists to study the emergence of new evolutionary traits

Neuroscientists at the University of Barcelona set about on a search for brain areas involved in chess-related tasks so that surgeons could avoid them when removing a tumor

A Stanford anesthesiologist deconstructs the component parts of what it means to undergo a psychedelic trip

Moths and other insects aren’t drawn to nighttime illumination for the reasons we think they are

This year the explosion of interest in AI had a profound impact on how experts in the fields of neuroscience and psychology think about biological intelligence and learning

A new technology called AntiFake prevents the theft of the sound of your voice by making it more difficult for AI tools to analyze vocal recordings

Early research presented at the leading brain conference suggests that the pandemic changed the brains of teenagers

A sleep researcher who studies what dreams can tell us about the possible onset of some mental disorders believes lucid dreamers might hold a lot of answers in their head.

A huge Danish study shows that up to 30 percent of psychosis diagnoses in young men could have been prevented if these individuals hadn’t used marijuana heavily

Venture capitalists and start-ups don’t mind losing money, but dealing with a bank run is a whole different story

What a patient and family members can expect from the recently approved drug lecanemab—and what more is needed to help stop Alzheimer’s dementia

Neural circuits that label experiences as “good” or “bad” and the emotional meaninglessness of facial expressions are some standouts among 2022’s mind and brain breakthroughs

Diminished risk-taking behaviors and other benefits may explain why many people with bipolar disorder keep consuming cannabis despite some dire downsides

The freaky physics phenomenon of quantum tunneling may mutate genes

Teaching simple basics in school about masks, handwashing and ethics can stave off misconceptions in adulthood

Canceling Roe means that other parents with high-risk pregnancies will not have the options that we had

SARS-CoV-2 appears to travel widely across the cerebral cortex

Our physical safety perimeters have widened, a study suggests