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The Mind

Why do some people always get lost?

Research suggests that experience may matter more than innate ability when it comes to a sense of direction

Oxytocin’s effects aren’t just about love

At last, neuroscientists are learning how the hormone shapes social behaviors such as pair-bonding and parental care. It’s more complicated than they thought.

Exercise boosts the brain — and mental health

Working out buffs up the body — and perhaps the mind, too. New research is revealing how physical activity can reduce and even ward off depression, anxiety and other psychological ailments.

Wild robots: Five ways scientists are using robotics to study animal behavior

Biomimetic bots can teach researchers a lot about how creatures interact in the natural world

Speaking in whistles

Dozens of traditional cultures use a whistled form of their native language for long-distance communication. You could, too.

Speaking of pandemics: The art and science of risk communication

Public health messages should be loud and clear, so that everyone listens and stays safe. But that’s easier said than done — especially with a case as complex as Covid-19.

Sex strategies of the evolutionary kind

For women, a short-term fling may involve a quest for good genes or just a good time. It’s a puzzle for the researchers looking at how people choose mates.

Always look on the bright side of life

How a positive outlook may buffer us from stress and ward off health problems 

Sounding out the brain

Ultrasound isn’t just for images. Sonogenetics and other promising technologies let researchers use focused sound waves to control genes and entire cells deep in the tissues of living animals, without surgery.

The mind of an anthill

Can we use the tools of psychology to understand how colonies of social insects make decisions?

Feeling the pressure

How we want to be perceived influences how we act, and that presents persuasion opportunities. But the social factors involved are not easy to unravel.

In promoting health, when to tiptoe — and when to stomp?

Inform, incentivize, legislate: There’s a ladder of escalating approaches for changing citizens’ behavior — and nudges for every rung

Nudging grows up (and now has a government job)

Ten years after an influential book proposed ways to work with — not against — the irrationalities of human decision-making, practitioners have refined and broadened this gentle tool of persuasion

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