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Being a responsible person is usually a good thing—it means you’re committed, dependable, accountable, and care about others. It’s the opposite of shirking responsibility by pointing fingers or making excuses. But it’s easy to go too far. Do you take on everyone’s tasks? If someone you love is grumpy, do you assume it’s something you did? Do you apologize when someone bumps into you? Owning what’s yours—mistakes and blunders included—is a sign of maturity, but owning everybody else’s mistakes and blunders, not to mention tasks, duties, and emotions, is a sign of over-responsibility....

Is a bad mood contagious? –Michael Lenneville, Washington, D.C. Gary W. Lewandowski, Jr., associate professor of psychology at Monmouth University and co-editor of www.ScienceOfRelationships.com, provides an answer: WHEN YOU SEE someone coughing, you reflexively know to steer clear of his or her germs. When you observe someone who is cranky or complaining, it is less obvious what to do. Studies suggest, however, that others’ moods may be as easy to catch as their germs....

Not everyone has a perfect sense of direction, whether they would like to admit it or not. But two new studies have found that even baby rats have a basic spatial framework in their brains ready to use as soon as they leave the nest for the first time—which is much earlier than had previously been documented. The findings reveal that not all sense of space is learned. They show that at least some of that sense is innate, “that the basic constituents of the cognitive map develop independently of spatial experience or might even precede it,” noted the authors of one of the new studies, both published online June 17 in Science....

Key concepts Physics Mass Gravity Spacetime Introduction Do words like “general relativity,” “gravity well” and “spacetime continuum” sound intimidating? Don’t worry, you don’t have to be Albert Einstein to understand them! Try this fun activity to learn about these concepts and black holes—using some common household materials. Background We experience gravity all the time. It’s such a regular part of our lives that we might not give it much thought. It keeps our feet planted on the ground so we don’t float off into space....

To do science, scientists need money—and usually a lot of it because specialized equipment and tools don’t come cheap. That means researchers often have to spend a significant amount of time pursuing funds from government agencies and private entities. But the era of open-source software and cheap hardware, including 3-D printers, is making it easier for them to quickly test innovative ideas and make their own research tools. These technologies are typically considered the dominion of “makers,” a word that evokes tinkerers and hobbyists, yet many scientists have begun to embrace the build-it-yourself ethos to advance their research in a variety of fields, including energy, transportation, neuroscience and consumer electronics....

A new vaccine stimulated human immune cells to recognize and kill malaria parasites in a recent clinical trial. The vaccine proved effective in both infected human blood samples and mice whose immune systems had been modified to mimic that of humans. “This is the first malaria vaccine clinical trial to clearly demonstrate antiparasitic activity by vaccine-induced antibodies,” writes Pierre Druilhe of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, who led the study. Malaria–a parasite carried by certain mosquitoes–sickens more than 300 million people worldwide every year and causes at least one million deaths, primarily of young children, according to the World Health Organization....

Key concepts Mathematics Geometry Circumference Angles Earth’s equator Introduction If you wanted to measure the circumference of Earth, how long would your tape measure have to be? Would you need to walk the whole way around the world to find the answer? Do you think you can do it with just a meterstick in one location? Try this project to find out! Before you begin, however, it is important to note this project will only work within about two weeks of either the spring or fall equinoxes (usually around March 20 and September 23, respectively)....

Plenty of research has shown that the most intelligent among us hold more positions of power, make more money, attain higher-level jobs and seem to have better luck overall. No wonder so many people search for ways to boost their intelligence and creativity. More important perhaps, dozens of studies have found that a higher IQ (intelligence quotient) is directly related to longevity. One landmark study from the 1930s found that a 15-point IQ advantage conferred a 21 percent better chance of survival into old age....

If all goes according to plan, humans will be visiting—and developing—the moon and its resources well before the decade is out, following multiple nations ramping up their lunar-exploration efforts. But will this new frontier be a stage for competition or collaboration? NASA’s newly released set of ideals—called the Artemis Accords—aims to ensure international cooperation and a “safe, peaceful, and prosperous future” for everyone on the moon—provided they abide by the accords and partner with the U....

Spectacular new close-up images of Saturn’s rings from the Cassini spacecraft reveal phenomena that reinforce scientists’ theories about how planets and moons form and interact—but also some patterns and structures they can’t yet explain. One of the most interesting features visible in the images is a swarm of so-called propellers, or disturbances caused by moonlets embedded in Saturn’s A ring—the outermost of the planet’s large, bright rings. In the images the propellers appear as faint white streaks running with the apparent grain of the ring....

Want to string together some holiday lights? Or test an idea for a circuit? A new elastic silver ink could let users jot down electrical circuits and wiring on walls and paper with a regular ballpoint pen (ACS Nano, 2015, DOI:10.1021/acsnano.5b05082). The ink, made of silver salt and adhesive rubber, sticks to various surfaces, and the resulting circuits stay conductive despite repeated bending. If the wiring breaks, retracing the lines would fix it....

While drug companies struggle to develop medicines for rich countries and typically overlook diseases elsewhere, a robot scientist named Eve has found compounds that could fight drug-resistant malaria. Eve’s developers believe their artificial intelligence (AI) technology could speed up drug discovery, as critics call for a “match” with a live chemist. The AI-endowed robot is designed to add a new, advanced ability to learn on top of the computational smarts that the pharmaceutical industry already uses....

CRISPR is usually thought of as a laboratory tool to edit DNA in order to fix genetic defects or enhance certain traits—but the mechanism originally evolved in bacteria as a way to fend off viruses called bacteriophages. Now scientists have found a way to adapt this ability to fight viruses in human cells. In a recent study, Catherine Freije, Cameron Myhrvold and Pardis Sabeti at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, and their colleagues programmed a CRISPR-related enzyme to target three different single-stranded RNA viruses in human embryonic kidney cells (as well as human lung cancer cells and dog kidney cells) grown in vitro and chop them up, rendering them largely unable to infect additional cells....

The impact of COVID-19 on the physical health of the world’s citizens has been extraordinary. By April 2021 there were almost 130 million cases spread across more than 190 countries. The pandemic’s effect on mental health could be even more far-reaching. At one point roughly one third of the planet’s population was under orders to stay home. That means 2.6 billion people—more than were alive during World War II—were experiencing the emotional and financial reverberations of this new coronavirus....

After months of negotiation and debate, the U.S. House of Representatives could be poised to pass a two-part legislative package aimed at overhauling the country’s notoriously aging infrastructure. But House Democrats (who hold a majority in the chamber) have yet to reach an agreement on one part: a bill that focuses on social programs and fighting climate change. This means the other part—the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA—remains in limbo....

In an attempt to cut short a brainstorming session with my collaborators, I joked recently that “we should stop exploring new research ideas before they turn into too much work.”
These circumstances were unusual. Most often, scientific projects do not stem from extensive brainstorming sessions. New papers simply follow previous ones. For example, in our first paper, my former graduate student, Nick Stone, chose to study what looked like an esoteric but fascinating problem: the disruption of a star that passes too close to a black hole....

With smoke from blazing forests in the U.S. West tinting skies ochre this year and last, residents and researchers alike asked, “How much worse can fire seasons get?” University of Montana fire paleoecologist Philip Higuera has spent his career trying to determine the answer by looking at history. “If we’re all wondering what happens when our forests warm up,” he says, “let’s see what happened in the past when they warmed up....

My friend Yenny Garcia has been counting the days until she can get vaccinated against COVID-19. Yenny has a rare, progressive lung disease known as LAM (lymphangioleiomyomatosis). After losing her disability benefits a few years ago, she can no longer afford medication that slows down her lungs’ deterioration, and her lungs have dropped to 33 percent functionality. When they hit 30 percent, she will need a transplant. For now, she relies on an oxygen concentrator to help her sleep and go on walks....

By Brendan O’Brien and Kim PalmerMILWAUKEE/COLUMBUS (Reuters) - As the Midwestern United States shivered through the region’s lowest temperatures in two decades and forecasters warned that life-threatening cold was heading eastward, officials in Chicago and other districts said schools would be closed on Monday.Icy conditions snarled travel across the Midwest and thousands of flights were canceled or delayed, days after the Northeast was hammered by the first winter storm of the season....

Scientists often speak of a “new Arctic” to describe the region’s rapidly changing landscape. Temperatures are skyrocketing, sea ice is dwindling and many experts believe the far north is quickly transforming into something unrecognizable. This week, new research confirms that a new Arctic climate system is, indeed, emerging. In fact, some aspects of the Arctic climate have already changed beyond anything the region has experienced in the past century. Sea ice extent has shrunk by 31% since the satellite record began in 1979....