IdleTheory.info – Reclaiming Life

We thought happiness peaked at the beginning and end of life, but a study from Germany suggests a more pessimistic outlook for our later years

Astronomers have long thought the universe should look generally the same in every direction, but an anomaly in the radiation from the big bang persists even after a new analysis from radio telescopes

A star found in the Large Magellanic Cloud is remarkably unpolluted by heavier elements, suggesting it is descended from the universe’s earliest stars

Several species of birds from different continents use and understand similar alarm calls when they see an invader that might lay an egg in their nest – this shared call hints at the origin of language

It was previously thought that children younger than 7 couldn’t find efficient solutions to complex problems, but new research suggests that much earlier, children can happen upon known sorting algorithms used by computer scientists

Sandra Knapp, chair of the judging panel for the 2025 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, explains why neurologist Masud Husain’s collection of case studies is such an enlightening, compassionate book

In this passage from Our Brains, Our Selves, winner of the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, neuroscientist Masud Husain recounts how novelist Marcel Proust became convinced, wrongly, that he’d had a stroke

The New Scientist Book Club has just finished reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. Most of our members enjoyed it, even if the sheer volume of ideas in the book made it a challenging read

In his book The Genius Bat, ecologist Yossi Yovel explains why these mammals are a vital part of ecosystems, pollinating plants and keeping insect populations in check

Premenstrual syndrome and its symptoms is neglected by science, so Sarah Hill’s new book is welcome. But it needs more on genetics, not just lifestyle changes, says Alexandra Thompson