When love is in the air, what’s happening in the brain? For many years, biologists would answer, “Oxytocin!” This small protein — just nine amino acids long — has sometimes been called “the love hormone” because it has been implicated in pair-bonding, maternal care and other positive, love-like social behaviors. #ValentinesDay
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/mind/2022/oxytocins-effects-arent-just-about-love
“We don’t always need to fill up the space with conversation: Silent moments can be powerful ways to connect.”
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/mind/2025/psychology-of-silence-between-couples
Inside the brains of aging dogs: In a citizen science project, thousands of pet dogs are helping scientists to understand what happens to memory and cognition in old age
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/health-disease/2022/inside-brains-aging-dogs
📷 Credit: Annette Shaff / Shutterstock
Flexible organic circuits that mimic biological neurons could increase processing speed and might someday hook right into your head
✍️ Kurt Kleiner
Before the formidable bird went extinct, scientists say, it likely hunted the islands’ flightless moa. Now evidence suggests the eagle was part of a wave of feathered invaders, and its story holds lessons for today and the future.
In its quest to feed, avoid nasty substances and just generally live its life, the brainless, one-celled Physarum polycephalum performs some impressive tricks of learning and memory.
✍️ Tim Vernimmen
In Argentina, equine cloning in polo is no longer a rarity. It’s now a mature industry — although ethical dilemmas surrounding it persist.
✍️ Maximiliano Fernández
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/technology/2026/cloned-polo-horses
Scientists are taking a multipronged approach to tackle this dangerous carrier of dengue, yellow fever and other noxious viruses.
✍️ Katarina Zimmer
#COMIC 🎨 Male cells must survive twisty passages, strong currents and immune attacks; millions enter, but only one can finish
👀 On our radar: For those with retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction, daily life can be miserable, with symptoms such as bloating and chest pain. But a simple Botox injection can help.
✍️ Kendra Pierre-Louis,Sushmita Pathak & Alex Sugiura, via Scientific American.
Scientists are working to replace various hair product ingredients with ones derived from, or inspired by, biological compounds.
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2025/science-of-green-hair-care
Researchers have long believed that a sudden, massive deluge filled a dry, salt-filled Mediterranean some 5 million years ago. Turns out that probably didn't happen, but there was still drama aplenty.
✍️ Dana Mackenzie
Scientists are taking a multipronged approach to tackle this dangerous carrier of dengue, yellow fever and other noxious viruses. ✍️ Katarina Zimmer
They race, they leap, they spin, they shoot. Meet the organisms for whom physical prowess is more than sport — it’s a matter of life and death.
✍️ Amber Dance
🎨 Maki Naro
These chemical oddities may explain why Earth seems to be deficient in certain elements. 📝 Learn more about this in our recent article republished by Ars Technica.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/meet-the-mysterious-electrides/
Farming animals for fur is not only cruel but also provides an ideal environment for viruses to mix and cross over into humans.
✍️ Jane Qiu
From monkeys washing potatoes to cockatoos raiding trash cans, socially spread behaviors allow creatures to adapt more rapidly to changing environments than conventional evolution would allow. But the traits are also more easily lost.
✍️ Tim Vernimmen
#Opinion ✍️ If we’re truly serious about protecting animal species from extinction, we should learn more about how they reproduce.
In the US, people charged with a crime usually need to post a large cash bond to be released before trial — a system used barely anywhere else in the world. This doesn’t enhance public safety and causes great hardship to defendants and families. There’s a better way, researchers say.
✍️ M. Mitchell Waldrop
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/society/2022/doing-away-cash-bail
Scientists find that a small amount of animal products could have a place in our diets without wreaking environmental havoc. But it’s far less than what we consume today, and only if farmed in just the right way.
✍️ Bob Holmes
