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How the Human Brain Contends With the Strangeness of Zero

October 18, 2024

Zero, which was invented late in history, is special among numbers. New studies are uncovering how the brain creates something out of nothing.

Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare

April 19, 2024

A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There’s “a realistic possibility” that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consciousness.

Why the Human Brain Perceives Small Numbers Better

November 9, 2023

The discovery that the brain has different systems for representing small and large numbers provokes new questions about memory, attention and mathematics.

Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans

May 22, 2023

Researchers uncover striking parallels in the ways that humans and machine learning models acquire language skills.

How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain

February 28, 2023

Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact.

Q&A

Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy

September 30, 2021

How does consciousness arise in mere flesh and blood? To the neuroscientist Anil Seth, our organic bodies are the key to the experience.

Animals Count and Use Zero. How Far Does Their Number Sense Go?

August 9, 2021

Crows recently demonstrated an understanding of the concept of zero. It’s only the latest evidence of animals’ talents for numerical abstraction — which may still differ from our own grasp of numbers.

Melanie Mitchell Takes AI Research Back to Its Roots

April 19, 2021

To build a general artificial intelligence, we may need to know more about our own minds, argues the computer scientist Melanie Mitchell.

Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Hold Clues to Persistent Mysteries

February 8, 2021

By digging out signals hidden within the brain’s electrical chatter, scientists are getting new insights into sleep, aging and more.

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