To defend science, the Paranormal Challenge devises experiments to test claims of X-ray vision, telekinesis, and other paranormal abilities — When Gary Arnold first heard the noise, he was alone in the library at the local college where he teaches writing. He was enjoying his lunch and reading a copy of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the story of a man whose life is changed by the unexpected spectral visitors.

Agility Robotics created a robot that could walk up stairs and carry boxes. But the main complaint from customers? It didn’t have a face. — The robot Digit stands approximately five feet, four inches high, with a metallic torso the teal color of a hospital worker’s scrubs. …

Advice from crisis psychologists, intelligence analysts, chronic illness experts, and more — During the first few months of the pandemic, many of us assumed that this was all an inconvenient yet ultimately finite detour from normal life. It’s now clear that this is no detour, but a journey of unknown length most us were never truly prepared for. No one is coming…

Reusable eight-by-four-foot steel cylinders, packed with wood chips, straw, and alfalfa, present an eco-friendly alternative to traditional burial — There’s an empty warehouse 20 miles south of Seattle that, if everything goes as planned, will soon be full of dead people. The facility belongs to Recompose, the first U.S. company to compost human bodies indoors, through a process known officially as natural organic reduction. Washington state became the first…

The discovery of a chemical compound with antibiotic properties is a helpful case study in the potential — and limits — of using A.I. to develop new treatments — In late February, a paper appeared in the journal Cell with encouraging news regarding one of the world’s most persistent public health problems. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University had used artificial intelligence to identify a chemical compound with powerful antibiotic properties against some of the world’s…

As hackers compromised world leaders’ Twitter accounts, researchers released a report on the risk tweets pose to international conflict — When it came time to set a publication date for their report Escalation by Tweet: Managing the new nuclear diplomacy, King’s College London researchers Heather Williams and Alexi Drew settled on the arbitrary date of Wednesday, July 15 to release 18 months’ of research on how Twitter’s format is uniquely…

They say that this experience will make us better people — but right now, I’m a mess — Last night I was texting with a friend who is also a working parent about school closures and this strange new world in which we now find ourselves. …

An exhaustive 2,700-email analysis of donation requests, emojis, and dog pictures — For all the influence social media has in our lives, it’s still far from a universal medium. It’s true that some 70% of us check Facebook at least once in a while, but only 37% are on Instagram. A Reddit AMA will reach only the 11% of U.S. adults who…

The ‘news therapy’ app Sift thinks of itself as a gym, not a spa — In fall 2018, an app called Sift debuted in Apple’s App Store. A product of All Turtles, the artificial intelligence incubator co-founded by former Evernote CEO Phil Libin, Sift billed itself as “news therapy”: a tool to equip users with the perspective and context they needed to process the substance…