An inner-speech decoder reveals some mental privacy issues

Words you’ll never speak still cause activity in the brain’s speech centers. Most experimental brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that have been used for synthesizing human speech have been implanted in the areas of the brain that translate the intention to speak into the muscle actions that produce it. A patient…

Scientists are building cyborg jellyfish to explore ocean depths

“There’s really something special about the way moon jellies swim.” Climate change is warming ocean waters, making the environment more acidic thanks to the absorption of carbon monoxide from the atmosphere. This endangers various marine species, and monitoring those changes is vitally important. But it can be challenging to…

Deeply divided Supreme Court lets NIH grant terminations continue

The ruling also blocks the policy behind their termination. Shortly after the Trump Administration took office, it started cancelling grants for things it had disagreements with: funding for pandemic preparation, efforts to diversify the scientific workforce, those that targeted minority health issues, and more. These terminations were challenged in…

Neolithic people took gruesome trophies from invading tribes

Brutal treatment may have been part of “public theater of violence” celebrating victory in battle. A local Neolithic community in northeastern France may have clashed with foreign invaders, cutting off limbs as war trophies and otherwise brutalizing their prisoners of war, according to a new paper published in the…

Using pollen to make paper, sponges, and more

Reengineered, pollen could become a range of eco-friendly objects. At first glance, Nam-Joon Cho’s lab at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University looks like your typical research facility—scientists toiling away, crowded workbenches, a hum of machinery in the background. But the orange-yellow stains on the lab coats slung on hooks hint…