The Descent, a painting by Jesse Mockrin © The artist. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York City
Rabbits are capable of digesting their teeth as they wear down and reusing the calcium to grow new ones. Chinese scientists successfully raised to adulthood mice born of two fathers and then dissected them. Mice who inhale xenon gas stave off dementia. Estrogen receptor 1–expressing neurons in Barrington’s nucleus were found to act as the master controller of mouse urination, and a survey of 1,328 urinary events found that, unlike contagious yawning, the contagious urination of chimpanzees appears to be correlated to social rank rather than social closeness. Researchers in Namibia who shone lasers on wild chacma baboons found that the monkeys failed to recognize themselves in mirrors but also did not regard their reflections as strangers. Coyotes in dense areas of Chicago die younger if the average human income is high. Scientists found no evidence that radiation is to blame for the genetic differentiation among dogs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Birds who drape snakeskin on their cavity nests deter predators, and it is possible that songbirds who migrate at night socialize with one another in flight and speak to other species. Costa Rican white-faced capuchins were more likely to survive El Niño if their feces exhibited higher levels of stress hormones during preceding droughts. Suicides appeared to rise following droughts but not floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes; nor, among the Maori, do they appear to correspond to lunar cycles.
A medieval Italian fresco was found to depict a church’s altar draped in an Islamic tent, and a skull previously thought to belong to Cleopatra’s sister was found to be that of an Italian boy with a deformed jaw. Experimental reenactments suggested that, at Little Muck Shelter, trimming ostrich-eggshell beads before perforating them was slightly more successful than perforating before trimming. The moon, which the World Monuments Fund declared to be at risk, was found to be more geologically dynamic than previously thought. Neolithic Danes may have sacrificed sunstones following the disappearance of the sun, Iron Age Britons were matrilocal, and a Viking grave in Norway appeared to contain a vulva stone. French archaeologists discovered a Gaulish curse tablet tucked between a skeleton’s legs.
Fifty-two experts were consulted to produce a six-criteria test for predicting vasectomy regret. Researchers unveiled an androgen clock that measures hormone exposure in mice and sheep by examining their DNA and concluded that the more fights a male mouse wins the less essential dopamine becomes to his aggression. “Forestalgia” is more effective than nostalgia in vacation marketing. An infradian clock may control the alternation between depression and mania. Ambien inhibits the brain’s ability to wash itself during deep sleep. Swedes with a history of psychosis-induced violence exhibit a lower threshold for resisting auditory startles, and Swedes born prematurely likely receive too little pain medication. American college students gain muscle rather than fat during the holidays; American parents tend to exhibit a slight preference for their offspring who are younger, female, or more agreeable; and the recent increase in the number of American babies lost to sudden unexpected infant death may be attributable to respiratory viruses, parental opioid use, and unsafe co-sleeping practices popularized through social media. Severe autism reduces the time children spend looking at cute stimuli.
