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August 1, 2025—These are the shortest summer days ever. Plus, why humility should go hand-in-hand with expertise, and the mental health benefits of playing Dungeons & Dragons. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center | | What Experts AreWhen you think about an expert, the word "humility" might not come to mind. But humility is a trait worth valuing in experts, as much as competence and knowledge, write Benjamin Walker and Lauren Keating, researchers in behavior and psychology. In their research, they showed hundreds of study participants videos that explained the value of humility and how people who project confidence do not necessarily have more knowledge. In follow-up survey questions participants rated humility—admitting what one does not know—as a desirable trait of experts. Why this matters: Expecting experts to be all-knowing might contribute to significant problems, the authors write. "For example, people could develop unrealistically high expectations of those in expert roles, leading to disappointment, anger or resentment when they [the experts] inevitably fail to deliver on those expectations." For example, during the early days of the COVID pandemic, when much remained unknown about the virus and how it spread, many people blamed experts for not automatically having all the answers. Real-world application: Helping people prize intellectual humility in experts might make them better at detecting when someone is venturing beyond the boundaries of their expertise, say Walker and Keating. No one can know everything about anything. And acknowledging the limits of their own knowledge makes experts more trustworthy. | | Roll For Mental HealthFrom building confidence to processing trauma, tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons are powerful tools for mental health. Science Quickly's Rachel Feltman spoke to researchers and professional dungeon master Brennan Lee Mulligan to explore how collaborative storytelling can help us thrive—and even be used as therapy. Watch the full conversation here. | 13 min watch | | | | |
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| | - One of Scientific American's proudest moments came in a past era of attacks on science, writes senior editor Dan Vergano. In the 1950s, when the "red scare" and an arms race with the Soviet Union were fully underway, U.S. security officials continuously pressured scientists and the press to toe the political line. One U.S. Atomic Energy Commission agent even burned 3,000 issues of Scientific American because he believed those issues held atomic secrets. Despite the persecution, Scientific American remained a platform for scientists to speak out: "Scientists led calls for test ban treaties and disarmament; they warned of nuclear winter throughout the cold war," Vergano says. This type of dissent remains as important as ever, especially with U.S. science facing severe cuts, and nuclear weapons a renewed flashpoint in geopolitics, he adds. "We will continue to speak out and provide scientists with a place to make their voices heard." | 4 min read
| | Every Friday in summer we're recommending a great, freshly-published science read. Tell us what you're reading, or if you try any of our recommendations! | | Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI By Karen Hao. Penguin Random House, May 2025 .
 History is filled with tales of the rise and fall of empires. Such political entities, governed by a singular unelected leader, drag millions of people along for the ride, often to the benefit of only a small ruling class (and the exploitation of the masses). In Empire of AI, journalist Karen Hao makes a bold but simple claim: the AI companies intricately woven into our digital lives are de facto empires, and it takes a keen sense to sort the powerful leaders' self-aggrandizing promises from the realistic implications of the technology. Seemingly overnight every website or app has its own AI tool, meaning this technology is suddenly unavoidable, if unquestionably important and likely misunderstood. Hao, a former AI editor for MIT Tech Review and former foreign correspondent with the Washington Post, brings robust "boots-on-the-ground"-style journalism to this extensive book— with more than 65 pages of notes and sources. It's an extraordinary example of nonfiction, both beautifully written and deeply researched. And it takes an uncompromising stance on the global impacts of AI and the explosion of money and power behind the technology. —Brianne Kane | | August has arrived and that means just a handful of weeks left to enjoy slower days and brighter evenings (SOB). If you've been keeping up with our recommended reads every week, great! Let us know what you think by sending an email. Still looking for a summer book? Check out what we read in June and July. If you're a summer lover like me, savor the month! | | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor
With contributions by Andrea Tamayo
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