Week in Science: Can science solve consciousness?

A weekly round-up of the biggest news in science                    

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January 23—This week, we unveiled our February issue! It's got a special focus on the mysteries of consciousness—human and beyond. Also this week, the oldest cave paintings ever found, lewd-looking "tower fossils," and a meaty feature on the DNA version of evil twins. —Emma Gometz, Newsletter Editor How's my driving? Tell us what you think about this newsletter by emailing newsletters@sciam.com anytime.

Top Stories

A tool-using cow is challenging what we know about farm animal intelligence A pet cow named Veronika uses a tool in a surprisingly sophisticated way—possibly because she has been allowed to live her best life Kate Wong

Mystery tower fossils may come from a newly discovered kind of life Towering Prototaxites ruled Earth before trees—and they may have been a form of life entirely new to science Cody Cottier

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Parents might age faster or slower based on how many kids they have A new study found that women in Finland who had a lot of kids—or none—aged faster than those with one or a few kids. But the findings don't necessarily translate to today's parents K. R. Callaway

Deadly 'reverse' cells can destroy us unless scientists stop them Researchers are close to making "reversed" cells that may wipe us off the planet Vaughn S. Cooper

Oldest cave art ever found discovered in Indonesia Beating the previous record for the oldest known cave artwork by at least 15,000 years, a hand stencil in an Indonesian cave might shed light on when early humans migrated to Australia K. R. Callaway

Why consciousness is the hardest problem in science Will brain science deliver answers about consciousness or hit another wall? Allison Parshall

Your guide to 29 wildly different theories of consciousness The many, many ways researchers hope to solve the toughest mystery in science Allison Parshall, Jen Christiansen

The next AI revolution could start with world models Why today's AI systems struggle with consistency and how emerging world models aim to give machines a steady grasp of space and time Deni Ellis Béchard

NASA quietly ends financial support for planetary science groups The U.S. space agency will quit funding several independent science advisory groups this year Jackie Flynn Mogensen

AI isn't conscious—but we may be bringing it to life In rethinking whether AI is sentient, we are asking bigger questions about cognition, human-machine interaction and even our own consciousness Simon Duan

Why did Jeffrey Epstein cultivate famous scientists? The Epstein files revive questions of whether the disgraced financier sought to merely cultivate famous scientists, or to shape science itself Dan Vergano

The forest may be glowing—at least to deer Deer antler rubs and hoof scrapes change how parts of the forest reflect short-wavelength light, perhaps  leaving a glowing signal Anirban Mukhopadhyay

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