What Is Narcissism? Science Confronts a Widely Misunderstood Phenomenon

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September 01, 2023

Psychology What Is Narcissism? Science Confronts a Widely Misunderstood Phenomenon Researchers debate whether grandiosity always masks vulnerability By Diana Kwon

Climate Change New Air-Conditioning Technology Could Be the Future of Cool Standard AC units cool buildings but contribute to global warming. New technology aims to change that By Lauren Leffer

Extraterrestrial Life How Wealthy UFO Fans Helped Fuel Fringe Beliefs There is a long U.S. legacy of plutocrat-funded pseudoscience. Congress just embraced it By Keith Kloor

Particle Physics Particle Physicists Dream of a Muon Collider After years spent languishing in obscurity, proposals for a muon collider are regaining momentum among particle physicists By Daniel Garisto

Cognition What Happens when People with Dementia Commit Crimes? When criminal behavior overlaps with degenerative cognitive disease, the justice system often falters By Jessica Wapner

Animals Adorable Moth-Size Bats Found in the Pacific Islands' Largest Bat Cave An expedition has discovered a remote Fijian cave with thousands of microbats thought to be nearly extinct By Kate Evans

Astronomy Will the Universe Ever Stop Expanding? Scientists debate what the future of the cosmos looks like and whether space will ever stop getting bigger and bigger By Sarah Scoles

Education ChatGPT Can Get Good Grades. What Should Educators Do about It? AI can generate clear, concise text—but people still need to learn how to write By Lauren Leffer

Animals Migratory Birds Are in Peril, but Knowing Where They Are at Night Could Help Save Them Light is a very dangerous, if not so obvious, threat to birds who migrate at night. But researchers are using weather radar to track birds and provide "lights out" forecasts to help keep their paths clear of visual distraction. By Jacob Job | 14:10

Astrophysics The Colors of Stars, Explained From dim red to brilliant blue, stellar colors span the spectrum—and reveal how much any star brings the heat By Phil Plait

Climate Change There Are No U.S. 'Climate Havens' from Heat and Disaster Risk Even supposed "climate havens" in the U.S. face a riskier future, and infrastructure often isn't built to handle climate change. But there are steps cities can take to prepare By Julie Arbit,Brad Bottoms,Earl Lewis,The Conversation US

Consciousness If AI Becomes Conscious, Here's How We Can Tell A checklist derived from six neuroscience-based theories of consciousness could help assess whether an artificial intelligence system achieves this state By Mariana Lenharo,Nature magazine

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 32, Issue 3s

BRING SCIENCE HOME Create Underwater Fireworks with Chemistry Make a colorful display underwater using the simple chemistry of oil and water. Credit: George Retseck Summertime often brings beautiful fireworks displays. Whereas you normally look up into the sky to see fireworks, in this activity we will take the bursts of color underwater—with chemistry. Although it is not exactly the same as real fireworks, you will be amazed by the color explosions you'll see. Curious about what that looks like? See for yourself in this activity!

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Plus: Dark matter magnifies monster stars; The mind's memory storage strategy; How our tongue and hands interact; The Quanta Science Podcast

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser Q&A | ALL TOPICS   Why Mathematical Proof Is a Social Compact By JORDANA CEPELEWICZ Number theorist Andrew Granville on what mathematics really is — and why objectivity is never quite within reach. Read the article   DARK MATTER   In a Monster Star's Light, a Hint of Darkness By JOSHUA SOKOL Astronomers are scouring the cosmos for fingerprints of the invisible — tiny clumps of pure dark matter that might solve a long-standing cosmic mystery. Read the article Related:  A New Tool for Finding Dark Matter Digs Up Nothing By Thomas Lewton (2022) MEMORY   The Usefulness of a Memory Guides Where the Brain Saves It By SAUGAT BOLAKHE Memories useful for future generalizations may be held in the brain separately from those recording unusual events. Read the article Related:  Memories Help Brains Recognize New Events Worth Remembering By Yasemin Saplakoglu QUANTIZED COLUMNS   The Hidden Brain Connections Between Our Hands and Tongues By R. DOUGLAS FIELDS Sticking out your tongue while doing delicate work with your hands reveals a history of evolutionary relationships. Read the article  Related:  Why the Brain's Connections to the Body Are Crisscrossed By R. Douglas Fields QUANTA SCIENCE PODCAST   Global Microbiome Study Gives New View of Shared Health Risks Article by YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLU; Podcast hosted by SUSAN VALOT The most comprehensive survey of how we share our microbiomes suggests a new way of thinking about the risks of developing some diseases that aren't usually considered contagious. Listen to the podcast Read the article Around the Web A Cloudy Quantum Forecast Atoms are often pictured as clusters of electrons whizzing through empty space around a dense nucleus. But that picture is not quantum enough, writes Mario Barbatti for Aeon. In reality, matter is made of "continuous quantum clouds." Inside the nucleus are protons and neutrons — the interior of which Barbatti calls "the most complex place in the universe." Dive into this complicated core with a graphical exploration of the center of a proton by Charlie Wood and Merrill Sherman of Quanta. Developing Vaccines Quickly For the last 40 years, the Mexican virologist Susana López Charretón has been piecing together precisely how rotaviruses invade human cells. Her work has led to life-saving vaccines, writes Inés Gutiérrez Jaber in a Science News profile of López Charretón. López Charretón sequenced the Covid-19 strains circulating in Mexico at the pandemic's height. Such efforts to determine the genetic sequences of strains around the world were crucial to deploying vaccines quickly, Anna Durbin told Steven Strogatz on Quanta's The Joy of Why podcast in April. Follow Quanta Unsubscribe | About Quanta | My Bookmarks Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2023 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010