How Investing In Preschool Beats The Stock Market, Hands Down
A new study on high-quality early learning programs shows a robust long-term return on investment. The most potent ingredients? Parental engagement and empathy.
Humans
Discoveries Give New Clues To Possible Neanderthal Religious Practices
Barbara J. King, a professor emerita of anthropology at William and Mary, discusses whether Neanderthals had "religious capacity."
Why People Believe Conspiracy Theories
After a man took a gun to a pizzeria to investigate a fake conspiracy theory, psychology professor Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, U.K. discusses why people are susceptible.
Pets Help People Manage The Pain Of Serious Mental Illness
People living with schizophrenia or other serious mental illnesses say a pet can be not just a comforting companion but a reason to stay engaged with other people — and with life.
A Mummy's DNA May Help Solve The Mystery Of The Origins Of Smallpox
Scientists have found the oldest complete set of smallpox genes in a sample of skin from a mummified child in a crypt underneath a Lithuanian church.
Life Expectancy In U.S. Drops For First Time In Decades, Report Finds
Overall, U.S. life expectancy dipped in 2015 — the first drop since 1993. That's because the death rate went up between 2014 and 2015, driven by an increase in mortality among people younger than 65.
Drivers Beware: Crash Rate Spikes With Every Hour Of Lost Sleep
An analysis of car accidents found that drivers who slept only five or six hours in the previous 24 had nearly twice the accident rate of drivers who slept a full seven hours or more.
Real Parents, Real Talk About Kids And Screens
How do you cope with parenting in the digital age? And how do you balance it all? How do you protect your kids, yet give them the freedom to create and explore?
Dyslexia: The Learning Disability That Must Not Be Named
Many parents and teachers report that schools won't use the word dyslexia. Why might this be? And what is the Department of Education doing about it?
'B' And 'D' Learning Process Debunks Dyslexia Jumbled-Letters Myth
Many believe dyslexia is about jumbled letters, but experts say that's not quite right. This story explores what's happening in the brain that causes those backward letters.