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Scientists Caught Whales Talking Like Humans Underwater

According to research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B , sperm whales may be speaking to each other through a series of clicks that, while still seemingly alien to us on the surface, is a lot more like human speech than scientists expected once they dug into it. The work comes from Project CETI, a group trying to decode whale communication using machine learning and large audio datasets. According to the team’s latest analysis, the clicks sperm whales make as they communicate with one another, known as codas, aren’t just random noise. They follow structured, rule-based patterns that resemble the very same ones we use to talk to one another. After analyzing thousands of whale codas, the team thinks they behave much like vowels in human speech. There are distinct types of codas that are differentiated by a variety of variables like length, tone, and internal structure, which the scientists have labeled like human vowels – “a-codas” and “i-codas” and so on. The Way Whale...
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Daily Horoscope: April 16, 2026

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The sky today is a study in contrasts. Mars in sextile to Pluto is handing out a rare combination of raw drive and real staying power, making it one of the better days in recent memory to actually get something done. But Mercury’s conjunction with Neptune is throwing a dreamy wrench into all that productivity, blurring the line between inspiration and delusion. Sound familiar, stargazer? The tension between those two energies is basically the whole story today. The Moon’s square to Jupiter adds a layer of emotional restlessness on top of it all. Use the drive, respect the haze, and think twice before you say anything you can’t take back. Read your horoscope for the week , and see what the stars have in store for your sign today.  Aries: March 21 – April 19 Something you’ve been pushing toward is finally ready to push back in the best way. Mars is in sextile to Pluto today, which means the raw energy you run on has a rare depth and focus behind it right now. Don’t waste it on sm...
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As If Being Single Wasn’t Bad Enough, Now It’s Bad for Your Health Too

I hate to pile on. I know the single life has stretched on longer than you hoped it would, and you were hoping it would end sooner rather than later. But you probably didn’t think it would all end forever, permanently, because you were single. That is the unfortunate news I come bearing today, as the sensationalistic headlines that will surely spring forth from a new study out of the University of Miami practically write themselves. I see it now, “being single causes cancer.” Sensationalistic, but according to one team of researchers, it’s kind of real. The team from the UM, who published their findings in Cancer Research Communications , analyzed more than 4 million cancer cases across 12 states. They found that adults who have never been married face significantly higher cancer rates compared to people who are or have been married. In men, the cancer rates were 65 percent higher, and in unmarried women, the rates were 85 percent higher. Being Single Might Be Worse for Your Heal...
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Scientists Figured Out What Endless Scrolling Is Really Doing to Your Body

Researchers have built an AI system called Log2Motion that takes the physical motions of smartphone interaction—the taps, the swipes, the scrolls —and thoroughly analyzes every minute muscle stretch and twitch that makes those actions happen. They’re doing this to better understand how our muscles are engaging with our phones and how much physical effort it actually takes to use them. In all my time doing this, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a longer scientific journal name than the Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems . Buried inside that tome of a title is a new way to measure the physical effects our smartphones are having on our bodies. For all the data tech companies take from us with these things, they don’t seem especially interested in data on the physicality of smartphone use. All they know is that you tapped a button. They don’t often know or even care whether reaching that button required a weird stretch of your thumb that slowl...
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Bud & Bougie: Artet’s 4/20 THC + Caviar Bundle Is Fancy AF

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4/20 has always had a pretty predictable aesthetic: pre-roll packs , snack collabs, maybe a branded hoodie if someone’s feeling ambitious. It’s built around excess—more THC, more product drops, more deals stacked on top of each other. But every once in a while, a brand tries to flip that script to make it more like a moment and feel less like a Black Friday shopping haul. That’s basically what Artet is doing with its latest 4/20 drop. Instead of another bundle designed to load you up, it teamed up with Pearl Street Caviar to build something that looks a lot closer to a dinner party than a smoke session. We’re talking actual caviar service—blini, crème fraîche, mother-of-pearl spoons—the whole thing. This isn’t coming out of nowhere. Over the past couple of years, THC beverages have been carving out a lane that feels way more adjacent to alcohol than traditional cannabis. Lower doses, social pacing, something you sip instead of rip. Artet has been one of the brands pushing that stand...
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This Near-Mythical Jaguar Was Just Seen in the Wild After Vanishing for a Decade

The so-called cloud jaguar hasn’t been seen in Honduras in over a decade. Or, rather, it hadn’t been seen in over a decade. A camera trap set up during the hunt in the Sierra del Merendón recently captured a brief glimpse of the high-altitude cloud jaguar. This sighting of a young male strolling through the forest at more than 2000 meters above sea level represents a major victory for conservationists, according to  a CNN report . Thanks to deforestation, poaching, and agricultural production, Jaguars have lost nearly half of their range across the Americas. In Honduras alone, about 19 percent of forest cover disappeared between 2001 and 2024. That kind of destruction isn’t limited to trees. It destroys ecosystems for countless animals, both big and small. It cuts off their migration routes and disrupts food chains, especially those these high-altitude Jaguars relied on. Seeing one reappear in the Merendón mountain range doesn’t just mean this one species is making a comeback; i...
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Your Brain May Not Experience Free Will the Way You Think

According to a recent study published in Imaging Neuroscience and summarized by The Conversation , the line between choice and decisions you are forced to make may be thinner and less spontaneous than it feels. Researchers at the University of Melbourne set out to test the basic assumption that choosing your own free will is fundamentally different from being forced into a decision, which is roughly defined as taking the only option available in a situation. We like to think these are distinct choices, each with its own distinct feeling, one personal and the other impersonal. It turns out, according to neuroscience, there really is no distinction between the two. Using EEG scans, the team monitored the brain activity of 49 participants as they made simple choices about selecting colored balloons. Sometimes they were told they could choose a preferred balloon from a variety of options. Other times, they were only given one option. In both cases, the participants pressed a button the...
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