Cathleen O'Grady

2 weeks ago | science.org | Cathleen O'Grady

Human language can combine words to create an infinite number of meanings—an ability that gives language its expressive power and sets it apart from the communication of other animals. Now, researchers have found a more modest version of this ability in bonobos, our closest living relative. The apes can combine different calls to create new meanings, the team reports this week in Science.

1 month ago | science.org | Christie Wilcox |Sarah Crespi |Meagan Cantwell |Cathleen O'Grady

Today’s Future News looks at a preprint arguing for a small but tough new model organism for neuroscience. But first, catch up on the latest science news, including insights into why the brain sometimes interprets harmless things as painful. Paleontology  |  News from Science Early mammals wore dark coats to survive a dino-dominated world Mammals from the Jurassic period were small, nocturnal, and most likely dark in color.

1 month ago | science.org | Cathleen O'Grady

This story uses both “Deaf” and “deaf” depending on what sources expressed as their preferred term. Cason was 3 years old when doctors in South Carolina fitted him with cochlear implants—assistive devices for profoundly deaf people that send sound directly into the inner ear. Because the signal from the implants is not the same as biological hearing, implant users like Cason work hard to interpret what they hear through them.

1 month ago | science.org | Sarah Crespi |Meagan Cantwell |Cathleen O'Grady |Jocelyn Kaiser

Share: First up this week, science policy editor Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the latest news about the National Institutes of Health—from reconfiguring review panels to canceled grants to confirmation hearings for a new head, Jay Bhattacharya. Next, although cochlear implants can give deaf children access to sound, it doesn’t always mean they have unrestricted access to language. Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Contributing Correspondent Cathleen O’Grady about why...

1 month ago | science.org | Cathleen O'Grady

When a celebrity is accused of abuse, fans grapple with the question of whether to continue to engage with that person’s work. Now, researchers have explored whether scientists feel similarly about accused scholars—and found that they tend to avoid citing alleged sexual harassers. Scholars accused of sexual misconduct see a drop in their citations in the years after public allegations, according to the study, published today in PLOS ONE.