Humans
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This week, researchers investigating the origins of imagination have sat down for a tea party with Kanzi the bonobo, scientists were met with an unexpected discovery while peering into the fossilized skull of Archaeopteryx, and a new robot has learned to communicate by watching YouTube videos and looking at itself in the mirror. Finally, as the last US-Russia nuclear arms control treaty expires, we ask: what does this mean for the world?
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These Are The 3 Viruses To Watch In 2026, Disease Expert Says
If you thought the pandemic era was behind us, infectious disease experts have some uncomfortable news: there are several viruses out there that could be poised to spread unexpectedly widely in the not-too-distant future. Read the full story here
Can Bonobos Play Pretend? Watch Kanzi's "Tea Parties" To See What They Reveal About Primate Imagination
Imagination is one of our greatest superpowers, but how far back does it go? Scientists from Johns Hopkins University recently investigated one aspect of imagination in bonobos: the ability to play pretend. Imagination is, of course, a rather abstract concept, so to explore if their key participant, Kanzi, could play along, they had to get creative. They had to have a tea party. Read the full story here
We Have No Idea If It’s Safe To Have Babies In Space
For all the talk about settling Mars, the Moon, or other extraterrestrial environments, it’s interesting that no one ever seems to mention the fact that reproduction in space has never been attempted. After all, we’re going to need to make a lot of alien babies if we want to thrive beyond Earth, so we’d better start learning a thing or two about cosmic loving. Read the full story here
Glowing Archaeopteryx Fossil Reveals Freaky Feature Inside Its Skull We’ve Never Seen Before
The discovery of Archaeopteryx filled in a big gap in our understanding of how dinosaurs took to the skies, but for all the questions it’s answered, a new one has arisen: what on Earth is going on with the fleshy “teeth” scientists just discovered on the roof of its mouth? Read the full story here
Say Hello To EMO, A Robot That's Learnt To Mimic Human Lip Movements By Watching YouTube And Gazing In The Mirror
Watching hours of YouTube videos isn’t usually considered the most prestigious form of education, but it might be a surprisingly effective tool for robots learning to communicate like humans. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have created EMO, a robot capable of learning to lip sync to speech, mimicking the complex and nuanced movements of the human mouth. Read the full story here
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Feature of the week:
The Last US-Russia Nuclear Arms Control Treaty Has Expired. What Does This Mean For The World?
For the first time in decades, we are emerging into a world without nuclear arms controls. On February 5, 2026, the critically important New START treaty, which has restricted the nuclear weapons arsenals of both Russia and the US, expired. At present, there are no signs of any new negotiations to replace it at a time when global norms are shifting towards an unstable future. This development may well signal the end of nuclear restraint, a return to nuclear weapons testing, and the start of a new global arms race. Read the full story here
More content:
Have you seen our e-magazine, CURIOUS? Issue 43, February 2026, is available now. This month, we asked, “Why Do We Need The Dark?” – check it out for exclusive interviews, book excerpts, long reads, and more.
PLUS, the We Have Questions podcast – an audio version of our coveted CURIOUS e-magazine column – continues. In episode 17, we ask, “How Can Swimming For 37 Hours Help Tackle Ocean Plastic?”
The Big Questions podcast season 5 has now concluded, but here’s one more bonus episode to help see you into 2026: Can Magic Be Used As A Tool In Science? You can catch up on the whole of season 5 here.
