A new study in Science Advances reports that roughly 560 million children under age 10 worldwide now experience at least one additional month of dangerous heat stress annually because of climate change. Researchers led by Rosa Pietroiusti at Vrije Universiteit Brussel used the WetBulb Globe Temperature threshold of 28°C, a standard combining heat, humidity, wind, and cloud cover, to measure how often conditions cross into risky territory for children's health.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-26
A new science-based model proposes ways to identify and steer clear of unhelpful or poorly framed questions during meetings. It challenges the popular workplace mantra that 'there are no stupid questions,' suggesting instead that some interventions genuinely waste time or derail discussions.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-08-26
In a new essay, Paul Graham says Y Combinator's decades of experience selecting founders show that the best preparation for startup success is deep technical or creative skill, not a formal entrepreneurship curriculum. He argues universities should keep teaching subjects like computer science, engineering and molecular biology, since founders succeed by building products customers want, not by studying management or finance.
paulgraham.com
· 2026-08-25
A free interactive tool called 'What's the Risk?' launched in early August, letting users visually compare the risks of vaccines against the diseases they prevent, as well as everyday hazards like car crashes, drowning and lightning strikes. It was built by the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy alongside Unbiased Science, a public health platform led by scientist Jessica Steier. Currently it covers measles, MMR vaccine and RSV-related products, with plans to expand comparisons over time.
cnet.com
· 2026-08-24
Samantha Brunhaver, an associate professor at Arizona State University, is leading an NSF-funded project examining how engineers develop adaptability on the job. Through interviews with managers, early-career employees, and undergraduates, she found that while adaptability is widely cited as essential, employers rarely define or teach it consistently, and its meaning shifts depending on the industry, from tool turnover in software to regulatory changes in aerospace or biomedical fields.
spectrum.ieee.org
· 2026-08-24
Researchers highlight a stark 'data efficiency gap': large language models require orders of magnitude more text than a human child hears to master language basics. Stanford's Michael Frank and Georgetown's Ethan Wilcox note that while frontier models train on trillions of tokens, children pick up language fundamentals from a fraction of that input within their first year or two of life. Scientists are studying how kids achieve this to both understand human cognition and potentially inform more efficient AI training methods.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-08-24
Cognitive scientist Anthony Chemero's book 'Intertwined Creatures' argues that much of the current discussion about whether AI can be conscious rests on flawed, outdated notions of human cognition itself. He contends that Western philosophy's traditional model of mind as a detached, disembodied thinker is wrong, and instead proposes that human cognition is embodied, dynamic, and fundamentally shaped by social and environmental interaction.
nature.com
· 2026-08-24
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