Super recognizers may use specific facial features to commit faces to memory

How to remember names

Journalist Lisa Kanarek sought to become a “super-recognizer,” someone with exceptional face recognition abilities who never forgot a name. She enlisted the help of a neurosurgeon and a world record holder in memory. The experts suggested a few tips and tricks to connect names and faces and erase the need to say, "Hey, you!" again.

Always forget a face? The science of face-blindness

Faces and names don't always go together in some people's minds. While everyone forgets other peoples's names occasion, people diagnosed with prosopagnosia can't recognize faces, much less names. Even friends can family members can appear to be strangers. This article covers the diagnosis and issues attendant to prosopagnosia and its sufferers.

Super-agers: seniors 80 and above with the memory ability of people in their 50s

Studies show the number one indicator of whether someone is a "super-ager" is not diet or genetics, but the extent of their social relationships. Moreover, scans reveal noticeable physical differences in certain parts of the brain in patients with extensive social networks.

Photographic memory isn’t real, but other rare memory types do exist

While 2% of children can recall sensory experiences with extreme detail (eidetic memory) and some adults can remember life events or dates with high accuracy (hyperthymesia), there is no scientific evidence for the flawless recall popularized in fiction. Most memory feats instead rely on training and memorization techniques.

Blindfolded people could identify objects by touch alone a week after encountering them

These touch memories are more complex and durable than previously thought. In research published in 2018, blindfolded volunteers touched over 150 household objects for about 10 seconds each, and afterward correctly identified the objects more than 90 percent of the time when presented with the object and a similar one. Participants still knew most of the objects a week later with about 85 percent accuracy. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Surreal backgrounds, asymmetry, and indecipherable text can help identify deepfakes

Differences in the backgrounds of training data with the same subject introduce variability, resulting in background textures and text that lack realistic detail. Difficulties with managing long-distance dependencies, the complexity of hair, and other real-world phenomena introduce errors that can be used to flag AI-generated content.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Scent is a stronger memory trigger than sight

Smell is imbued with more emotion than visual memories, and research indicates that smell triggers a significantly greater effect on amygdala activation. Scientists believe these powerful responses occur partly because smell signals bypass the thalamus and go directly to the amygdala and hippocampus, brain areas involved in emotion and memory.

Why patterns in art are so pleasing

Repeated visual cues like shapes or lines derive from the brain's innate compulsion to identify faces, places, bodies, and more. With repeated shapes, the brain seeks out resolution to the subtle variations between them. See examples in art and music.

Déjà vu is a memory illusion involving brain regions correcting inaccurate memories

Neuroscientists suggest the phenomenon is your brain recognizing that this feeling of familiarity is incorrect, showing off the brain's internal fact-checking system. Younger people experience déjà vu more often because their brains have higher excitatory activity and stronger memory monitoring systems.

AI superintelligence is a hypothetical system vastly more capable than humans

Researchers describe superintelligence as an artificial intelligence system that exceeds human cognitive ability in every area. It is viewed as the theoretical evolution of artificial general intelligence, in which AI systems learn and have the capability of a typical human.

The secret life of urban crows

AI may enable smart cities to drastically improve public safety

By utilizing machine learning techniques to analyze real-time monitoring reports against facial recognition databases, artificial intelligence can enhance the identification of criminals and coordinate an appropriate emergency response across various scenarios.

The dreaming brain, as understood by scientists

Technology has advanced to where the seemingly separate fields of psychology and neuroscience are asking the same questions about dreams, such as whether they're more closely related to perception or visualization. Some field-intersecting findings include research that shows people with impaired face perception don't dream of faces, those with brain legion-related cognition difficulties deal with similar issues in dreams, and children's dreams change in parallel to their cognitive development.

Machine learning produces photorealistic portraits of Roman emperors.

Toronto-based designer Daniel Voshart used photo editing and machine learning to catch a glimpse of Ancient Rome’s emperors. Employing contemporary descriptions, statues, and paintings, Voshart created lifelike portraits of 54 emperors including Augustus Caesar and Hadrian as well as the more infamous Nero and Caligula, though he stresses they’re only artistic interpretations.

Everything scientists could learn by looking at your skull

Our skulls are all unique, but they also share characteristics across groups of people. In the absence of fingerprints, forensic scientists can learn a lot about you just from your skull.

Sharp wave ripples in the brain tag experiences for long-term memory storage

These ripples were known to quickly replay neuronal sequences during sleep for consolidation. While awake, they help the brain prioritize memories to remember, and their disruption can impair memory formation.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Restoring vision in impaired patients via CRISPR

Since CRISPR was revealed as a gene editing tool in 2012, it has been on an accelerated track to real-world applications. Among other clinical demonstrations, doctors have now injected a CRISPR treatment directly into eye cells, helping vision-impaired patients see shapes and colors again.

What is 'Spielberg Face'?

Spielberg’s career is filled with a consistent technique: zooming in on a significant character’s face as they process some essential element of the story. One of the most famous is from “Jaws,” when Brody first witnesses the shark.

When processing light, the brain can perceive colors with no natural wavelength

While some animals are sensitive to many forms of light, humans possess receptors that are sensitive to red, green, and blue wavelengths. These receptors send signals to the brain, which are processed and mixed to produce the array of colors we observe, including magenta, pink, and "supercolors" that lack a corresponding natural wavelength in the visible spectrum.

The selfie camera exists thanks to Einstein's discovery of the photoelectric effect

Smartphone cameras utilize sensors such as CMOS or CCD to capture light by converting it into electrical signals through the photoelectric effect. Einstein explained this effect by demonstrating that light behaves as both particles and waves simultaneously, a discovery that earned him the Nobel Prize in physics.

See how faces on magazine covers have changed over time

This piece examined an archive of Time magazine containing 3,389 issues ranging from 1923 to 2014, focusing on 327,322 faces from the archive. Read what the researchers learned.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

NVIDIA named several computer chip architectures after Grace Hopper

Unveiled in 2023, the GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip, designed for generative AI applications in data center-scale systems, combines a Grace CPU with a Hopper GPU to create a coherent memory model. This allows the Hopper to access Grace data directly, reducing the need to repeatedly copy data back and forth and vastly improving performance.

Mixed reality devices can turn digital information into 3D experiences

Described as "wearing a theme park on your face," devices like Microsoft's HoloLens project images into users' eyes so that their brains believe virtual objects are actually there. The bulkiness and physical limitations of existing headsets are expected to lessen over time, mimicking the evolution of early headphones.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Alternatives to polygraphs, which correctly identify innocent people only 57% of the time

Lie detector polygraphs have been standard in law enforcement for a century despite being based in unproven science. Researchers are exploring brain-scanning and eye-tracking alternatives, though some suggest there's no reliable lie-detection process at all.

Fruit fly experiments show personality emerges, in part, from genetic factors

A 2025 study revealed that fruit flies exhibit unique behavioral preferences, akin to personalities, which could be artificially selected for when breeding to modify behavioral variability. This variability can be adaptive in unpredictable environments.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.