Animal Friendships
Across the animal kingdom—among baboons, rhesus monkeys, horses—investigators are discovering similar improbable relationships that play out in many of the rich, sustained ways our own friendships do. (Jeffrey Kluger, Healthland, TIME)

Feel-Good Effect of Exercise
Researchers from the Penn State University found in their study that the more physically active people reported greater general feelings of excitement and enthusiasm, compared with the less physically active people. (Amanda Chan, The Huffington Post)

Meteorite From Mars
The Natural History Museum in London has acquired a 1 kg piece of the Tissint rock thanks to an anonymous benefactor. It was seen to land in Morocco last July and retrieved quickly, resulting in minimal contamination with Earth. Researchers hope Tissint’s geochemistry will provide insights into past conditions on Mars and the possibility that it may once have hosted life. (Anna-Marie Lever and Jonathan Amos, BBC News)

Christian Group in Britain Banned From Claiming “God Can Heal”
The Advertising Standards Authority said it had concluded that the adverts by Healing on the Streets (HOTS)–Bath were misleading. (BBC News)

“Illusory Conjunction”
Sarah Estes Graham and Jesse Graham: A red circle next to a white triangle might make the triangle seem red. This same effect can also apply to social targets: a neutral face can ‘grab’ the emotion of the angry person next to it, causing the neutral person to be remembered as angry. In a recent paper published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers at Arizona State demonstrated that male faces are more likely than female faces to “grab” the anger from an adjacent face, while female faces are more likely to “grab” happiness. (Scientific American)

Creativity and Pressure to Conform to the Norm (of Individualism)
“In groups composed of less-creative personalities, pressure to be individualistic stimulated more creativity than pressure to be collectivistic,” the researchers report. In other words, the creatively timid responded to the think-for-yourself directive and came up with more innovative ideas. (Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune)

Respecting Skepticism
Lawrence Krauss: Science need not be the direct enemy of faith. However, a deep tension will persist until the faithful recognize that a willingness to question even one’s most fervently held beliefs—the hallmark of science—is a trait that should be respected, not reviled. (The Guardian)

Small World in Motion Photomicrography Competition
What could be more marvelous than seeing microscopic wonders at super-close range? How about watching those wonders at work, through the magic of time-lapse photography? (Alan Boyle, PhotoBlog, msnbc.com)

The Trouble We Have Agreeing on What’s True
David Ropeik: Our subjective system of cognition can be dangerous. It can produce perceptions that conflict with the evidence, what I call The Perception Gap, which can in turn produce profound harm. The Perception Gap can lead to disagreements that create destructive and violent social conflict, to dangerous personal choices that feel safe but aren’t, and to policies more consistent with how we feel than what is in fact in our best interest. (Big Think)

Our Existential Mind(s)
Psychological scientists Laura E. R. Blackie and Philip J. Cozzolino of the University of Essex in England have been exploring the idea that we are all governed by two disparate existential systems, each with its own distinct method of processing the idea of death. Both existential minds have the power to meaningfully change our attitudes and actions, but they work in very different—almost opposite—ways. (Wray Herbert, Scientific American Mind)

When Humans and Monkeys Watched “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
Researchers compared the brain responses of each individual to the same sensory stimulation, and identified which brain areas had similar functions. The majority of the human and monkey brain maps lined up, but some areas with a similar function were in completely different places. (Lisa Grossman, New Scientist)

Q&A
Allen Buchanan
As a professor of philosophy at Duke University and a consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics, Allen Buchanan has written extensively about the ethical implications of human enhancement. In his most recent book Better Than Human, he makes a sustained philosophical case for pursuing human enhancement, arguing that its critics often proceed from a deeply flawed understanding of human nature. (Ross Andersen, The Atlantic)

BOOKS
Connectome
In Connectome, Sebastian Seung, a computational neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sets the stage with an able introduction to neuroscience and genetics. He then explores, with passion, how he and others are figuring out the way neurons are connected up in big brains. (Terrence Sejnowski, CultureLab, New Scientist)

A Potentially Habitable Alien Planet
“It’s the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it’s not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze,” Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Space.com. “It’s right smack in the habitable zone—there’s no question or discussion about it. It’s not on the edge, it’s right in there.” (Denise Chow, Space.com)

To Be Popular
An area of the brain associated with understanding the minds of others is larger in people who have bigger social networks, a new study finds. (Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience)

What Causes Sports Rioting?
Psychologists have labored to understand the root causes of such violence, and have been able to identify some of the crucial factors that play a role in events like the Port Said riot. (Jeff Wise, The Daily Beast)

Does the Internet Have a Soul?
At the very least, as a universe of songs, images, research projects, existential yearnings, and daily disappointments of hundreds of millions of selves, the Internet forces us to imagine in new ways the places where souls, if you believe in such things, might ultimately reside. (Lisa Miller, On Faith, The Washington Post)

When Skeptics Make Religious Art
How can such folk take up their tools in the name of God—and why would they want to do so? (Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal)

EXHIBIT
Stories From Another World
The exhibit will illustrate the progress of knowledge of the physical universe, from prehistoric times to recent discoveries. The exhibit is organized by the Specola Vaticana—the Vatican-supported observatory—and Italy’s National Institute for Nuclear Physics, together with Pisa University’s physics department. (Alessandro Speciale, Religion News Service)

Top Five Regrets of the Dying
Bronnie Ware writes of the phenomenal clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives, and how we might learn from their wisdom. “When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently,” she says, “common themes surfaced again and again.” (Susie Steiner, guardian.co.uk)

“Creation Science” Bill Passed by Senate in Indiana
The Indiana State Senate approved a bill that would allow its schools to teach the origin stories of various religions when a class touches on the origin of life. It now moves on to the state’s House, where one of its co-sponsors is currently the Speaker of the House. Although the bill as written could be used to create a comparative religion class, its sponsor, Senator Dennis Kruse, has made it clear that he hopes to see it foster the teaching of creationism in science classes. (John Timmer, Ars Technica)

A New Strategy for Fighting Anti-Evolution Bills
Hear what Vi Simpson, the Indiana State Senate Minority Leader, had to say about the way she crippled the latest creationism-in-the-schools bill with a brilliant stratagem: by convincing the radical Republicans in the Indiana State Senate that if they want to teach Christianity in the schools, they’re also going to have to teach Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Scientology. (Tony Ortega, The Village Voice)

Best Science Pictures of 2011
Sponsored jointly by the journal Science and the National Science Foundation, the annual International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge was founded because “some of science’s most powerful statements are not made in words,” according to NSF. (Christine Dell’Amore, National Geographic)

EXHIBIT
Art by Animals
What is the difference between paintings by humans and other animals? Can animal art truly be considered ‘art’? The exhibition showcases paintings by elephants, apes, and humans, dotted throughout the existing displays of skeletons and preserved animals. (Rebecca Hill, CultureLab, New Scientist)

The Moral Psychology of Jonathan Haidt
In March, Jonathan Haidt will publish The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. By laying out the science of morality—how it binds people into “groupish righteousness” and blinds them to their own biases—he hopes to drain some vitriol from public debate and enable conversations across ideological divides. (Marc Parry, The Chronicle of Higher Education)

What Would Jesus Say?
Liberal Christians tend to believe that Jesus is more conservative than they are on moral issues, while conservative Christians believe he is more liberal. Liberal and conservative Christians also tend to believe that the matters most important to Jesus are the same ones most important to them. The study findings reveal how so-called “cognitive dissonance” works in Christians whose personal beliefs aren’t identical to those of the founder of their faith, said study author Lee Ross, a professor of psychology at Stanford University. (Randy Dotinga, HealthDay)

Reconstructing Speech From Brain Activity
By peering inside the brain, it is possible to reconstruct speech from the activity that takes place when we hear someone talking. Because this brain activity is thought to be similar whether we hear a sentence or think the same sentence, the discovery brings us a step closer to broadcasting our inner thoughts to the world without speaking. (Helen Thomson, New Scientist)

Researchers Turn Mouse Skin Cells Directly Into “Neural Precursor” Cells
Bypassing stem cells, mouse skin cells have been converted directly into cells that become the three main parts of the animal’s nervous system, according to new research at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The startling success of this method seems to refute the idea that “pluripotency”—the ability of stem cells to become nearly any cell in the body—is necessary for a cell to transform from one cell type to another. (Lisa Krieger, San Jose Mercury News)

Using Willpower
Exerting self-control saps a person’s mental energy and makes the next desire that inevitably comes along feel more compelling and harder to resist, a study of people’s daily struggles with temptation found. (Bruce Bower, Science News)

Resisting Temptation
Unlike simply delaying gratification, promising yourself a temptation at a nebulous later date can actually decrease the amount of your ultimate consumption of that temptation. (Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience)

Videogame Pacifism
Videogames have long been assailed for their violent themes and gruesome imagery. But a small slice of players has embraced a new strategy: not killing. They are imparting real-world morals on their virtual-world characters and completing entire games on a “pacifist run”—the term for beating a blood-and-guts adventure without drawing any blood. (Conor Dougherty, The Wall Street Journal)

Newt Gingrich Says He Would Ban All Embryonic Stem Cell Research
He is drawing an increasingly hard line against the use of embryonic stem cell research—a position that contrasts not only with that of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, but also with statements that Newt Gingrich himself has made on the subject in the past. (Karen Tumulty, The Washington Post)

Q&A
Greg Feist
Psychologist Greg Feist is trying to find out what drives scientific curiosity, from ways of thinking to personality types. (Clint Witchalls, New Scientist)

Kids With BFFs
William Bukowski and his team looked for levels of cortisol in children as an indicator of stress levels. Bukowski’s participants who were with their best friends showed lower levels of the hormone during stressful situations. (Anne Sutherland, The Gazette)

Are We Ready for a “Morality Pill”?
Peter Singer and Agata Sagan: Whether or not we have free will, we may soon face new choices about the ways in which we are willing to influence behavior for the better. (The Stone, Opinionator, The New York Times)

Perception of Polarization
Political polarization among the public has barely budged at all over the past 40 years, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. But, crucially, people vastly overestimate how polarized the American public is—a tendency toward exaggeration that is especially strong in the most extreme Democrats and Republicans. (Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience)

BOOKS
The 4% Universe
Jonathan Feng: The book sheds light not only on our current understanding of the universe, but also on the people studying it. The result is a fascinating picture of humankind’s never-ending journey to comprehend the cosmos. (American Scientist)

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
“This could be the first step down a path not only to maximizing human potential but to increasing it” University of Oxford ethicist Julian Savulescu says. “It has significant potential advantages to every human being because the capacity to learn is fundamental to our humanity.” (Tom Feilden, BBC News)

Bosses Who Exercise Are Nicer
We’ve all heard exercise is good for your physical and mental well-being. But a good workout can actually influence the mental well-being of others, too. Because bosses who hit the gym tend to be less abusive to their employees. That’s according to a study in the Journal of Business and Psychology. (Christopher Intagliata, Scientific American)

NASA Confirms the Existence of 26 More Planets
The science team for NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting mission nearly doubled their list of confirmed planets beyond our solar system in one fell swoop, announcing the discovery of 26 planets spread among 11 star systems. (Alan Boyle, Cosmic Log, msnbc.com)

Newt Gingrich’s Moon Mission
Appearing on MSNBC’s Martin Bashir, director of the Hayden Planetarium and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson sympathized with Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich’s ambitious vision for a moon base. “If the nation dreams big and that percolates its way through society, the dreams are enabled by prowess in science. Once everybody gets the feeling through them, they want to become scientists and engineers and participate in this adventure,” Tyson exclaimed. (James Crugnale, Mediaite)

Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns and Tithes
Sociologists have studied the correlations between religiosity and giving and niceness, and have discovered that the more people give, the nicer they are. That is to say, generous giving to religious institutions correlates to giving to secular charities (the Boy Scouts, say, and the American Heart Association), which correlates to volunteerism and civic mindedness and, broadly speaking, altruism. (Lisa Miller, On Faith, The Washington Post)

Alaska Airlines Will Stop Giving Prayer Cards to Passengers
“This difficult decision was not made lightly,” Alaska Air Group CEO Bill Ayer and Alaska Airlines President Brad Tilden wrote in an email to regular customers. “Some of you enjoy the cards and associate them with our service,” they wrote. “At the same time, we’ve heard from many of you who believe religion is inappropriate on an airplane.” (Melissa Allison, The Seattle Times)

Ancient Social Networks
Hunter-gatherers exhibit many of the “friending” habits familiar to Facebook users, suggesting that the patterns for social networking were set early in the history of our species. At least that’s the conclusion from a group of researchers who mapped the connections among members of the Hadza ethnic group in Tanzania’s Lake Eyasi region. (Alan Boyle, Cosmic Log, msnbc.com)

How We Interact With Science
Marcelo Gleiser: There is a growing distance between most people and the way objects of interest to scientists are seen and studied, and how results from the various observations are interpreted. Perhaps this is why, some time ago, a reader told me that, to him, believing in an abstract God or in a claim that the universe is 13.7 billion years old was not so different. And yet, these two couldn’t be more different! (13.7: Cosmos and Culture, NPR)

The Time Girls Spend Online
How is technology affecting their happiness and emotional development? The answer, in the peer-reviewed study of the online habits of girls ages 8 to 12, is that those who say they spend considerable amounts of time using multimedia describe themselves in ways that suggest they are less happy and less socially comfortable than peers who say they spend less time on screens. (Matt Richtel, Bits, The New York Times)

Philosopher Alain de Botton Plans “Temples for Atheists” in Britain
Alain de Botton’s most recent book, Religion for Atheists, calls for unbelievers to copy the major religions and build grand architectural masterpieces to inspire a sense of perspective in people. He argues that a temple doesn’t need to be dedicated to a religion: “You can build a temple to anything that’s positive and good. That could mean: a temple to love, friendship, calm or perspective.” (Duncan Geere, Wired UK)

Q&A
Alan Lightman
Alan Lightman, humanities and physics professor at MIT and author of Einstein’s Dreams, provocatively tells the story of creation from God’s perspective in Mr. g. A tour through astrophysics and morality, Mr. g shows God wrestling with the same questions humans have debated for years: Why must there be suffering? How can we come to terms with mortality? And where do organisms get that sense of self we call consciousness? (Heather Horn, The Atlantic)