Amanda Smith is a freelance journalist and writer. She reports on culture, society, human interest and technology. Her stories hold a mirror to society, reflecting both its malaise and its beauty.

Learning to play the piano has long been associated with rigid lessons, endless scales, and strict adherence to classical repertoire. Rarely has it been considered fun. But now, Payam Khastkhodaei ...

A new study shows how ERA combines large language models with tree search to rapidly build expert-level research software, outperforming leading benchmarks in tasks from single-cell genomics to ...

Minecraft's Java Edition has long been the go-to for PC players, owing to how moddable it is in comparison to its Bedrock counterpart. However, getting a clean multiplayer experience has long ...

Early writing is a tale of two scripts. Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform both emerged independently about 5300 years ago. The political powers of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia ...

Salicylic acid, topical retinoids, and benzoyl peroxide safely remove blackheads at home. Professional treatments may include microdermabrasion or chemical peels. Popping blackheads can cause ...

Symbols and markings carved into tools and figurines by Stone Age humans over 40,000 years ago could be an ancient precursor to writing, according to a new analysis. The marks, found on 260 artifacts ...

Poetry and artificial intelligence can appear as opposites—one deeply human; the other cold and mechanical. Sasha Stiles sees them as expressions of the same impulse. Poetry, the Kalmyk- American poet ...

This is a column about a helpful trick that will radically improve your memory with minimal effort so you can learn faster. But before I get to the science behind the technique and how it can help ...

In my high-school English classes, I often tell my students that they write their papers backwards: They devise a thesis and then look for evidence to support it. They’ll find what they want to see, I ...

Nowadays data breaches aren’t rare shocks – they’re a weekly drumbeat. From leaked customer records to stolen source code, our digital lives keep spilling into the open. Git services are especially ...