The Top Science News

A bigger connectome; superintelligence meets creativity; the mice with two dads; and more. Plus: does more money make us happier? [View in browser]( | [Become a member]( Newsletter brought to you by: March 14, 2023   Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here](. Good Morning! Here’s the top science news—plus this week’s One Question with psychologist [Matt Killingsworth]( [READ NAUTILUS](   DISCOVERIES The Top Science News This Week   [The Connectome of an Insect Brain]( The researchers found various shortcuts and loops that state-of-the-art AIs use in their neural nets. [Science→](   [Superhuman Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Human Decision-Making by Increasing Novelty]( AIs can give us ideas we would never think of on our own. [PNAS→](   [Delusions as Epistemic Hypervigilance]( It’s a paradoxical combination of being too credulous and too skeptical at the same time. [Current Directions in Psychological Science→](   [The Mice with Two Dads: Scientists Create Eggs from Male Cells]( The result is a proof-of-concept for a way to treat infertility, or create a single-parent embryo. [Nature News→](   [Did AI Get More Negative Recently?]( It would be surprising if it hadn’t. [Royal Society Open Science→](   [The Physicist Betting That Space-Time Isn't Quantum After All]( “It’s a pretty big deal,” Jonathan Oppenheim said. “It’s about the framework of natural laws. It’s almost metaphysics.” [New Scientist→](   [Even Preschoolers Can Tell a Good Excuse from a Selfish One]( Children judged puppets that gave a good excuse more leniently than those who gave a bad one or none at all. [Big Think→](   [Great Apes Reach Momentary Altered Mental States by Spinning]( “When spinning, the apes achieved speeds sufficient to alter self-perception and situational awareness that were comparable to those tapped for transcendent experiences in humans.“ [Primates→]( Science for curious readers. [SUBSCRIBE TODAY](   [AI Won’t Take Your Job. Someone Using AI Will]( Sharpen your math, data, and computer science skills in minutes a day with [Brilliant](. Thousands of quick, visual, interactive lessons help you ramp up on everything from AI and neural networks to data science. Get hands-on with complex topics, mastering key concepts in a way that’s fun and effective. [Join over 10 million learners]( around the world and start your 30-day free trial today. [Start Free Trial](   [ONE QUESTION]( [Does More Money Make Us Happier?]( INTERVIEW BY BRIAN GALLAGHER One question for [Matt Killingsworth](, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania and the creator of [trackyourhappiness.org](, a global research project that uses smartphones to study happiness in real-time during everyday life.   On average, happiness just keeps rising with income. In our new [study](, we have pretty good data up to around $500,000 a year. And happiness is rising incredibly systematically. So systematically, I strongly suspect it’s going to keep rising for a while. [Read the interview](   Related Nautilus Stories   [PSYCHOLOGY]( [Can You Overdose on Happiness?]( The science and philosophy of deep brain stimulation. BY LONE FRANK [Continue reading →]( [NEUROSCIENCE]( [Why Happiness Is Hard to Find—in the Brain]( Talking blobology with a neuroimaging researcher. BY DEAN BURNETT [Continue reading →](   More in Psychology [The Creative Sweet Spot of Dreaming]( A recently identified stage of sleep common to narcoleptics is a fertile source of creativity. BY KRISTEN FRENCH [Continue reading →]( [Can Tripping Save the Planet?]( The mysterious connection between psychedelic use and eco-activism. BY SIMRAN SETHI [Continue reading →](   P.S. Today is March 14, the day many math and physics enthusiasts around the world celebrate Pi. In his story about the lesser known side of the great space scientist Carl Sagan, Dan Falk described the significant place of Pi in Sagan’s novel Contact—and [why the beloved irrational number was written out]( of the 1997 film.   Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher   BECOME A SUBSCRIBER [The Most Awe-Inspiring Stories in Science]( [Nautilus]( is a different kind of science magazine. Science is brought to life through narrative storytelling, taking you into the depths of science to highlight today's most vital conversations. Enjoy the wonder and awe of science, distilled into captivating reads. [Subscribe to Nautilus Print + Digital]( today for only $89/year and save 50% annually. Subscribe Now   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2023 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from nautil.us. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? Click here to [unsubscribe](.