Artificial intelligence beats top human players in popular racing game Scientists pitted an artificial intelligence driver against real human gamers in the PlayStation driving game Gran Turismo. The AI driver beat them all. Christopher Intagliata
Scientist Luc Montagnier, who discovered the virus that causes AIDS, is dead at 89 Luc Montagnier, the scientist who discovered the virus that causes AIDS, has died at 89. His key contribution came at a time when AIDS was mysterious and uniformly deadly. Richard Harris
A new study predicts a huge increase in catastrophic hurricanes for the northeastern U.S. When hurricanes cause both extreme high tides and heavy rains, devastating floods ensue. Such storms will get much more frequent by the end of the century, according to a new study. Rebecca Hersher
Encore: Freshly made plutonium from outer space found on ocean floor Common chemical elements are created in stars like our sun. But heavy elements, like iron, are thought to form in massive stars that explode and spew material — though it might be more complicated. Nell Greenfieldboyce
Shark bites surged in 2021, rebounding from a drop earlier in the pandemic Still, the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File says the high number of shark bites and deaths last year was on par with long-term averages. Joe Hernandez
This beetle larvae's flips are ready for the Olympics The larvae of a type of bark beetle can perform acrobatic flips, somersaulting their bodies through the air. They join maggots and other larvae in their athletic abilities. Christopher Intagliata
Even babies and toddlers know that swapping saliva is a sure sign of love For infants, toddlers, and children, one sign of an especially close relationship is if two people do something that involves exchanging saliva, like taking bites from the same piece of food. Nell Greenfieldboyce
Encore: Ancient footprints mistakenly attributed to bears were made by early humans A new look at nearly 3.7 million-year-old fossil footprints uncovered in Tanzania shows that multiple species of early humans lived together at the same time. Nell Greenfieldboyce
Before you open the calorie counter, consider the role of diet culture Last year, half of all New Year's resolutions in the U.S. were based on fitness and nearly half were based on weight loss. NPR's Life Kit takes a look at diet culture. Andee Tagle
Scientists think they've found a big, weird moon in a far-off star system Scientists have found many planets orbiting distant stars, but so far no proof that any have moons. Now, researchers have detected signs of a large exomoon orbiting a Jupiter-like world. Nell Greenfieldboyce
