The killer robots are here (The Conversation)
by James Dawes
Fully automated weapons, with no human oversight, may have killed people for the first time in Libya last year. War may never be the same.

The Mayans’ animal neighbors (Aeon)
by Jessica Sequeira
Animals are everywhere in the Popol Vuh, a compilation of Maya mythology and history. Shifts in the way they were conceptualized showcase a view of how humans changed over time. And the creation of the book itself shows how things changed again with the arrival of the Spanish.

Vampire bats share their meals (Smithsonian Magazine)
by Lina Zeldovich
When vampire bats sink their teeth into an unsuspecting cow, they aren’t selfish about it. Some are happy to shout out to friends to come join the feast.

Explosive historical research (Wired)
by Eric Niiler
How well did medieval gunpowder recipes work, and did they improve over time? Researchers decided there was one way to find out.

Thinking beyond extinction (Vox)
by Benji Jones
You may have heard that twenty-three species, including the ivory-billed woodpecker, were recently declared extinct. But focusing on extinction both underplays the problem of biodiversity loss and obscures real success stories.

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