Mr. Whiskers’ Elusive Family (Mongabay)
by Petro Kotzé
The ancestor of the modern domestic cat, the Afro-Asiatic wildcat, prowls across a large part of the world. But scientists know surprisingly little about them or how their species gave rise to man’s second-best friend.

When Healthy People Hear Voices (Undark)
by Chris Berdik
We typically think of “hearing voices” as a sign of serious mental illness. But a lot of people hear things that aren’t there, and some find the experience both benign and controllable. To find out why, scientists turned to psychics.

Closed Borders and Totalitarian Politics (Liberal Currents)
by Adam Gurri
Immigration has numerous tradeoffs—for national civic and economic well-being and for the health of specific communities and neighborhoods. But the heavy-handed enforcement of anti-immigrant policies is uniquely destructive of freedom, for newcomers and citizens alike.

Herring are Lost Without Their Elders (Nautilus)
by Katarina Zimmer
Herring depend on the oldest members of their schools to guide their migrations, but those are also precisely the fish that are most profitable to catch, leading to problems for the whole group.

The Terror of Childbirth (Nursing Clio)
by Natalie Donnell
In seventeenth-century Europe, childbirth was a hazardous event, even for noblewoman. Many depended on female family members for a kind of emotional support that was also viewed as a medical necessity.

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