SPONSORED BY  | | | | January 4, 2024: Why it's nice to be wrong sometimes, hotter temperatures make some animals turn nocturnal, and see the most impressive images in astronomy from 2023. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Intellectual humility is a term in psychology for a particular kind of humility around one's beliefs, ideas or worldviews. It can involve political views, areas of expertise or any other strong convictions. This type of humility requires an open mind, avoiding dogmatism and being willing to revise your beliefs, especially in areas where you know you lack knowledge. Not an easy feat for most of us! New research suggests that intellectual humility can be cultivated, writes Daryl Van Tongeren, an associate professor of psychology at Hope College working with colleagues on practices that develop this kind of humility.
Why this matters: Intellectually humble people are more accepting of those with different views from their own. They're less defensive to new ideas or perspectives. They're more likely to forgive, which can help to maintain and repair relationships. These traits seem particularly helpful in today's society.
What the experts say: "When you limit yourself to only doing things the way you've always done them, you miss out on countless opportunities for growth, expansion and novelty," writes Van Tongeren, and the "things that strike you with awe, fill you with wonder and make life worth living." | | | Biologists have repeatedly found that some animal species, from cheetahs to giant anteaters, shift their normal routines from day to night when daytime temperatures get too hot. One recent study found that the white-lipped peccary, a piglike animal native to Central and South America, changes its foraging behavior depending on how hot it is. Much past 94 degrees F and the animals will do their foraging for fruits and plants after sunset when they normally would be most active during the day.
Why this matters: As global temperatures continue to increase because of climate change, many animals will likely find it difficult to carry on with their normal routines. The ability to adapt and shift could be advantageous, though animals' capacity for this has not been widely studied.
What the experts say: Nocturnal behavior comes with trade-offs–not being able to see food or plants in the dark is one. And predators of the peccary, like pumas, hunt mostly at night, says Michiel Veldhuis, an ecologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He would like to test whether predation kills more peccaries during the hottest months of the year. | | | Best Space Images of 2023 Astronomer and columnist Phil Plait picked his favorite images from astronomy in 2023, including the spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51), samples from the asteroid Bennu, and the globular cluster Terzan 12. Read his full list and see striking photos of Comet C/2020 V2, a lunar eclipse as seen from the moon, and more.
Credits for the above images: M51: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team; Bennu samples: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold; Terzan 12: NASA, ESA, ESA/Hubble, Roger Cohen (RU). | | | SPONSORED CONTENT BY FOREIGN AFFAIRS | From the editors at Foreign Affairs | The Best of 2023 collection ranges in topics from the war in Ukraine to global inequality to China's turn inward. Visit ForeignAffairs.com to read the best web and print essays of the year.
Subscribe today at the lowest price of the year to get in-depth analyses and diverse perspectives on global issues from some of the most respected experts in their fields. | | | • Stars don't spin more slowly as they age, as astronomers previously thought. Instead, they curtail their magnetic activity and spin at the same speed for billions of years. | 4 min read | | | • Russia and China seem to be teaming up to control the Arctic. | 4 min read | | | • Transparent wood could soon be used on mobile phone screens, light fixtures and windows. | 6 min read | | | • Is our reality, in fact, a computer simulation run by some other, far advanced being or beings? It's a popular and heavily-searched question. But it's the wrong question since it is unanswerable, writes materials scientist Simon Duan. The better question to ask is "can we model the universe as a computer simulation?" which "puts us in the realm of doing science," he says. | 4 min read | | | That our universe is perhaps just a computer simulation was the topic of a notable meeting of prominent scientific minds in 2016 at the American Museum of Natural History. Our senior editor for space and physics, Clara Moskowitz, reported from that seminar and wrote a thought-provoking explanation. It is an enticing prospect, no? That all our human strife, joy and minutiae register as small clicks in some giant computer experiment. | Let me know what you think and send any other newsletter feedback to: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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