Sarah Wells

Sarah is a Boston-based writer covering science and technology. She's interested in the philosophical questions of science and technology and has been known to wax poetic about dead mathematicians and the ennui of light particles from time to time.
oh yo ho
TikTok's sea shanty obsession reveals how music can hijack your brain
Sarah Wells
The science behind why rhythmic tunes have such a hold on our imaginations reveals something fundamental about how our brains work.
Ancient funds
When was money invented? Bronze Age study has the answer
Sarah Wells
What do you get for an honest day's smelting?
Click
Video: One of nature's most deceptive insects is helping build a better robot
Sarah Wells
Researchers slow down the dance of click beetles to better understand what makes them fly through the air. This understanding could inform future robot design.
shocking
Personalized brain stimulation could relieve a common mental health disorder
Sarah Wells
In a new study, neuroscientists investigated how painless stimulation to the brain's reward center could help less OCD behaviors.
semantic simulations
To predict Covid-19 mutations, scientists discover one 5th-grade tactic is surprisingly useful
Sarah Wells
And no, it's not wedgies or shame.
just keep swimming
Robot fish illustrate 'collective intelligence' at work in nature
Sarah Wells
One for all, and all for one.
Innovation
A.I. displays an unsettling skill: the ability to show empathy
Sarah Wells
Researchers from Columbia have designed an A.I. that can effectively feel empathy and predict another robot's goals using only vision.
Innovation
There's a helmet for dentist appointments that blocks 99.6% of Covid-19 air droplets
Sarah Wells
A new kind of PPE may make dental visits a lot safer during the pandemic. The model was unveiled in a study published Tuesday in the journal Physics of Fluids.
incoming call
The antidote to Zoom fatigue is here
Sarah Wells
Adoption of game-like video chat clients will make it easier to spend more time online with friends, an anthropologist tells Inverse.
reduce, reuse, recycle
Video: Robot that sorts recycling twice as fast as a human may change the world
Sarah Wells
This innovation could save tons of waste and money.
final words
Computer scientists help decode language of death
Sarah Wells
Researchers look at how a five-week course on death can change how people talk about the experience.
push and pull
Elastic diamonds could help quantum computers run at room temperature
Sarah Wells
Quantum computing could get a 10 karat upgrade.
digital love
Study reveals unexpected benefits of dating apps
Sarah Wells
Swipe right for love.
move aside
Your takeout is getting a green upgrade
Sarah Wells
Say goodbye to plastic waste.
levitation
'Anti-gravity' experiment defies physics using one simple trick
Sarah Wells
Is physics broken?
tree hugging
To reduce pollution pockets, Los Angeles is using A.I. from Google
Sarah Wells
Google's A.I. could help Los Angeles meet its climate goals of planting 90,000 new trees by 2021.
being human
What makes us human? Neuroscientists are a step closer to finding out
Sarah Wells
Scientists have discovered a shared link between sleep and anesthesia in brain.
pandemic plan
Scientists are fighting superbugs with economics
Sarah Wells
Researchers have used economic data to create a prediction model to anticipate flares of antimicrobial resistance in under surveilled countries.
small packages
Tiny animals provide big Arctic data
Sarah Wells
This insight will be crucial for conservation.
glamor shot
3.2 billion-pixel space camera captures largest photo ever
Sarah Wells
Scientists have designed a camera capable of capturing 3.2 billion-pixel images, and they tried it out on some vegetables.