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Russ Roberts (https://hawaiisciencejournal.blogspot.com).

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We’re taking a break from our regular programming to bring you a collection of some of our most popular pieces of the year on A.I., medicine, psychology, the environment, and more. We hope you enjoy.  Annals of Psychology

The Aftermath of a Wife’s Unfathomable Act

Patrick Clancy’s wife killed their children during a postpartum mental-health crisis. Prosecutors describe a clear-headed scheme, but Clancy says, “I wasn’t married to a monster—I was married to someone who got sick.” By Eren Orbey  Elements

The Highest Tree House in the Amazon

In 2023, conservationists and carpenters converged on Peru to build luxury accommodations in the rain-forest canopy. By Allison Keeley  Annals of Medicine

Will a Full-Body MRI Scan Help You or Hurt You?

Companies like Prenuvo and Ezra will use magnetic resonance imaging to reveal what’s inside you—for a price. By Dhruv Khullar  Annals of Artificial Intelligence

The Terrifying A.I. Scam That Uses Your Loved One’s Voice

A Brooklyn couple got a call from relatives who were being held ransom. Their voices—like many others these days—had been cloned. By Charles Bethea  Annals of Medicine

What Can We Learn from Menstrual Blood?

By drawing data out of tampons and pads, startups hope to shed light on poorly understood diseases. By Rachel E. Gross  Annals of Medicine

The Argument Over a Long-Standing Autism Intervention

Applied Behavior Analysis therapy has a troubling history, and even many supporters say it was used too widely in the past. But has criticism of the practice gone too far? By Jessica Winter  Annals of Medicine

How ECMO Is Redefining Death

A medical technology can keep people alive when they otherwise would have died. Where will it lead? By Clayton Dalton  Elements

Black Holes Are Even Weirder Than You Imagined

It’s now thought that they could illuminate fundamental questions in physics, settle questions about Einstein’s theories, and even help explain the universe. By Rivka Galchen  Elements

Will Plants Ever Fertilize Themselves?

Biologists aim to engineer crops that can eat nitrogen straight from the air. By Matthew Hutson  Elements

The Magic of Bird Brains

Crows are smart enough to pick up trash. Why won’t they? By Ben Crair Cartoon by Emily Flake P.S. With R.F.K., Jr., as the incoming health czar, raw milk is likely to be a hot topic in 2025—as it has been for a while now. In 2012, Dana Goodyear wrote about the fight between raw-milk advocates and regulators. The first line says a lot: “Even before James Stewart, the leader of the milk-trafficking gang known as the Rawesome Three, hired an attorney from one of the top marijuana-defense firms in Los Angeles, the analogy was plain: raw milk is the new pot, only harder to get.” 🐄

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