Society

Despite overall improved mortality rates, the number of people found at home so decomposed that it is impossible to determine their cause of death is on the rise in parts of the UK. A new study tries to parse the cause.

Play is a vital part of animal behavior, helping to form social structures and bonds, develop cognitive function and enhance physical abilities. Now, it's believed whale play with seaweed to scrub off dead skin cells and parasites as they migrate.

The matriarchal structure of the killer whale society is well known, with females living up to 90 years and playing a crucial role in passing on knowledge to the youngsters. Now, it seems the elders also help keep the trouble-making boys out of fights.

According to a decade-long study, loneliness was a bigger risk factor for diabetics developing cardiovascular disease than smoking, diet, and physical activity. The researchers say the findings should inform patient evaluations going forward.

In a study that blows apart the long-held stereotype of women historically playing the role of caregivers and homemakers in societies, researchers have discovered that across they board they've long been born hunters, equal to their male counterparts.

Two-thirds of Euro/American jobs are set to change due to AI automation, and up to a quarter of all current work will be taken over by AIs, according to a bombshell report from analysts at Goldman Sachs. Here are the jobs that'll be hit hardest.

The gap in wages between the most- and least-educated US citizens has risen sharply in the last 40-odd years, and new research out of MIT finds that more than half of this disparity can be attributed to a single factor: automation. This bodes poorly.

New research published in the journal Antiquity suggests an ancient South American civilization spiked a beer-like drink with psychoactive drugs as a way of maintaining social cohesion and forging new bonds with surrounding communities.

A new four-year study using AI-enabled surveillance will track recently released prison parolees. The project’s goal is to lower rates of recidivism by identifying early interventions to help individuals transitioning from prison to regular society.

A report that surveyed over 200 participants from a prematurely cancelled Canadian basic income experiment found participants saw improvements in mental health and social relationships, plus a reduction in the use of general health services.

​In the largest cross-cultural survey ever conducted, a team of anthropologists has determined 7 moral rules they suggest are universal. Surveying ethnographic accounts from 60 different cultures the research concludes every single culture analyzed seems to be ruled by the same moral precepts.​

​​Ancient civilizations could have benefited, and at times suffered from belonging to an interconnected global economy, according to evidence presented in a newly-published study.