When at rest, the mind becomes preoccupied with self-generated thoughts, commonly known as mind-wandering. While the social, autobiographical, and temporal features of these thoughts have been extensively studied, little is known about how frequently the wandering mind turns toward the interoceptive and somatic body. To map this underexplored component of “body-wandering,” we conducted a large-scale neuroimaging study in 536 healthy participants, expanding a retrospective multidimensional experience sampling approach to include probes targeting visceral and somatomotor thoughts. Our findings reveal a robust interindividual dimension of body-wandering characterized by negative affect, high autonomic arousal, and a reduction in socially oriented thoughts.

Cesar and Kim review how the synaptonemal complex assembles and serves as a dynamic signaling platform that coordinates meiotic recombination.

New observations of cosmic rays that distinguish between hydrogen and helium find unexpected complexity in a long-observed spectral feature.

A research group from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology reports in Nature an unprecedented achievement in electron microscopy: the direct measurement of “dark points” within light waves. By doing so, the researchers were able to confirm a prediction from the 1970s that the speed of these points exceeds the speed of light.

The “dark points” measured by the group are essentially tiny “holes” in the wave structure. Known as vortices, the holes are a common phenomenon in nature: We encounter them in ocean waves, in air currents, and even in coffee when we stir it or pour it into the sink. As early as the 1970s, a surprising theoretical prediction was proposed: Vortices may move faster than the wave in which they are formed. As strange as it sounds—imagine a vortex in a river overtaking the flow of water in which it exists—the phenomenon is real. Until now, this was based on theory. The research team’s achievement has now confirmed it experimentally.

A newly engineered molecule acts like a “rechargeable” solar heat battery, storing sunlight and releasing it on demand.

In Your Way Out, actors move like NPCs, wear lycra masks and painted costumes, and the lighting has no shadows.

Watkins et al. show that RNase L dampens the expression of interferon-stimulated genes by accelerating mRNA decay, inhibiting nuclear mRNA export block, and repressing transcription.

New research from the University of St Andrews has revealed that human readiness for intergroup violence is not a single or unified mindset. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the new study, spanning 58 countries and involving more than 100 researchers from various institutions around the world, demonstrates that violent extremist intentions are driven by two fundamentally different psychological motivations.

These are defensive extremism, which aims to protect a group from perceived threats, and offensive extremism, which seeks to establish group dominance and expand influence.

This preregistered study analyzed data from 18,128 participants globally. The findings indicate that defensive extremist intentions are consistently more prevalent, showing higher levels of endorsement than offensive intentions in 56 out of the 58 surveyed nations. This suggests a widespread tendency to find protective violence more morally acceptable than violence aimed at conquest.

Ancient rocks reveal that Earth’s magnetic field during the Ediacaran may not have been chaotic after all.