The Mark 1 robot resembles actor Scarlett Johansson. Reuters/Bobby Yip

Sex robots are here, but laws aren’t keeping up with the ethical and privacy issues they raise

Francis X. Shen, University of Minnesota

Intimacy with robots is closer than you think, and cities are already fighting the advent of sexbot brothels. Yet society has barely begun to explore their implications.

A schoolteacher in the midst of receiving a full pe'a, the traditional Samoan tattoo generally worn by males. Christopher Lynn

Untangling tattoos’ influence on immune response

Christopher D. Lynn, University of Alabama

An anthropologist works in American Samoa, taking advantage of the island's longstanding tattoo culture to tease out the effects tattoos have on the body's immune function.