Editor's note

When you think of your senses, probably vision, hearing and some of the other usual suspects come to mind. But your brain has sensory abilities that go beyond the five options first articulated by Aristotle. New research suggests a new one should be added to the list: a magnetic sense. In careful experiments, human brains were able to subconsciously detect changes in the Earth’s geomagnetic field – a talent that helps other creatures’ homing and navigation abilities.

As the investigations continue into the Ethiopian Airlines crash of a Boeing 737 Max airliner and the same type of aircraft in Indonesia, veteran pilot, air accident investigator and aviation professor Daniel Kwasi Adjekum explains the painstaking work that goes into figuring out what happened.

Some Renaissance-era masterworks erotically depict rape and sexual assault. For centuries, few scholars batted an eye. But beginning in the 1970s, a group of artists decided to change the narrative and make sexual trauma the focus of their work. Vanderbilt art historian Vivien G. Fryd explains how their refusal to stay silent paved the way for others to step forward in the #MeToo era.

Maggie Villiger

Senior Science + Technology Editor

Top stories

Do you have a magnetic compass in your head? Lightspring/Shutterstock.com

New evidence for a human magnetic sense that lets your brain detect the Earth’s magnetic field

Shinsuke Shimojo, California Institute of Technology; Daw-An Wu, California Institute of Technology; Joseph Kirschvink, California Institute of Technology

Your brain's sensory talents go way beyond those traditional five senses. A team of geoscientists and neurobiologists explored how the human brain monitors and responds to magnetic fields.

An investigator surveys wreckage at the site of the Ethiopian Airlines crash. Baz Ratner/Reuters

Here’s how airplane crash investigations work, according to an aviation safety expert

Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, University of North Dakota

The inquiries can take months of painstaking work, but often yield important insights that improve flight safety for everyone long into the future.

The 2002 installation ‘Rape Garage’ displayed statistics about rape, along with first-person narratives about sexual trauma. Stefanie Bruser, Josh Edwards, Katie Grone and Lindsey Lee. Mixed media site installation at “At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman.” 2001-2002. Courtesy the Flower Archive, housed at the Pennsylvania State University Archives.

A half-century before the hashtag, artists were on the front lines of #MeToo

Vivien G. Fryd, Vanderbilt University

Many Renaissance-era masterworks depicted rape and sexual assault as erotic. Beginning in the 1970s, artists worked to redefine rape as a crime of aggression and act of female subjugation.

Ethics + Religion

Health + Medicine

  • The politics of fear: How it manipulates us to tribalism

    Arash Javanbakht, Wayne State University

    Fear, a psychiatrist writes, has roots deep within the human psyche, and demagogues have long exploited the emotion. In today's world, it's important to know the dangers of that exploitation.

Economy + Business

  • Why some counties are powerhouses for innovation

    Christopher Boone, Arizona State University

    When it comes to innovation, Santa Clara County is way ahead of the rest of the US. Between 2000 and 2015, more than 140,000 patents were granted there – triple the number of the next-ranked county.

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