harper’s FINDINGS INDEX

Australian scientists from the Whales and Climate Research Program asserted that whales cannot, after all, significantly mitigate atmospheric carbon. Orcas were teaching one another how to sink boats, and the population decline of Dungeness crabs may be due partly to ocean acidification worsening their sense of smell. The first instance of virgin birth was recorded in a crocodile. Whitespotted eagle rays and cow-nosed rays loiter at clam leases. Phosphorus deficiency turns Triphyophyllum peltatum plants carnivorous, and the sensation of hunger may slow aging in fruit flies. Snow flies amputate their legs to keep their vital organs from freezing, scalloped hammerhead sharks hold their breath to keep warm on deep excursions, and California two-spot octopuses edit their RNA to acclimate their nervous systems to temperature changes. Neuroscientists speculated that Costello, a traumatized Brazilian reef octopus, was having vivid nightmares. Pigeons may dream of flight.

A letter to the Journal of Investigative Dermatology detailed the genetic loci of Europeans’ eyebrow shapes, a consortium of researchers released a draft of the human pangenome, and an initial survey found high-quality human DNA nearly everywhere they looked. Biodiversity loss can be tracked through the incidental environmental DNA collection already performed by air-quality monitors. Engineers developed a material made of protein nanowires that harvests electricity from humidity in the air. Self-driving cars lack social intelligence and could improve through encounters with simulations of bad drivers. Growing demand for animal-fat jet fuel may cause a corresponding increase in the use of carbonintensive palm oil. Sequestered carbon can be mineralized in dead undersea volcanoes. A plume of water six thousand miles long is escaping the sixth largest moon of Saturn. Gravitational waves may be emitted by the debris fields around dying stars. Astronomers detected a non-thermal emission from a classical nova with a dwarf companion and reported no young binary stars near the Milky Way’s central black hole.

Queer adolescents’ odds of vaping are not affected by their family’s affluence, Colorado researchers failed to detect the recency of marijuana consumption in breathalyzer tests administered in a white van decorated with a tie-dyed tapestry, self-reported ethnoracial discrimination was correlated with increased suspiciousness and a higher risk of psychosis, chemists made progress toward a melaninbased sunscreen, and Florida researchers attempted to identify the genes that predispose horses to being spooked by umbrellas. A methodology for evaluating wild animals’ emotional well-being in a study on free-roaming horses was extended to kangaroos, koalas, and dingoes. Oklahoma police responding to a cry for help found an upset goat. The number of farms worldwide will likely fall by more than half by 2100. Animal hoarding by rural Mississippians damages the health of cats and dogs. Male masturbation without ejaculation among primates may be advantageous in reducing the duration of intercourse (and thus the risk of interruption by a competing male); with ejaculation, the advantage may be in clearing pathogens from the urethra following intercourse. Sexually frustrated mass shooters kill more female victims. The first documented human kiss moved back by a thousand years. Archaeologists discovered the earliest scaled building diagrams, from 8,000 years ago at Jebel az-Zilliyat and from 9,000 years ago at Jibal al-Khasabiyeh, for the construction of desert dragons. Boss Tweed was not responsible for the destruction of Central Park’s dinosaur statues. n

% of Americans who think our country should reduce “political correctness”: 64 Who think our country should foster “social justice”: 70

% increase this year in the number of Americans who identify as conservative on social issues: 15

Portion of independent voters who do not know the Republicans’ or Democrats’ stance on abortion: 1/3

Who do not think either party handles the issue of abortion well: 2/5

% by which foot traffic in U.S. city centers is lower today than it was in 2019: 25

% decrease since October in the number of companies requiring employees to work in person full-time: 14

% by which hybrid workers are more satisfied with their organization’s culture than in-person workers: 8

% of remote workers who claim to be dissatisfied with their daily commute: 25

% by which remote work reduces the likelihood of securities fraud: 15

Portion of U.S. workers who use recreational drugs or alcohol while working remotely: 1/5

Portion of U.S. workers who report having been under the influence during a virtual meeting: 1/5

% increase since 2021 in random workplace drug testing: 18

% of employers who believe their workers have an alcohol use disorder: 26

% increase since the start of the pandemic in U.S. adults with substance use disorders: 23

Portion of speech pathologists who have seen an increase in children with communication difficulties since 2019: 4/5

% of U.S. adults who say they are too tired to make changes to their diet or exercise routine: 35

% of their daily calorie intake that the average American consumes in the form of ultra-processed food: 57

Portion of Americans who are unable to do five consecutive push-ups: 1/3 Who have a sleep deficit: 1/3

Portion of Americans who think the invention of the internet was bad for humanity: 1/10

Who think it was neither good nor bad: 1/5

% decrease this year in worldwide sales of personal computers: 29

Minimum number of pagers still in use in the United States: 808,245

% of American men who say their online lives are more engaging and rewarding than their offline lives: 48

Who have not spent time with someone outside of their home in the past week: 26

Who say that they have it harder than women: 53

% by which men charge more than women for freelance work: 48

Portion of U.S. workers who do not believe that gender equality in the workplace is very important: 3/4

Who do not believe that a racially and ethnically diverse workplace is very important: 7/10

Portion of U.S. adults who approve of colleges taking race and ethnicity into account to increase diversity: 1/3

Who say they have been personally disadvantaged by efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity: 1/4

% of student loan debt held by adults 35 or older: 63

Chance that a university professor has seen a UFO or knows someone who has: 1 in 5

Portion of English professors who are interested in researching UFOs: 3/10

Of economics professors: 1/4

Number of minutes by which a day is longer on Mars than on Earth: 39 % of baby boomers who believe in hell: 18 Of millennials and zoomers who do: 32

SOURCES: 1,2 Hart Research Associates (Washington)/Public Opinion Strategies (Alexandria, Va.); 3 Gallup (Washington); 4 Navigator Research (Washington); 5 Marist/PBS/NPR Poll (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.); 6 MRI Springboard (Cleveland); 7 Flex Index by Scoop (San Francisco); 8,9 The Conference Board (NYC); 10 Douglas J. Cumming, Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, Fla.); 11,12 Sierra Tucson (Tucson, Ariz.); 13,14 Current Consulting Group (Coral Springs, Fla.); 15 Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; 16 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (Rockville, Md.); 17 World Cancer Research Fund/YouGov (London); 18 Filippa Juul, New York University; 19 Gymless.org (Toronto); 20 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta); 21,22 YouGov (NYC); 23 International Data Corporation (Needham, Mass.); 24 Spok (Alexandria, Va.); 25–27 Equimundo (Washington); 28 ZenBusiness (Austin, Tex.); 29–32 Pew Research Center (Washington); 33 U.S. Department of Education (Washington); 34–36 Marissa E. Yingling, University of Louisville (Ky.); 37 NASA (Mountain View, Calif.); 38,39 David Voas, King’s College London.