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Cats can be cuddly, but generally, they’re pretty independent. Unlike dogs, who seem to watch their humans’ every move, cats often do their own thing. Researchers wondered whether cats listen when humans speak. The answer, according to a 2022 study, seems to be yes and no.

Researchers in France studied 16 cats to see how they responded to two types of speech. The first was cat-directed speech (CDS), which describes how humans talk to their cats. The second was adult-directed speech (ADS), which describes how human adults talk to each other.

In the study, researchers played recordings of the cats’ owners and of strangers. In some of the recordings, the person was using CDS, which is sort of like a high-pitched, sweet tone that people often use when talking to pets. In other recordings, the person used ADS, which is deeper in tone. The cats reacted much more strongly when they heard their owners’ voices, as opposed to strangers’ voices, particularly if they heard their name. The cats also responded strongly when they heard CDS. Cats didn’t react strongly when they heard ADS.

Researchers say this suggests that cats do recognize their owners’ voices—and they pay attention when their human family members are talking to them. But when human family members talk to each other, cats don’t really listen. 

More than 20 billion text messages are sent each day. Billions of texters can’t be wrong—or can they? A small number of people say they prefer a different form of communication: Morse Code. 

You could say that Morse Code is the ancestor of texting. Invented in the 1830s by Samuel Morse, the code was used to send short messages across distances through a telegraph machine. In Morse Code, each letter, number, and punctuation mark is represented by a combination of dots and dashes. These codes are sent through the machine as electrical pulses that sound like long and short beeps.

Morse Code existed before the telephone, at a time when the only other way to send a message was to have an actual messenger (like a postal worker) deliver it—and that could take days or weeks. But as exciting as Morse Code probably was when it was first invented, it was eventually replaced by faster forms of communication, like texting. 

Still, Morse Code remains a favorite for a handful of amateur radio operators (known as hams) who use their radios to transmit messages to one another as a hobby. Many hams say that sending Morse Code is like returning to a simpler time. Tapping out a message in Morse Code is much slower than texting, which can be a relief to people who wade through a ton of texts every day. And using Morse Code requires a bit of brain power. It is an actual code, after all—all those dots and dashes need to be translated!

You don’t need a radio or a telegraph machine to use Morse Code. If the recipient can see or hear the sender, messages can be sent by tapping a finger against a table or blinking the eyes.

Morse Code isn’t likely to replace texting anytime soon. But for some people, it’s a nice break from it.

February is Black History Month in the United States. The roots of this celebration date back to the early 20th century and one man’s efforts to highlight the achievements of Black Americans. 

Carter G. Woodson was born in 1875 to parents who had once been enslaved. After earning a Ph.D. from Harvard University, he became a historian and college professor. Woodson devoted much of his career to studying Black history. During his career, he authored several books on the subject.

At the time, most scholars ignored or distorted the history of Black Americans. With few people writing about Black history, the experiences and achievements of Black Americans might have been forgotten. Woodson wanted to find a way to prevent this from happening. In 1915, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). He also started a type of academic publication called a journal that was devoted to Black history.

In 1926, the ASNLH set aside the second week in February as Negro History Week. The organization chose this time of year to mark the birthdays of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln. Around the nation, schools and towns organized events to celebrate Negro History Week.  

In the 1960s, the civil rights movement highlighted the importance of recognizing and learning about Black history. Many colleges began designating the entire month of February as Black History Month. 

In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month. President Ford wrote, “In celebrating Black History Month…we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Archaeologists trying to solve a 175-year-old mystery may have uncovered some tantalizing clues. They’re hoping a journal found among the remains of a ship called the HMS Erebus will help reveal what happened to the ship’s crew.

The story of the Erebus began in 1845. The Erebus was one of two ships that set sail from England that May on a mission to find the Northwest Passage, which was thought to be a route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Led by Sir John Franklin, the voyage took the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror through icy Arctic waters. The ships were not up to the task. By 1846 both the Erebus and the Terror, along with Franklin and 129 crewmembers, were trapped in ice.

According to a note that was later found on an Arctic island, some of the crew abandoned the ship and searched for help. Local Inuit (Indigenous) people later reported seeing some Europeans around this time as well. But despite the efforts of the crew, they did not make it, and the final chapter of their story was lost. 

Thanks to Inuit oral histories and modern technology, archaeologists were able to locate the Erebus in 2014 and the Terror in 2016. Since that time, divers have recovered hundreds of artifacts from both wrecks. The objects include a hairbrush with strands of hair, kitchen items, and a wax seal with a fingerprint. Many of them are well preserved because they have been protected from decay by the freezing water.

Researchers plan to study all the objects, but they’re particularly interested in the leather journal they found on the wreck of the Erebus. The book still has its pages, and there’s even a writing utensil.

“We came across a folio—a leather book cover, beautifully embossed—with pages inside. It actually has the feather quill pen still tucked inside the cover like a journal that you might write in and put on your bedside table before turning in,” Ryan Harris, chief underwater archaeologist, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Divers found the journal in a pantry, suggesting it might only contain a record of the ship’s food supply. But there’s a chance it will help them learn the fate of Franklin and his crew.

Scientists have come closer than ever to identifying another Earth. In January 2023, scientists announced the discovery of an exoplanet, or planet that orbits another star, which seems to be a lot like Earth. The planet, which has been named TOI 700 e, has many of the characteristics that are necessary to support life. 

The planet was found in the TOI 700 solar system, which is 100 light years away from Earth. (One light-year is 5.88 trillion miles, or 9.46 trillion kilometers.) The system also includes previously discovered planets TOI 700 b, c, and d. All these planets orbit around a star called TOI 700, but only d and e are in the “habitable zone.” Planets within habitable zones are at the right distance from their star to have a livable temperature and, possibly, liquid water.

If LeBron James quit basketball tomorrow, he would already be considered one of the best ever. James has been a force in every game since he was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. Now playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, he hasn’t shown signs of slowing down—even after two decades. In the 2022–2023 season alone, James has averaged 29.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 7.0 assists per game, as of mid-January. Pay attention to that scoring average. It’s high. So high that James is close to becoming the highest scorer in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Experts say that if James maintains his current scoring average, he will take the scoring crown during the February 9 game against the Milwaukee Bucks. And if it doesn’t happen then, there will still be plenty of time. Laker games are scheduled for February 11 and February 13. Any of those dates could end up in the record books. 

“I’m excited to see it happen,” former Los Angeles Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told CBS Sports. “I don’t see records as personal accomplishments, but more as human achievements. If one person can do something that’s never been done, that means we all have a shot at doing it. It’s a source of hope and inspiration.”

Abdul-Jabbar should know. He’s the current record holder, with 38,387 career points. Abdul-Jabbar set the record in 1984. So far, no one has been able to top it. 

But while James looks set to overtake Abdul-Jabbar, he says he never set out to be top scorer. For all his singular abilities, James is known as a team player—someone who would rather pass the ball to a teammate who has a shot at scoring than try to be the star of the show.

“The scoring record was never ever even thought of in my head because I’ve always been a pass-first guy,” James told ESPN. “I’ve always loved the excitement of seeing the success of my teammates.”

James may not be concerned with breaking the record, but his fans are watching closely to see if—or when—it will happen.

In 1980, when Bernice King was 17, she gave a speech to the United Nations. Addressing representatives from countries around the world, King called for an end to apartheid, a system of racial segregation that was the law in South Africa until 1994. Today, Bernice King continues to promote equality, justice, and peace—all values that were important to her famous father, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bernice King was a small child in 1968, when her father was killed. But both of her parents passed down their principles to Bernice and her sister and brothers. Martin Luther King, Jr., believed in using nonviolent methods, such as education and peaceful demonstrations, to address racism and poverty. His wife, Coretta Scott King, was also a passionate fighter for equality. 

In 1968, Coretta Scott King founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, also called the King Center, to continue her husband’s work. Today, Bernice King is the head of the King Center, as well as a lawyer and a public speaker. Her aim is to provide people with tools they can use to bring about social change, peacefully.

Like her father, Bernice King believes that education is one key. Love is another. In 2022, she co-authored a children’s book called It Starts With Me. The book’s message is that each person can make the choice to be loving and compassionate to others. 

Bernice King believes that love isn’t just about caring for the people you know. It’s about having compassion for all of humanity.

“Now more than ever, I believe that my father would encourage humanity to join together in love,” King wrote in The Atlantic in 2021. “Love…is a powerful, moral force on the side of justice.” 

In December 2022, scientists reported that they had achieved a breakthrough in the quest for clean, unlimited energy. They were able to get more energy out of a nuclear fusion reaction than they put in.

Nuclear fusion is a process by which the nuclei of two light atoms, such as hydrogen atoms, are heated and combined to make one heavier atom. The process results in a burst of energy. 

Scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California used a powerful laser to heat hydrogen to more than 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit), which is hotter than the center of the Sun. The reaction produced more energy than the laser had put in.

Scientists have been doing nuclear fusion experiments for decades. But they hadn’t been able to achieve an energy gain until now. Since nuclear fusion produces no harmful greenhouse gases, the success at the LLNL suggests humans will someday have a way to produce clean, sustainable energy. 

Many experts caution that we shouldn’t count on nuclear fusion to end the climate crisis. It will be decades before scientists figure out how to reliably produce this energy in a way that can power our homes and vehicles. 

Still, this is a milestone for science.

“This is a historic achievement… over the past 60 years thousands of people have contributed to this endeavor, and it took real vision to get us here,” LLNL director Dr. Kim Budil told the BBC.

Cecilia Blomdahl has more than two million followers on TikTok—not because of what she does or who she knows, but because of where she lives. The place Blomdahl calls home is Longyearbyen, Norway, the world’s northernmost town. Longyearbyen is so close to the North Pole that, for two and a half months each year, it’s totally dark—even during the day. 

Longyearbyen’s days begin to get extremely short in October. On October 1, 2022, the Sun rose in Longyearbyen at 7:32 a.m. and set at 5:38 p.m. But on October 26, the sun rose at 12:09 p.m. and set at 1:11 p.m. Then, for about a month, the town experienced only “civil twilight,” in which the Sun didn’t rise over the horizon, making the sky look like it was in a constant state of sunset.

Some of the products sold on Amazon aren’t what they seem, and the company is taking action. Amazon is filing lawsuits and taking other steps to stop people from selling phony products on its website.

Third-party retailers are responsible for more than half of what is sold on Amazon’s website. Third-party sellers don’t work for Amazon—they just sell their products on its site. For years, Amazon has heard complaints that some third-party retailers are selling counterfeit items. These items—everything from perfumes to electronics—are made to look just like the real thing, and customers think that’s what they’re getting. 

The problem got worse at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were doing a lot of online shopping.

“Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen increased attempts by bad actors to commit fraud and offer counterfeit products,” Amazon vice president Dharmesh Mehta wrote in 2021.

In the past few years, Amazon has started making efforts to stop these counterfeiters. In November 2022, the company announced that law enforcement officials had seized millions of counterfeit goods from warehouses in England, the U.S., and China. The goods were being sold on the Amazon platform. Amazon has also teamed up with companies that have seen fake versions of their products on the Amazon platform, including 3M, Cartier, and GE, to file lawsuits against counterfeiters. And Amazon says that, in 2020 alone, it blocked billions of listings of fake products.

But experts caution that the problem has grown so large that Amazon may not be able to get it under control. According to Anand Nair, a researcher who studies economics, nearly two trillion dollars’ worth of counterfeit products are made each year. They’re not all fancy products, either. Fake versions of soap and baby formula have been sold on Amazon too. These goods are often made with cheaper ingredients than the genuine products, and they’re less likely to have been tested for safety.

Experts say it’s a good idea for buyers to beware—not only on Amazon, but all over the Internet.