Lesser yellowlegs. Credit: Russ, Wikimedia Commons, CC license attribution
It’s the third of a generous five Saturdays in the month of November. What did we do to deserve such a bounty of days off? In the last week, we reported on hundreds of developments in science. Here is a more or less arbitrary sampling of them: Researchers reported on intra-regional brain dynamics linked to individual-specific characteristics; an AI model called AlphaProof delivers 100% correct answers to complex mathematical problems; and scientists found that a twice-weekly microdose of LSD over eight weeks reduces clinical depression scores without major side effects.
Additionally, humans have a form of “remote touch” similar to shorebirds; a new study ties psychological and neurological disorders to genetics; and the solar system is tearing through the galaxy over three times faster than previously believed:
Hands sensitive
Shorebirds have a form of “remote touch,” whereby they detect hidden prey through mechanical cues transmitted through sand, sensing food mechanically via sensitive specialized beaks. In a new study, researchers determined that humans share this sense, expanding the repertoire of human sensory ability beyond the five standard senses, already expanded by such newly studied senses as proprioception. This owes partly to the extreme nanoscale sensitivity of human hands: If your fingertip were the size of planet Earth, you would be able to distinguish the size difference between a house and a car through touch alone.
In the study, participants moved their fingers through sand to locate hidden cubes before physically touching them. The researchers found that humans matched the ability observed in shorebirds despite lacking the specialized beak structures that sandpipers use. In fact, the study reveals that human hand sensitivity “approaches the theoretical threshold of what can be detected from mechanical ‘reflections’ in granular material.” By contrast, when they tested the ability of a robot tactile sensor, the robot produced many false positives and achieved only 40% precision.
Tying psychology and neurology
Researchers in Oslo report genetic links between neurological disorders like migraine, stroke and epilepsy with psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and depression. The researchers analyzed genetic data from 1 million people with a range of psychiatric and neurological conditions, mapping shared and disorder-specific genetic signals.
First author, Olav Bjerkehagen Smeland, says, “We found that psychiatric and neurological disorders share genetic risk factors to a greater extent than previously recognized. This suggests that they may partly arise from the same underlying biology, contrasting the traditional view that they are separate disease entities. Importantly, the genetic risk was closely linked to brain biology.”
The findings confirm what many clinicians have experienced firsthand: that patients often present with overlapping symptoms across neurology and psychology. Among the findings, the research team found genetic susceptibility to stroke is associated with risk factors for thrombosis, while Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis are associated with the immune system. The genetic risk for psychiatric illnesses is intrinsically tied to neurons.
“This tells us that neurological and psychiatric disorders are heterogeneous, but may still be connected within a common biological framework,” says Smeland.
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3 Faster 3 Furiouser
Earth rotates while also revolving around the sun, like one of those carnival rides you loved as a child in which you are spinning on one axis while simultaneously revolving around a central hub, but which you can no longer tolerate as an adult. But additionally, the solar system is also traveling through the galaxy.
A new analysis using the LOFAR telescope network reported this week that the solar system is moving about three times faster than predicted by current models and the implications are, like the universe, vast: “If our solar system is indeed moving this fast, we need to question fundamental assumptions about the large-scale structure of the universe,” says study co-author Professor Dominik J. Schwarz.
In order to determine the motion of the solar system, the team looked at the distribution of radio galaxies, distant galaxies that emit strong radio waves with long wavelengths. As the solar system moves through the universe, an observer would see slightly more radio galaxies in the direction of travel—a tiny difference only detectable with highly sensitive equipment.
The measurement shows an anisotropy in the distribution of radio galaxies 3.7 times stronger than predicted by the standard model. The highly precise new measurements revealed a deviation exceeding five sigma, a statistically strong signal considered to be evidence for a significant result.
Written for you by our author Chris Packham, edited by Gaby Clark, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan—this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive.
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Saturday Citations: Humans have sensitive hands; solar system travels 3 times faster than predicted (2025, November 15)
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