Neuroscientists find that different parts of the brain work best at different ages

"'If you go into the data on gene expression or brain structure at different ages, you see these lifespan patterns that we don't know what to make of. The brain seems to continue to change in dynamic ways through early adulthood and middle age,' Germine says. 'The question is: What does it mean? How does it map onto the way you function in the world, or the way you think, or the way you change as you age?'"

Funerals are being held for robotic dogs in Japan because owners believe they have souls

"'I was thrilled over the interesting mismatch of giving cutting-edge technology a memorial service in a very conventional manner,' he said.

It is a mismatch that humans will probably become more used to over the coming years and decades, as robots with 'personalities' become ever more part of our lives."

Syrian conflict likely fueled by climate change, study claims

"Previous studies, cited in the paper, show that the drought, together with poor water management policies, led to crop failures that spurred 1.5 million people to migrate toward already packed urban areas. This exacerbated already dire social conditions, leading to the revolution against President Bashar al-Assad."

Conformity 'doubly hard' to beat

"'If all they care about is moving in the direction of the goal, they all end up in the same darn position,' says Epstein.

'It is a very counter-intuitive result ... Nobody had really thought that you could get conformity out of people trying to be distinct.'"

'Fairy control' to halt tiny doors in Somerset woods

"We've got little doors everywhere. We're not anti-fairies but it's in danger of getting out of control."

How hunting with wolves helped humans outsmart the Neanderthals

"The answer, she argues, was the creation of the human-wolf alliance. Previously they separately hunted the same creatures, with mixed results. Once they joined forces, they dominated the food chain in prehistoric Europe – though this success came at a price for other species. First Neanderthals disappeared to be followed by lions, mammoths, hyenas and bison over the succeeding millennia. Humans and hunting dogs were, and still are, a deadly combination, says Shipman."

Google wants to rank websites based on facts not links

"The software works by tapping into the Knowledge Vault, the vast store of facts that Google has pulled off the internet. Facts the web unanimously agrees on are considered a reasonable proxy for truth. Web pages that contain contradictory information are bumped down the rankings."