Do girls and boys begin directing attention differently almost immediately after birth? In a study of 130 newborns, girls spent a greater share of their time looking at a human face, while boys split their attention more evenly between the face and a moving toy. That does not mean every girl or boy will behave the same way, and researchers say the cause is still unclear. Biology before birth, early developmental pace, and even differences in how the images looked to newborns could all play a role. The earliest moments of attention may hold more clues than we realize. Do the findings surprised you? Full report on StudyFinds!

Scientists built a “mosquito toilet” in a New Jersey backyard and what they found inside was no joke. Waste from 100 wild New Jersey mosquitoes contained a complete West Nile virus genome, the first known evidence of a Hedwig-like virus in the Americas, and sequences that may belong to viruses new to science. Study author Dana Price, from Rutgers University, created the so-called "toilet" using a 3D-printed funnel coated with a water-repellent spray so slick that droplets bead up and slide straight into a collection tube. Mosquito surveillance in the U.S. has long meant trapping insects by the thousands, sorting them by species, pooling them and grinding them up, all while keeping the samples cold enough that their genetic material does not fall apart. Standard lab tests then hunt for one suspected pathogen at a time. Sequencing everything in a few drops of waste flips that logic around, as Price put it: “If you don’t look for it, you won’t find it. But what if you don’t know what to look for?” Full report: studyfinds.com/mosquito-toil…

Scientists in Thailand just described a new flower species with a demon-inspired name—and it's already Critically Endangered. Thismia daemona skips sunlight entirely, feeding off underground fungi instead. Fewer than 50 plants are known, all in one small patch of forest. 😈 Full report: studyfinds.com/devil-flower-…

A lifetime of mental challenge was linked to more accurate memory in older adults, a small new study finds. Important caveat: the research shows an association, not proof that brain training prevents decline. studyfinds.com/secret-to-sha…

Deep in the Amazon rainforest lives a wild dog so seldom seen that researchers gave it a nickname: the ghost dog. Stocky, dark-furred, and built low to the ground, the short-eared dog had been so elusive for so long that almost nothing was confirmed about its numbers, habits, or exact range. A new study covering 25 years of fieldwork in Bolivia has finally pulled back the curtain on this mysterious animal, and the results are surprising. In the areas surveyed, the ghost dog appears to be considerably less rare than previously assumed. Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society set up remote cameras across the Bolivian Amazon and neighboring parts of Peru, patiently waiting for a creature that most scientists had only glimpsed in passing. What they ended up with was the largest confirmed collection of short-eared dog records ever assembled anywhere in the world, nearly 600 documented sightings captured on camera over more than two decades. Full story on StudyFinds!

A physicist at the University of Birmingham built a miniature “universe” from ultra-cold atoms to test a decades-old theory that time is not a built-in feature of the universe, but something that emerges from within it. By tracking how disorder flowed between two halves of the atom cloud, he constructed an “entropic time,” a clock built from internal chaos alone, with no outside reference needed. That internal clock successfully ordered a sequence of events inside the system, including tiny versions of a big bang and big crunch, and its predictions matched the experimental data when tested against a mathematical model. The results don’t resolve how time works in the actual universe, but they give physicists their first concrete, quantitative testbed for one of physics’ longest-standing unsolved problems. You can find the full report on StudyFinds

Buried with sacrificed humans. Fed like children. New study of Castillo de Huarmey, a Wari Empire burial site in Peru, shows ancient dogs were companions, scavengers, and even possible guides to the dead. Photo by Miłosz Giersz.

A major 30-year study in Sweden reveals that high-fat cheese and cream are linked to significantly lower rates of dementia, while butter and low-fat milk didn't show the same benefits. It’s not just about the fat; it’s about the source. Is it too good to be true? Link in bio!