SCIENCELIVE

Whether you like to bundle up with several layers of blankets or sleep on a bare mattress exposed to the elements, there's no one right way to sleep. But if you're trying to maintain a healthy weight, there might be: research shows that sleeping in a cold room could help boost your metabolism and make you burn more calories, even during the day.

Do you get a strange jolt of pleasure when you find the perfect gift for someone? What about when you volunteer to work for a shelter or donate money to your favorite charity? If you're not really the giving type, science says you should give it a shot.

you probably don't even think about the battery in your phone, or your car, or your flashlight—until it stops working. Often, that's when you're getting around the campground in the peak of summer or snapping a snow-angel selfie in the dead of winter. Why are batteries so sensitive to harsh weather? It's because inside each battery is a tiny chemical reaction, and chemical reactions are very dependent on temperature.

Any parent knows the value of a nap when it comes to preventing crankiness. But why do kids need so much sleep? And what happens to them physically if they don't get it? A new study shows that lack of sleep can be harmful to kids on a cellular level, but don't worry. We've also dug up some science-backed solutions for when your kids aren't sleeping enough.

When you live in close proximity to someone, it's common for illness to spread from one person to another. But mental illness? It's possible. The phenomenon is technically called shared psychotic disorder, but it's most famously known as folie à deux. The first case of the condition was documented in the 19th century, and described a 30-something married couple, Margaret and Michael. The couple shared a delusion that people were sneaking into their house at night spreading dust, dropping pieces of fluff, and wearing down the soles of the couple's shoes.

Every year, computers get closer to "thinking" like humans. Instead of following commands by rote, artificial intelligence can learn. Instead of processing one task at a time, neural networks use synthetic neurons to do many things at once. And soon, instead of overwriting old data every time they learn something new, the circuits of the future could gradually forget the information they no longer need.

Estimates say that 8 percent of the population will experience post-traumatic stress disorder sometime in their lives. The disorder arises after someone has a traumatic experience, like assault, an accident, or the horrors of war. The smallest trigger can often make them feel like they're reliving the trauma all over again.

Economics seems like a purely human idea: it deals with reasoned choices made by rational people who weigh the pros and cons of every exchange. But it turns out that not only does economics show up in the animal kingdom; it's more the rule than the exception.

Burmese pythons are among the largest snakes in the world — by the way, if you've got herpetophobia, it only gets worse from here — and they've managed to spread around the globe thanks to the exotic pet industry. But scientists aren't fascinated by their tendency to become an invasive species almost everywhere they go, or their habit of consuming cow-sized animals whole. No, it's the fact that a python will often let its heart, liver, and small intestine atrophy during a months-long fast, then, like one of the X-Men, suddenly regenerate all their internal organs when the need arises. With the help of a gene-sequencing supercomputer, researchers at Texas Advanced Computing Center got an idea of how the giant snakes pull it off. They think that one day, humans will be able to do it too.