Environment Animals Wildlife Birds Female Galápagos birds flaunt their sexual partners. The males don't seem to mind. 'Many of these female boobies are really freewheeling it when it comes to sexual behavior.' Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. A Galápagos bird species is stunning behaviorists with their "freewheeling" lifestyles.

Sex comprises an intricate tangle of impulses and interactions between partners. Neuroscientists have learned a great deal about the neural mechanisms underlying sex, but questions about the processes that control the sequence of events during sex remain unanswered. While past research has identified the regions of the brain that control how mice initiate sex, other steps of copulation are still mysteries. A team of researchers in China and Japan have investigated which brain regions and neurotransmitters are responsible for different phases during sex. A paper published March 19 in the journal Neuron describes what exactly goes on in a mouse brain during sex.

Mike Ananny walked his dog this morning. He did so with no expectation of privacy. "I know that I was subject to a wide variety of cameras, whether it's Ring doorbells, cars driving along, or even city traffic cameras," he said. "I didn't choose to participate in this whole variety of video surveillance systems. I just took my dog for a walk." Ananny understands that, wherever he goes, data about him is being collected, analyzed and monetized by artificial intelligence (AI). Kate Crawford drove a van deep into the arid Nevada landscape to get a good look at the evaporating brine ponds of the Silver Peak Lithium Mine.

It can be a sore point for evolutionary biologists who study sexual selection. In the popular coverage of evolution, mate choice too often gets overlooked, in the shadow of natural selection. Yale biologist Richard O. Prum's new book responds to this imbalance. Prum is William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale. Over the years he has conducted detailed field studies of multiple bird species and their mating habits all around the world.

Women have been made into servants once again. Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google's Google Home peddle stereotypes of female subservience--which puts their "progressive" parent companies in a moral predicament. People often comment on the sexism inherent in these subservient bots' female voices, but few have considered the real-life implications of the devices' lackluster responses to sexual harassment. By letting users verbally abuse these assistants without ramifications, their parent companies are allowing certain behavioral stereotypes to be perpetuated. Everyone has an ethical imperative to help prevent abuse, but companies producing digital female servants warrant extra scrutiny, especially if they can unintentionally reinforce their abusers' actions as normal or acceptable. In order to substantiate claims about these bots' responses to sexual harassment and the ethical implications of their pre-programmed responses, Quartz gathered comprehensive data on their programming by systematically testing how each reacts to harassment. The message is clear: Instead of fighting back against abuse, each bot helps entrench sexist tropes through their passivity. And Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have the responsibility to do something about it.