We're starting to get into the season of 2025 recaps and "best ofs," which means all the top dictionaries are choosing their words of the year. Dictionary.com's choice was more of a phrase, while Collins went for the tech-minded "vibe coding." And yesterday, Cambridge Dictionary announced it has decided on "parasocial," defined as "involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc., or an artificial intelligence." Learn more about the word.
Must Reads
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Culture
Long-Lost Bach Pieces, Examples of Composer's Young "Genius," Come to Life
Sebastian Willnow/picture alliance via Getty Images
Two new-to-the-public pieces by none other than Johann Sebastian Bach were recently performedfor the first time in over three centuries. Despite being one of the most prolific composers of the 1700s, many of Bach's works have been lost, misplaced, or tucked away in archives — but this week, two previously unidentified manuscripts, Chaconne and Fugue in D minor and the Chaconne in G minor, were added to his oeuvre. The identification had been a long time coming: Researcher Peter Wollny found the scripts at Brussels' Royal Library of Belgium in 1992, and after decades of investigation, he recently said he's "99.99% sure" they're among Bach's early works, written when he was around 20, per the BBC. "Stylistically, the works also exhibit characteristics that are found in Bach's works of this period, but not in those of any other composer," Wollny explained in a statement. The handwriting is believed to belong to one of the composer's students, Salomon Günther John. Dutch organist Ton Koopman played the pieces in a Monday concert at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach is buried. "When one thinks of the young Bach or Mozart, it is often assumed that their genius came later — but that is not the case," Koopman said. "These two works are of a very high quality that is hardly to be expected from such a young person." Listen to one of the pieces.
Together With Timeline
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Science
Falling Asleep Is a Steep Drop-Off, Not a Gradual Descent: Study
Malte Mueller/Getty Images
Picture a person falling asleep, and you may conjure up a gentle fluttering of eyelids or a slowing rise and fall of the chest as they ever so gradually drift off. That may be what it looks like on the outside, but according to a new study, falling asleep is a much more sudden event — a steep drop into dreamland rather than a gradual descent. After analyzing overnight EEG data from more than 1,000 people, scientists determined that a "tipping point" occurred in the transition from wakefulness to sleep, after which participants dropped off abruptly. The research team then replicated the experiment with 36 participants in a controlled lab setting and were successfully able to predict the moment of transition in real time. "We have identified that sleep onset is an abrupt transition with a tipping point at which the brain moves from a waking state into sleep," senior co-author Derk-Jan Dijk, with the U.K. Dementia Research Institute, said in a news release. These results differ from previous sleep models, offering a sharper cutoff point that may help improve the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders, lead to better monitoring of anesthesia, and more. Dijk explained: "By analyzing brain waves through a dynamical systems lens, we can generate new insights into how sleep really works, going far beyond what standard sleep scoring reveals."
Environment
You Can Watch the National Zoo's Cheetah Cubs Grow Up in Real Time
Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
Last month, four healthy cheetah cubs were born at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia — and now, you can watch the adorable youngsters grow up in real time via livestream. Through the Cheetah Cub Cam, viewers get a peek inside the den of the cubs and Amabala, their 5-year-old mother. Not only do the cubs represent two milestones (the 20th litter born at Front Royal's campus and the fifth to be broadcast through the video feed), but their birth was also a major accomplishment, since fewer than 7,000 cheetahs remain in the wild. It's also a "full-circle moment" for the zoo, per carnivore biologist Adrienne Crosier, as Amabala herself was born on camera in 2020. "Cheetahs can be challenging to breed, in part because female reproductive cycles can be sporadic and their behavior is often very difficult to interpret," she said in a statement. "It's taken our team of keepers, veterinary staff, and biologists thousands of man-hours to produce 20 litters." Viewers may get to see quite a few common cub behaviors via the cam, including nursing, wrestling to build coordination and strength, and getting lots of rest while they grow and develop. Zoo staff are staying as hands-off as possible to allow Amabala bonding time with her cubs. Tune in to the livestream and watch recorded video footage of the cheetah family.
In Other News
ICYMI, the 2026 Met Gala theme is "Costume Art" — learn what that entails (read more)
America's 250th birthday celebrations are starting early with a new commemorative ornament: Have a look (read more)
MacKenzie Scott has donated over $700 million to historically Black colleges and universities this fall (read more)
Reselling tickets for profit will be outlawed in the U.K. following an open plea from renowned artists (read more)
What the flock is going on? Hundreds of sheep paraded through a German city on their way to winter pastures(read more)
Inspiring Story
Decades of coffee and community
Happy belated birthday to Anna Possi! Italy's oldest barista turned 101 on Sunday, with no plans of retiring any time soon. Possi and her husband first opened Bar Centrale in northern Italy in 1958, and though he died in 1974, she's continued serving coffee there in the years since — often working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. "It's a bit like a family here, you know," she told PBS in Italian. "It doesn't feel like a bar to me. It feels like a meeting place."
Photo of the Day
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
It's not odd to see a traffic cone perched on the head of the Duke of Wellington Statue in Glasgow, Scotland — it's a tradition that's existed for decades. But what is unusual is the addition of a pigeon reading a newspaper with various bird poop-related headlines. Glasgow street artist Rebel Bear has taken credit for the installation, posting the whimsical sculpture on his Instagram page with the caption, "The dignified and undignified beasts."
Scientists Target a Root Cause of Aging
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*Our clinical study showed that sedentary, middle-aged adults with an average BMI of 29.52 increased hamstring muscle strength.
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Odds & Ends
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Quote of the Day
"Seek out each day as many as possible of the small joys."
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