Neanderthals Would Rather Die than Talk to You

Hi! I’m Becky Ferreira. I used to cover space, archaeology, paleontology, wildlife, and other natural mischief for Motherboard. Now, I cover those topics for a variety of publications; I’ve recently written about Moon poop, the Mars mania of 1924, the plight of endlings, and dinosaurs in space, which is my perennial obsession. I’ve also just finished a book about humanity’s quest to find aliens called First Contact, which will be out from Workman Publishing in fall 2025. 

One of my favorite parts of this job is reading scientific studies in full. I adore the jargon, the visualized data, and the way some tiny scrap of dirt or light can open windows into lost ecosystems, distant exoplanets, or the fundamental nature of reality. The specialized language of studies often inspires surprisingly lyrical turns-of-phrase like “origami tessellations,” “galactic cannibalism,” or “coda repertoire.” There are even emotive undercurrents of rivalry and admiration lurking in between the academized lines.

That’s why I’m so excited to launch The Abstract column with 404 Media. Every week, I'll round up the most exciting and mind-boggling studies I can find and summarize their results by quoting directly from the journal. I aim to show how scientists talk to each other, without getting too deep into the weeds. We’re experimenting with the format to gauge what works best, but I hope these weekly highlights offer an entertaining and enlightening glimpse of the vast annals of scientific arcana.

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