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While Disney fans await the arrival of Walt Disney’s high-tech robot this summer for Disneyland’s 70th anniversary, an interactive Mickey Mouse that can blink and talk while you eat popcorn out of its head is now available for purchase.

io9 was on hand to demo the latest in the popcorn bucket arms race, which started at Disney theme parks before becoming the hottest movie theater souvenir. While AMC Theaters’ Dune sandworm popcorn bucket seemed like the peak of out-there and bonkers snack vehicles, Disney is back with a robo-upgrade. Check out the moving and blinking bucket you can dig into while engaging in fun conversation starters with a simple “Hey Mickey?”

Sure, it’s pre-programmed with a handful of phrases but the real treat is the moving head and blinking eyes. It’s astounding and a little creepy but in a cute way, at least. What’s unhinged is that the interactive setting responds to your voice when you ask it the magic question—and it’s definitely got some kinks to work out. I literally screamed at it and it ignored me, but could somehow hear its cast member friend. Maybe I needed to take my voice down an octave or two in my best Gaston impersonation to be perceived by robot Mickey Mouse.

While we don’t see movie theaters adding voice activations to their buckets, unless maybe they do it for M3GAN, this is a delightfully wacky addition to the popcorn bucket hall of fame. We can only imagine what popcorn buckets will do by the time Disneyland turns 80.

Find your talking and moving Mickey Mouse popcorn bucket this summer at the Disneyland Resort.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

The University of Nebraska identifies seven elements of newsworthiness: impact (the number of people affected by a reported item); proximity (the degree of a community’s physical closeness to the reported item); timeliness (the more recent, the more timely); prominence (the importance of the reported item or the fact that it is associated with a celebrity); conflict (the degree of the reported item’s controversy); human interest (the degree to which a reported item appeals to readers’ “shared experience”); and novelty or oddity.

Hallucinations often meet all these requirements; those on this list certainly do.

Related: 10 Hallucinations Believed to Have Inspired Famous Works of Art

10 Conversations with Drapes

In 2023, Jeremy Renner was almost killed in a snowplow accident. As he recovered from surgery at home, following his hospital stay, he began to hallucinate, due to the powerful painkillers he took. He started chatting with his “buddies,” as he thought of his bedroom curtains, and having conversations with an “imaginary” Jamie Foxx.

He recalls this bizarre experience in his memoirs My Next Breath (2025), in which he states that he did most of the talking, since Foxx “wasn’t really there.” In his hallucinations, the actors even “went snowmobiling,” Renner wrote, even though “there’s no snow in Southern California.” He also died, he wrote, after the 14,000-pound (6,350-kg) snowplow ran over him, but was “pulled back to life” by a mysterious “force.”

When he quit taking his meds, cold turkey, he said that, for 36 hours, he cried and shivered, shedding “uncontrollable tears [and] doing everything [else he] could to just calm down.” Thereafter, “it was pretty much smooth sailing.”^[1]

9 Death Threats

Harry Hamlin survived his wife Lisa Rinna’s nightmarish hallucinations during the post-partum depression that she suffered after the births of the couple’s two children. In an edition of their podcast Let’s Not Talk About the Husband, the celebrity couple spoke of the hallucinations and of Rinna’s emotional state at the time. During an outing to see a movie, Hamlin said, Rinna told him, “You better watch out. I feel like killing you. Keep the knives in a drawer.”

Rinna acknowledged that she “was having horrible hallucinations of killing people, [and] needed to take the knives out of the house.” She also admitted to having “visions of driving the car into a brick wall.” Still, she never had “visions about hurting the baby.” The hallucinations, she said, were results of her feelings of hopelessness and darkest depression. After taking antidepressants for a few weeks, she was able to cope, but declares, “Looking back, I was totally psychotic.”^[2]

8 Bald-Headed Bears “with Big Eyes”

As fitness instructor Vanessa Ladouceur, 30, was walking to work in downtown Calgary, in Canada’s Alberta Province, Michael Adenyi, 28, stabbed her to death with the knife he carried in his backpack for self-defense.

There was a reason for her son’s act, his mother Ferita Loyuk testified at his trial: Michael believed that his victim was one of the frightening bald-headed bears “with big eyes,” he had been seeing. Toronto Star reporter Bill Graveland adds that it was only when he cut himself during the murder that Adneyi realized what had really happened.

Before he attacked Ladouceur, his mother said, her son had taken to “wearing his clothes backward,” conversing with his shoelaces, and showering for an hour at a time to mute the voices he heard. The bear-creatures were out to get him, he feared. He was also taking Prozac, which a psychiatrist had prescribed for him, as treatment for a depressive disorder.

Due to his disorder, their client should not be held criminally responsible, his lawyers argued. Prosecutor Carla MacPhail pointed out that Adenyi hadn’t spoken of animals during his discussions with police or his psychiatrist, but Loyuk countered, “That’s not what they were asking us.”^[3]

7 Firebugs

In 2025, in the city of Petaling Jaya, in Malaysia’s Selangor state, a 30-year-old male suspect allegedly set fire to his house. He claims he was obeying voices that commanded him to commit arson. Police believe that the suspect heard the firebugs’ voices after he’d taken methamphetamines.

The voices directed him to place lit papers among plastic containers inside his house, Kota Setar police chief Siti Nor Salawati Saad said. “As a result, his house burned down,” along with a few other houses. If convicted, the firestarter faces a fine and a possible five-year prison sentence.^[4]

6 Airborne Snakes

Apparently, the snakes decorating a man’s shirt came to life and began crawling about the cabin of the jet aboard which he was a passenger. This unexpected incident spurred the startled man into action, as he repeatedly cried “snakes on a plane! We need to land!” He also became “violent and abusive,” reporter Natalie Wilson states, and was intimidating staff and passengers.

As a result, the April 19, 2025, easyJet flight from London-Gatwick Airport to Marrakech, Morocco, was diverted to Faro, Portugal, where it was met by police upon landing. The snakes were imaginary, effects of hallucinations believed to have been caused either by excessive drinking or the use of illegal drugs.^[5]

5 Sloughing Skin

Nightmares in which the dreamer is crushed, attacked, trapped, or falling, or in which skin sloughs off others’ bodies, are possible symptoms of an incurable disease. Hallucinations are other possible signs. As one person described, a hallucination may seem like one has had a dream while awake, a dream that occurs while one is “sitting awake in the garden.” It may not be frightening or disorienting.

Along with other symptoms, nightmares and hallucinations may indicate that a person has lupus or another autoimmune disease. This can prevent false diagnoses of borderline personality disorder or psychosis and facilitate correct treatments with steroids, rather than anti-psychotic drugs, if the patient does, indeed, have lupus.^[6]

4 Murderous Killers

In 2025, undocumented immigrant Homero Salinas, 48, was arrested in Ellis County, Texas, after firing multiple rounds at his family’s home during a “hallucination-fueled incident.” He saw what no one else could see… People were trying to kill him after they’d murdered his family.

All told, Salinas, who was “under the influence of alcohol and cocaine,” had fired at least 30 rounds of ammunition into his family’s home. Fortunately, no one was injured or killed in the assault. However, police said, ammunition and a number of firearms were taken from the house, and Salinas was arrested.

“We are a nation of laws. When someone who has already had a detainer placed by [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is able to remain in the county, acquire firearms, and walk freely into a neighborhood with a gun, that’s a failure of enforcement,” Deputy City Manager for Public Safety John DeLeon said.^[7]

3 Anesthetic-Induced Sexual Hallucinations

In a 2023 journal article, the authors point out that female dental patients have experienced anesthetic-induced sexual hallucinations. In one case, “a 38-year-old woman who received 30 mg [of] diazepam and 150 mg [of] methohexitone for restoration of 25 teeth did not return for follow-up” because, she eventually said, during treatment, she had been “molested in the upper part of her body.”

Her charge was denied, and she was informed that a nurse was present throughout the entire operation. In addition, she was told that drugs such as diazepam could cause hallucinations. She finally accepted this explanation. Her hallucination might have been since the instruments were close to her chest and were often wiped off on the napkin placed on her chest.

Sexual hallucinations have also been known to occur while dental patients are anesthetized with propofol and can occur during sedation or anaesthesia with a wide range of psychotropic drugs. Patients can also become sexually aroused by such drugs. Since patients have, at times, actually been subjected to sexual assault by dentists while undergoing treatment under anesthesia, though, such claims must be taken seriously and investigated.^[8]

2 Aboriginal Artists

In an article published in 1978 by the peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA, the author proposes that circumstantial evidence suggests that “aboriginal rock paintings in two areas of North America” may have been “produced by shamans under the influence of hallucinogenic agents derived from plants.” Specifically, these plants include jimson weed (Datura wrightii) in California’s Central Valley and Coastal regions—Chumash and Yokuts tribes—and mescal bean in “the lower Pecos River region in Texas.”

The title of another article, published in 2020, asserts that Datura quids [pieces of chewing tobacco] at Pinwheel Cave, California, provide “unambiguous confirmation of the ingestion of hallucinogens at a rock art site.” The painting on the ceiling of a Californian rock art site called Pinwheel Cave may depict Datura flowers.

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) confirms what, before, was merely supposition: “hallucinogenic alkaloids scopolamine and atropine” were verified as present in quids at the site, and 3D analyses of the quids suggest that they were chewed and thus consumed in the cave under the paintings. These findings provide evidence to support the theory that the aboriginal shamans who created the artwork were, indeed, under the influence of hallucinogens.^[9]

1 “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window” and Other Songs

In a BBC News story dated February 15, 2013, Susan Root, then 63, declared, “My mum said I used to like [the 1953 hit song ‘How Much Is that Doggie in the Window?’] when I was a little girl. I don’t like it anymore.”

No wonder: despite two ear operations and visits to multiple doctors and therapists, she continued to hear the song, day in and day out, week after week, for over three years. The Coggeshall, Essex, school cleaner felt that the endlessly repeating song would drive her “mental.” It also interfered with her ability “to hear what her husband, retired lorry driver Graham,” said to her.

Root also heard snatches of other songs, including “God Save the Queen,” “Auld Lang Syne,” and “Happy Birthday,” as well as carols and hymns and, sometimes, buzzing sounds, among other “horrible noises.”

Although the condition, which is often caused by hearing loss, is incurable, it can be treated with hearing aids, relaxation, counselling, and background sounds.^[10]

I think we can all agree that our smartphone software—iOS and Android—has become stale. The systems are functional but boring, which they kind of have to be for billions of collective users to know how to use them without needing to pull out a manual every five seconds. But the design pendulum—for Android, at least—is finally swinging away from digital minimalism and toward a louder and more graphic design-y user interface.

Announced today ahead of next week’s annual Google I/O developer conference, the new “Material 3 Expressive” design language for Android 16 and Wear OS is the most opinionated take on Android that Google has put out. But will it tempt iPhone users over or further turn existing Android users away?

We got an early glimpse of the Material 3 Expressive design language a week ago when Google “accidentally” published a blog post about it, but now we’ve seen some short videos and GIFs of the new Android 16 and Wear OS in action—and it certainly looks refreshing. Beyond the bolder colors and fonts, Android seems more organic and bouncier. As a lover of graphic design, I’m tickled by the new visual direction. I already took a fancy to Google’s first attempt at making Android more “expressive” with Material You in Android 12. The greater customizations, typefaces, and even the squiggly lines in places like the media player controls really broke free from iOS’s monotony. Material 3 Expressive seems to take Android’s design to its natural next evolution.

I have my concerns about usability, though. While Google says Material 3 Expressive was born from research studies conducted over the past three years that took note of factors such as “where users focused their attention” and their “emotional responses to different designs,” how general users in the real world take to the Android refresh may be different. The intention and research may have shown that people prefer larger buttons and a new floating toolbar, but I could see many users also looking at Material 3 Expressive and feeling it’s cluttered and more difficult to discern what is a button and what isn’t. Google says its research showed the opposite, that changes like a significantly larger “Send” button in a message or email app lead to users spotting it “four times faster.”

Recall how futuristic and fresh Microsoft’s tile-based “Metro UI,” which actually started on the Zune, seemed to differentiate Windows Phone and Windows 8 from iOS and Android. Even today, Metro UI holds up. But despite a clean and seemingly intuitive UI and UX, consumers actually found it confusing and difficult to operate. Overly flourished software designs at the expense of usability rarely resonate with users.

There are some smaller changes that aren’t entirely visual. Like the Live Updates feature, which shows bite-sized real-time information, similar to what you get on iOS and iPhones with the Dynamic Island. One example Google shared was checking the arrival time for an Uber Eats delivery. Another small tweak: a more dynamic blur effect when pulling down the notification shade from the top of your phone.

Weirdly, Material 3 Expressive looks the best on Wear OS, Google’s smartwatch platform. Whereas it’s always felt like Wear OS was a UI made for square screens shoved into mostly round smartwatches like the Pixel Watch 3 and OnePlus Watch 3, Material 3 Expressive’s rounded buttons and bubblier animations look more at home and fluid. I really dig it.

If Google sticks to its usual beta release, we should be able to try out the new Material 3 Expressive version of Android 16 and Wear OS in the coming weeks.

Although Western films are no longer in their heyday—the Western cinematic gold rush lasted from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s—they’re still much loved. Gone are the days of the 1950s when Westerns outnumbered all other genres combined. Along with the enduring classics, a modern gem often hits the screen.

Whether current or classic, movies set in the Wild West were sometimes just as wild to film, so here are 10 interesting behind-the-scenes facts about some of the most popular Westerns to ever gallop across the screen.

Related: The Ten Most Lethal Gunslingers of the Old West

10 A Train Hit the Camera While Filming

For the shot of the train rushing toward the screen in High Noon (1952), the camera had to be placed directly on the tracks. While it’s a fantastic shot, it nearly killed director Fred Zinnemann and cameraman Floyd Crosby.

As the train approached, the smoke turned from white to black, which Zinnemann and Crosby—who were lying behind the camera on the tracks—thought looked great. What they didn’t know was that black smoke meant that the train’s brakes were failing. They realized at the last minute that the train wasn’t going to stop and moved out of the way just in time. But the camera tripod got caught on the rail and ended up being hit.

Thankfully, the film magazine survived the crash, and the shot of the approaching train was used in the final cut of the film.^[1]

9 An Actor Committed Suicide While Wearing His Costume

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) opens with three gunslingers ambushing Harmonica (Charles Bronson) at a train station. One of the assailants, Knuckles, was played by Al Mulock, who tragically committed suicide by jumping off his hotel balcony while still wearing his cowboy outfit from earlier that day.

In a 1998 interview, screenwriter Mickey Knox explained that he was in a room on a lower floor with production manager Claudio Mancini, and they “saw the body coming down, past our window.” The jump didn’t actually kill Mulock, so Mancini drove him to the hospital (he died of a punctured lung en route). But before they left, director Sergio Leone demanded that he “get the costume, we need the costume” because they hadn’t finished filming. He wanted it for whoever was going to be Mulock’s double.^[2]

8 Paul Newman Did Some of His Own Stunts

The scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) where Cassidy (Paul Newman) shows off on his bicycle was supposed to be filmed with a stuntman. Despite having spent a few days learning the tricks, the stuntman either couldn’t perform on the day of filming or (according to some reports) declared it too dangerous. Newman simply decided to do the tricks himself. The only one he didn’t do was the crash backward through the fence; cinematographer Conrad L. Hall stepped in for that shot.

Robert Redford (the Sundance Kid) also wanted in on the action—specifically, he wanted to run along the top of the train car—but Newman was against it. Rather than being annoyed at being upstaged, it was because of safety concerns. “I don’t want any heroics around here,” he said. “I don’t want to lose a co-star.” Redford agreed in the end.^[3]

7 Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner Hated Working Together

Filming The Magnificent Seven (1960) proved to be a challenge thanks to some on-set friction between Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner. McQueen was a rising star at the time, and he took a dislike to Brynner, who had a bigger role. McQueen deliberately made distracting noises—such as jangling his shotgun shells or flipping a coin—during scenes when Brynner was speaking. He would also destroy the mound of dirt that Brynner stood on to match the height of the other actors.

Eventually, Brynner got so fed up with McQueen’s ribbing that he got physical. “Brynner came up to me in front of a lot of people and grabbed me by the shoulder,” McQueen said in his 2005 biography. “He was mad about something. He doesn’t ride well and knows nothing about guns, so maybe he thought I represented a threat.” However, co-star Robert Vaughn had a different idea about why McQueen was antagonistic: “Steve was intensely competitive. It wasn’t enough just to be successful—he had to be more successful than anyone else.”

In his final days, McQueen apologized to Brynner for his behavior, calling him up to say, “You coulda had me kicked off the movie when I rattled you, but you let me stay and that picture made me, so thanks.”^[4]

6 The First Film to Feature Audible Flatulence

Although films with sound started being made during the 1920s, it took decades for the first audible fart to hit the screen (or, rather, the speakers). While Yasujirō Ozu’s Good Morning (1959) is full of farts, the noises are made by musical instruments, which somewhat softens the blow. The first realistic flatulence came in 1974’s Blazing Saddles, which includes a scene of cowboys around a fire eating beans and farting.

“Blazing Saddles for me was a film that truly broke ground. It also broke wind… and maybe that’s why it broke ground,” said director Mel Brooks. He didn’t include the scene to make movie history; he simply wanted to portray reality: “I mean, you can’t eat so many beans without some noise happening there.”

That iconic scene isn’t the movie’s only fart joke either. Governor Lepetomane (played by Brooks himself) was named after a 19th-century French flatulist whose name translates to “fartomaniac.”^[5]

5 Stuntman Could Easily Have Died During Coach Drag Stunt

Enos Edward “Yakima” Canutt was hired by director John Ford for Stagecoach (1939) on the recommendation of the film’s star, John Wayne. Although there are many impressive stunts throughout the film, one particular stunt looks suicidal: the coach drag. Canutt jumps from his horse onto one of the stagecoach’s lead horses, but then he’s shot and falls between the horses. After being dragged along for a bit, he lets go, and the stagecoach rides over him.

The sequence was incredibly dangerous to film, but a few safety measures were in place. First of all, the horses had to gallop fast—at a speed of 45 mph (72 km/h). Canutt explained that this was “so they’ll run straight. If they run slow, they move around a lot.” Metal bars were also placed between each pair of horses to create a small gap in which Canutt could safely be dragged without being trampled. And when it looks like he falls, he actually catches himself on a modified tongue-tie. As for letting go, Canutt simply said, “You’ve got to hold your elbows close to your body, or that front axle will knock them off.”

After witnessing the dangerous stunt, Ford told Cannut that even if they failed to capture it, he’d “never shoot that again.” Thankfully, it was filmed perfectly.^[6]

4 Oreos Were Used to Wrangle a Buffalo

Animals can be notoriously tricky to work with, but the spectacular buffalo hunt—technically, a bison hunt—in Dances with Wolves (1990) was worth the effort. Filming the scene required a staggering 3,500 bison plus 20 wranglers, 10 pickup trucks, and a helicopter.

“The trucks began herding the buffalo at five o’clock in the morning in hopes that they would be in position by eleven,” producer Jim Wilson told Entertainment Weekly. This lengthy setup meant that the scene took eight days to film.

The filmmakers also used two tame bison for certain shots. Musician Neil Young allowed the production to borrow his pet bison, Mammoth, and the other, Cody, was the mascot of a meat company. “Cody was obsessed with Oreo cookies,” Wilson said. “You could be 100 yards away, pull out an Oreo, and he’d take off like a bullet straight for you.” The terrifying moment when an enraged bison charges at a boy was achieved by holding up an Oreo for sweet-toothed Cody.^[7]

3 A Real Earp Had a Role in a Western

If you’ve ever read the full credits for Tombstone (1993), you may have noticed that the name Wyatt Earp actually appears twice. The first time is, of course, the character played by Kurt Russell, while the second time is the name of the actor playing Billy Claiborne.

Although credited as Wyatt Earp, the actor was born Glenn Wyatt Earp, and he’s a distant relative—a fifth cousin to be precise—of the famous lawman. Although likely an advantage for getting a role in Tombstone, he said the name usually works against him. “Actually, there has been greater skepticism of me as an actor because of my name,” he explained in a 1993 interview. “Casting directors would call up my agent and say: ‘Is this guy for real?’”

In a 2023 Facebook post, Earp explained that he originally had a bigger role in Tombstone, but many of his scenes were cut, including “the stagecoach robbery where I killed Mr. Fabian and the gunfight where I was killed by Billy Breckinridge.”^[8]

2 A Stuntman Lost a Leg While Filming

It’s rumored that a stuntman was killed during a fight scene in How the West Was Won (1962), but in reality, he wasn’t killed, and the accident didn’t happen during filming. During “The Outlaws” chapter, a gunfight breaks out on a moving train, and Bob Morgan was working as the stunt double of George Peppard. Morgan had safely completed his shots and was resting against the train when some fiberglass logs fell off the car and knocked him onto the tracks. He was then crushed by the train’s axle.

Although Morgan lived, he didn’t get away lightly: He lost one of his legs and some of the bones in his spine and was facially disfigured. His stuntman days were over, but he did continue to act. His missing leg even led to a few pegleg-specific roles, including Iron Horse (1967), Chisum (1970), and Scarlet Buccaneer (1976).^[9]

1 A Bridge Explosion Had to Be Unexpectedly Filmed Twice

The scene where Blondie (Clint Eastwood) and Tuco (Eli Wallach) blow up the bridge in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) is iconic. Still, the cameras weren’t actually rolling the first time the structure was destroyed. Everything was ready, and director Sergio Leone just needed to wait for the correct lighting before the signal—the Spanish word “vaya”—could be given to the person responsible for blowing the bridge.

However, someone said the word about a different element of the scene, and the explosives crew member thought it was the signal and lit the ignition before the cameras were ready. Despite the enormity of this mistake, Leone apparently just said “let’s go eat” and waited for the construction crew to rebuild the expensive bridge. Thankfully, the cameras were rolling the second time around.^[10]

The new study published today in Nature Human Behaviour delivers the first field evidence that wild chimpanzees form organized attachments to their mothers — secure or insecure-avoidant — but never disorganized. The implications challenge long-held assumptions about human attachment.

“We found no evidence of disorganized attachment in wild chimpanzees, unlike in humans and in orphaned chimpanzees raised in captivity,” says Eléonore Rolland Institute of Cognitive Sciences Marc Jeannerod, in an email to ZME Science. “This supports the idea that disorganized attachment may not be an evolutionarily adaptive strategy in high-risk environments like the wild.”

“However, we did observe clear individual differences that aligned with recognized human attachment patterns — specifically, secure and
insecure-avoidant types. This suggests that the attachment system is deeply rooted in our evolutionary past and may operate similarly across species in certain contexts.”

Disorganized Attachment May Be a Human Problem

Psychologists identify four main types of attachment, based on how infants respond to stress and their caregiver’s availability. Secure attachment is the healthiest, most adaptive type. Insecure-avoidant attachment is linked to more independent behavior but also suppressed emotional needs. Insecure-resistant (or ambivalent) attachment is linked with clinginess and anxiety. The most troubling one is disorganized attachment. This is linked to emotional dysregulation, mental health problems, and difficulties forming stable relationships.

The study challenges a common belief: that all human attachment types are equally rooted in evolution. They’re not. Disorganized attachment, with its confused, fearful approach-avoidance behavior, doesn’t seem to show up in the wild.

If a baby chimp doesn’t know whether to run to or from its mother when scared, it may freeze at the worst possible moment. That’s not a useful strategy. It’s a glitch. In the unforgiving wild, such glithces are quickly wiped out. But if human infants develop disorganized attachment in environments where there’s no predator to tax you — well, that glitch can persist.

In this study, none of the wild chimpanzees showed signs of “disorganized” attachment.

“Our findings suggest that humans and chimpanzees share foundational aspects of attachment behavior, indicating that this system has deep evolutionary roots. At the same time, environmental conditions play a significant role in shaping how attachment is expressed.”

“For example, disorganized attachment seems to emerge more frequently in environments where offspring are not exposed to survival threats, such as in captivity or modern human societies.”

A Look At Chimps

To find out how wild chimpanzee infants form bonds with their mothers, researchers followed 50 young chimps — ranging from newborns to ten-year-olds — for over 3,700 hours in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. They watched how these infants behaved during real-life stressful events: sudden aggression nearby, alarm calls, loud noises in the forest. These were natural threats, the kind that actually matter for survival in the wild.

They focused on what the chimps did in these moments of fear — did they run to mom, stay put, or act independently? Using a detailed catalogue of behaviors, they tracked each infant’s responses and analyzed patterns over time. To detect attachment styles, they applied machine learning techniques to identify behavioral clusters, similar to human categories like “secure” and “insecure-avoidant.”

As none of the chimpanzees showed the erratic, conflicted behaviors that define disorganized attachment in humans and captive chimps, this suggests that such responses may not be viable in the wild.

“In humans, attachment is often assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure, where infants are briefly separated from their caregiver and reunited, and their responses are observed. Since such an experimental setup isn’t possible and is unethical in the wild, we developed a non-invasive approach that captures the core principles of attachment theory.”

Some infants would immediately seek comfort from their mother, while others would move away independently. “These consistent behavioral differences allowed us to identify distinct attachment types, regardless of the age of the offspring,” the researcher adds.

In humans, disorganized attachment is surprisingly common: about 23.5% of children exhibit it. In orphaned chimps raised in captivity, it’s even more prevalent — 61%. But in the jungle? Nada.

This is the main finding, and it supports the idea that disorganized attachment may not be an adaptive survival strategy in the wild. If you’re a baby chimp, you’re either clinging to mom for dear life, or learning to handle yourself — but you’re not flailing around in a confused mess. Because if you are, you probably don’t survive long enough to pass on your genes.

So, what does this say about us?

This Is Also About Humans

Rolland’s findings suggest that the basic architecture of attachment — secure and avoidant — may be shared across our evolutionary relatives. That makes sense. Across primates (and mammals in general), the ability of infants to stay close to a caregiver during threats is a matter of life and death.

But modern humans don’t face those same threats. We’ve traded leopards for layoffs and community for daycares. We live with the tactile comfort for screens, free from many of the evolutionary pressures shared by our ancestors and our close relatives. In these radically altered environments, attachment patterns may not play out in the same adaptive ways.

“Our results deepen our understanding of chimpanzees’ social development and show that humans and chimpanzees are not so different after all,” says Rolland. “But they also make us think: have some modern human institutions or caregiving practices moved away from what is best for infant development?”

The implication is unsettling. Modern environments — especially those marked by social fragmentation, institutional care, or inconsistent parenting — might inadvertently foster attachment patterns that are out of sync with what our brains evolved to expect.

The rise of disorganized attachment in human societies be a signal that something is off in how we structure early childhood. Studies in humans have shown that consistent, responsive caregiving can prevent disorganized attachment — even in high-risk settings.

They’re continuing to follow the chimpanzees as they grow into adolescence and adulthood.

They named it Anauchen picasso.

The snail’s shell defies the smooth spirals we associate with its kind. Instead, it folds into boxy, angular whorls, a shape one researcher described as “like a cubist interpretation of other snails with ‘normal’ shell shapes.” It’s a natural form so distinct, so artful, that it seemed to demand a name that commands respect.

A Microscopic Art Gallery in the Jungle

The discovery came amid a sweeping effort to catalog the often overlooked: microsnails, land mollusks smaller than a grain of rice. Led by Serbian Ph.D. student Vukašin Gojšina and his Hungarian mentor Barna Páll-Gergely, the international team has just published a 300-page monograph in the journal ZooKeys detailing 46 new species from across Southeast Asia—Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. These include 17 new species of Anauchen.

Most are no larger than five millimeters. But their shells, the researchers write, are “real beauties.”

Intricately coiled, their apertures—the openings where the snail emerges—are often armed with jagged, tooth-like barriers. These features likely act as armor against predators. In some species, the final curl of the shell twists upward or downward, flipping the whole structure into what looks like an upside-down spiral. Such traits helped scientists tease apart species that, to the untrained eye, look nearly identical.

“Although the shell sizes of these snails are less than 5 mm, they are real beauties!” the researchers emphasized. “Their shells exhibit extraordinary complexity.”

Why Microsnails Matter

To outsiders, these minuscule molluscs might seem trivial. But they tell a much larger story—about evolution, geography, and extinction.

The limestone landscapes of Southeast Asia are biodiversity hotspots, and snails are their quiet sentinels. Because they don’t migrate far and are adapted to very specific niches, their shells serve as a record of evolutionary change and environmental isolation.

Yet they are also at risk. Many species described in the new study are known from only a single cave or cliff face. That makes them exceptionally vulnerable to habitat destruction, particularly quarrying for cement, which is widespread in the region.

“The Latin word evanidus means vanishing, which refers to the quarrying of the type locality of this species,” the authors explain of Anauchen evanidus, one of the new species whose only known habitat may already be gone.

In that sense, each new species is both a scientific discovery and a conservation emergency.

Not all of the species were recently collected. Some had been hiding in plain sight for decades—in drawers at the Florida Museum of Natural History, where specimens gathered during the 1980s had sat unrecognized. Now, with fresh eyes and sharper tools, they’ve been named and described.

But many of the places these snails once lived may no longer exist.

Deforestation and limestone quarrying are rampant across Southeast Asia. These are not just general threats to biodiversity—they are lethal to land snails, which often evolve in small, hyper-local pockets of habitat and can vanish when even a single hill is destroyed. Some of the species in this new catalog might already be extinct.

Yet even in extinction, they tell a story.

“These snails,” the authors wrote, “are pieces of art hidden in the leaf litter.” Their forms are sculpted over millennia by evolution and geology, shaped as much by isolation as by adaptation. The toothy apertures, the upside-down shells, the cubist spirals—these are records of survival, etched in calcium carbonate.

Have you ever considered a sea sponge? They are some of the oldest and longest-lived creatures in the world. The oldest one we know of was at least 4,500 years old, and they have been around for at least 750 million years. Clearly, they’re doing something right, but whatever it is, they do it without a brain.

Sea sponges are some of the simplest organisms in the world. They don’t have any organs at all, not even neurons. But if you follow the evolutionary record far enough, back before our ancestors had brains, it took only 18 kinds of cells to come together to form the sea sponge. There were enough genes in there to make a brain, but the sea sponge didn’t need one. 

As simple as a sea sponge is, they are rooted in place and feed on microorganisms that get caught up in them; they is also remarkable. Before the sea sponge, most of the life on Earth was single-celled organisms. For billions of years, in fact, this was the standard. And then life got motivated to do something interesting. 

Several cells came together and the sea sponge was formed, shortly after comb jellies. Near as we can tell, sea sponges were probably the second multicellular organism ever. But the comb jelly was an evolutionary endpoint, nothing came from them. From the sponge came everything, even us. 

Nervous systems and brains evolved in us after. Maybe an earlier relative had these or maybe the sponge just set the groundwork. But they proved, and still proved, life can flourish without a brain, without a nervous system, without very much at all. But how?

What Organisms Have No Brain? 

It may not be surprising to learn that most of the creatures that don’t have a brain in this world live in the sea. As we saw with sponges and comb jellies, multicellular life developed in the sea, and a lot of it has stayed there and never evolved the need for a brain. Most of these creatures are fairly slow-moving or even permanently rooted in place. 

Aside from the two we already met, things like starfish, jellyfish, sea cucumbers, coral, and clams don’t have brains, either. All of them function very well and can eat, reproduce, and live their lives without any need for a brain. Additionally, sea anemones, nematodes, and oysters are brainless, as are tapeworms and various other parasites. And, though it does seem rather obvious, plants and fungi are devoid of brains as well. 

How Can an Organism Survive With No Brain?

So, you’re an organism with no brain. How are you supposed to survive the big, wide world? How does something with no brain know how to find food? How does it avoid Predators, extreme environments, horrible accidents, and every other thing that your brain helps you navigate on a day-to-day basis? For some creatures, it’s a lot easier than you might think.

All the creatures we have described are fairly simple organisms. They don’t need to do a lot to get by during the day. They eat, they reproduce, some of them do nothing more than that in their lifetimes. When you consider the organisms that don’t have brains, consider how they live their lives. A brain takes a lot of energy to operate. Most of these organisms simply couldn’t handle having a brain unless they greatly altered how they survive.

For the most part, these organisms have a spread-out system that operates like a nervous system but isn’t quite the same as one. Starfish, for instance, have a decentralized nervous system. There is a nerve ring, and nerve signals are sent from each individual arm along a radial nerve, but they operate independently.  

The sea star moves by one of the tiny little feet that exist on the bottom of the arm, reaching forward, and that motion is detected by the others, and they all independently decide to move along with it. So there is no single brain deciding what to do; it is just nerve signals that work in conjunction to allow the entire organism to move, to eat, to do whatever it needs to do. 

Basically, an organism doesn’t need a brain to survive if it’s not that complex to begin with. As long as it has some kind of nerve structure in its body that sends signals to allow whatever parts it has to do their job, that’s all you need. It won’t be a rich life full of art, laughter, and music, but it can get you from point A to point B and keep you fed. 

What Can a Brainless Creature Do?

Jellyfish have a group of nerves called a nerve net or ring that is spread throughout their body, not centralized like a brain, but it still operates very much like what you might expect of a brain in some ways. It can sense changes in the environment like temperature, salinity, vibrations, and current. These nerves are what allow a jellyfish to know where it needs to go to avoid harm and pursue beneficial things.  

Clusters of nerve endings called rhopalia allow the jelly to sense light and maintain its upright status so it doesn’t end up swimming straight down all the time.

Even without a brain, jellyfish can learn and adapt. Habituation and sensitization, when you get used to something or you can’t ignore something, are how many creatures, like jellyfish, were thought to learn for a long time. But associative learning, like when your cat comes running because it heard the can opener and associates the sound with dinner, was thought to be impossible for these simple creatures.  

However, studies on jellyfish have shown that associative learning is possible even without a brain. Tanks were painted to look like distant mangroves, contrasting light and dark roots that the sensitive eyes of the Caribbean box jellyfish would be able to detect.  

Initially, the jellyfish swam towards these contrasting colors, which they thought were roots, and hit the side of the tank. But they quickly learned to stay away from the painted roots, having associated going towards them with the discomfort of bumping into the side of the tank. Not a big deal for you or me, or even your cat, but for something with no brain at all? That’s impressive. 

Sea anemones showed similar associative learning when presented with light and a shock stimulus. In time, some of them were able to learn that the light represented the potential for a shock and would retract just due to light without the shock, meaning they had learned, even without a brain, to avoid one thing since it was associated with another.  

Other anemones that are normally hostile to intruders can learn, after repeated interactions, when a nearby anemone is a genetic clone. It can recognize its own and not be hostile after learning that they are the same. 

Some jellyfish have also shown off behavior that you might not think is unusual at first – sleeping. You take it for granted that most things have to sleep at some point, but if a jellyfish doesn’t have a brain, what is it going to sleep for? Sleep doesn’t necessarily happen to rest the body, and while we don’t fully understand the need for sleep as it relates to the brain, we know the brain needs sleep to sort of reorganize, recharge, and clean house. So why does the Cassiopeia jellyfish do it? 

Researchers think it’s for basically the same reason that you and I sleep, but not as complex. It has led them to believe that there may have been a primitive form of sleep that existed before nervous systems were even a thing biologically, hundreds of millions of years ago.

Slime molds, another fascinating and weird creature that can exist as a single-celled organism or cluster together to form larger organisms, are also devoid of brains. To see them, you would probably never doubt this because, as the name suggests, they look like slime. However, this slime has proven it can solve mazes.

When placed at one end of a maze with food at the other, a slime mold will expand and fill in every path, taking every dead end. As it closes in on the food, it can retract the dead-end slimes back to the main body, leaving a trail to act as a signal to the rest of the slime to not go that way. Instead, all the slime will follow the shortest path to the food once it has learned that all the other ways are dead ends. 

Even more amazing is that if one slime mold has learned to avoid something, it can be joined with another slime mold, and the new mold will learn from the old one to stay away from the negative stimuli. 

Slime molds have also managed to solve the two-armed bandit problem, something that had previously been deemed only possible by organisms with brains. In simple terms, the two-armed bandit problem is a decision-making problem based on slot machines or one-armed bandits. You have two slot machines in front of you, and you need to decide which one you should play for the most rewards.

The choice is based on exploration versus exploitation. If you can only pull one arm at a time, you need to figure out which option is best between trying one and then the other or sticking with just one in the hopes of maximum payoff. You don’t know which one is the right choice, so you have to make a decision based on your experiences. 

It’s not vastly complicated decision-making, but for a brainless slime mold to demonstrate the ability to master it is remarkable.  In the experiment, the slime mold was given two paths to follow. One path led to a high-value food item, and the other path led to a low-value food item. Over time, the slime learned to adjust the path it followed to only go to the high-value item. In other words, it explored both options but exploited the more lucrative one. 

Can a Human Survive With No Brain?

We know that many creatures have far more primitive brains than humans. And we now know that some organisms have no brain at all. So, how much of a brain does a human need to survive? Can a human live without a brain?

 A man went to see a neurologist at the University of Marseille and had a brain scan done. The neurologist was shocked to discover that the man had almost no brain at all inside his skull. The cavity was filled almost completely with cerebrospinal fluid, and there was the barest amount of tissue there. This was a 44-year-old man who had a job as a civil servant. The test concluded that he had a below-average IQ, but he was perfectly able to function on his own. He was living a perfectly normal and, by all accounts, happy life. 

The man had been born with a condition called hydrocephalus. The fluid that normally surrounds your brain had begun to press the brain tissue aside until it took up too much space. This is normally treated with a shunt that allows the liquid to drain off so the brain can expand back into space again. 

Some people with this condition suffer great neurological and cognitive impairments. But some, even with as little as 5% brain tissue, can live perfectly normal lives. In one case, a young man with a layer of brain tissue just a millimeter thick inside his fluid-filled skull had a recorded IQ of 126 and had earned an honors degree in mathematics.  

Around the world, people have gone to the hospital complaining of one problem or another, only to have scans of their brains show that they were missing their entire cerebellum. A woman named Michelle Mack was born with only the right side of her brain, which seemed to take over and rewire itself, according to doctors, to make up for the missing left portion. She has lived a full life, graduated from high school, and has a job and data entry.

While it is certainly unusual and not ideal, in some cases, humans can adapt to functioning with reduced and even very little brain tissue. As long as the brain stem is intact, controlling most of your autonomic functions, it seems that some people can continue to thrive even in the most extreme circumstances.

Religion is a source of comfort and conscience. As people look to their respective gods for guidance, their conclusions inform their values, drive their actions, and give meaning to events. However, that pattern isn’t always a good thing, as some religious practices aren’t so righteous. An ignoble doctrine could be a cheap excuse to set the faithful on their fellows. The results are predictably tragic, and fiction is an effective way to demonstrate that.

Audiences encounter a slew of evil religions in storytelling. These crooked systems push their followers toward some of the worst acts imaginable. Virtually no sacrifice is off the table, regardless of ethics. If members harbor doubts or regrets, leaders (divine or otherwise) have twisted methods to secure their compliance by force. What they don’t reveal is that these practices are just a means to lord over the unwashed masses. In that respect, such religions are simply tyrannies without resistance. What a scary thought!

Related: The Ten Greatest Fictional Rivalries of All Time

10 Cult of the Pah-wraiths

One man’s alien is another man’s god. Such is the case in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The show’s resident wormhole houses a group of omnipotent beings. These ethereal entities can see the past, the present, and the future. They usually forward these visions to the nearby planet of Bajor. As a result, the Bajorans see these “Prophets” as benevolent deities. The caretakers harbor a dark past, though.

The Prophets’ sinister counterparts are the Pah-wraiths. Cast out of the wormhole and banished to Bajor’s Fire Temple, they seek revenge for both their peers and the galaxy. That vengeance involves the same tactics, albeit taken to greater extremes. The Pah-wraiths induce visions to possess any willing species, forcing them to commit terroristic rituals.

These actions ultimately go toward releasing the false gods from their imprisonment. Disgraced militiaman Gul Dukat proves instrumental in this aim, as he begins a cult dedicated to the Pah-wraiths. Each party wants to pay the universe back for past wrongs, so spreading the fires of destruction satisfies them both.^[1]

9 Church of Yevon

Imagine learning that the divine savior is really the bringer of Armageddon. Final Fantasy X slowly reveals as much with Yu Yevon. In ages past, this sorcerer led his native Zanarkand against the mechanized Bevelle. His imminent loss drives him to magically conjure an artificial Zanarkand, thereby preserving it in some form. To protect its hidden location, he creates Sin: a cataclysmic monster who ravages the land and destroys any cities deemed too advanced. Of course, he doesn’t count on the effort breaking his mind, instead spawning a creature of pure instinct. He also doesn’t predict the propaganda that follows.

Centuries later, the Church of Yevon keeps the world enthralled. The priests deify the sorcerer and demonize anyone who disputes his brilliance. Moreover, they brand any technological society as heretical, saying that their profane practices bring Sin’s wrath. Saving the land requires everyone to accept Yevon as the messiah. The murderous kaiju is bad enough, but this doctrine shrouds it in revisionist history to keep people in the Stone Age.^[2]

8 Kali Cult

Yes, Kali is a real Hindu goddess, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom takes a ton of liberties with her depiction. In this film, a group of Thuggee cultists commits various vile acts in service to the deity. Among these sins is kidnapping the children of a nearby village, forcing them to mine for the mystical Sankara stones that grant divine power to whomever holds them. As deplorable as slave labor is, it pales next to the Thuggee’s main attraction.

These bloodthirsty killers make a grand spectacle of human sacrifice. After selecting an unfortunate prisoner, the cultists strap the victim to a metal cage. High priest Mola Ram recites a prayer to Kali before pulling out the target’s heart. Finally, they lower the cage into a fiery pit. As the prisoner bursts into flames, his heart does the same. This macabre display is what Mola Ram intends to replace all other religions, so Indy sets to work on stopping him.^[3]

7 Sith

The most powerful force in Star Wars is, well, the Force. This mystical energy field binds the galaxy together, granting telekinesis, telepathy, and other abilities to people who channel it. The Jedi use mental focus and emotional serenity to wield the Force as peacekeepers, but not everyone believes in such restraint.

The Sith strive to further their own interests. Unlike their Jedi rivals, they draw on passionate emotions like anger to fuel their feats, wielding the Dark Side of the Force with utter abandon. The universe granted them this gift, so why shouldn’t they use it to its fullest potential? It doesn’t matter if they harm a few normal people. Exercising their might is the purest expression of the Force.

That line of thinking informs many a Star Wars tyrant. Darth Sidious, Darth Revan, Darth Nihilus, and Darth Malgus all ravage the galaxy with their profane expertise. Their seductive teachings often attract equally horrible followers, most of whom are fallen Jedi. The Dark Side might not be the right path, but it is the easy one.^[4]

6 Cult of the Absolute

This group gives new meaning to brainwashing. In Baldur’s Gate III, a new religion throws the realm into chaos. High-ranking officials abandon longstanding beliefs, and legions of initiates converge on pivotal locations, leaving trails of bloodshed in their wake. The Cult of the Absolute is responsible for these phenomena. Heading the movement are the religious leaders devoted to the three gods of death. These disparate Chosen now stand united in their worship of the enigmatic Absolute. Then again, things aren’t so simple.

It turns out that the Absolute is an Elder Brain. This telepathic organism is part of the Mind Flayer/Illithid species, controlling others of its kind through a neural link. Humans are immune, but the creatures can morph them into Illithids by infecting them with tadpoles. The aforementioned Elder Brain is a slave to the Chosen, letting them weaponize its biological gifts for their own ends. With a few tadpoles, they can quash entire kingdoms.^[5]

5 Church of the Eternal Fire

A light in the darkness sounds like an uplifting prospect. The Eternal Fire starts as such. Humans within the Witcher world often face ominous uncertainty, clashing with other sentient species while avoiding nightmarish monsters. Amid that uncertainty, a fire provides a beacon for lost souls to gather, gives them strength to face the coming adversity, and drives away any encroaching evil. It’s how followers interpret that evil that creates problems.

The Church of the Eternal Fire begins to see any abnormality as part of the darkness. Elves, Dwarves, dopplers, and even Mages become personae non gratae. Purging these aberrations is the only way to ensure human safety, so the church’s enforcers round them up and burn them at the stake. They preach that the pure flames will cleanse these souls. Anyone with eyes, however, can see this practice for what it is: a witch hunt.^[6]

4 Children of Doom

Death is endemic to Conan the Barbarian, but it usually occurs in battle. This cult takes all the glory out of such a sacrifice. The Children of Doom appropriately serve a leader named Thulsa Doom. This wizard boasts a plethora of powers, the deadliest of which is his dominion over snakes. Not only does he have several titanic serpents at his command, but he can morph into a slithering creature himself. One might think this gimmick symbolizes his allegiance to a mysterious snake god, but his true agenda is his own ego.

Thulsa Doom uses people to prop up his magnificence. He routinely trades in slaves, both for manual labor and to fill his harem. At any point, he could command these servants to off themselves. They could jump from cliffs, provide food for his serpentine pets, or commit other suicidal acts. Any hesitation is nonexistent, and rarely do these destructive acts have any purpose beyond flexing. Rather than simply take life, his seductive influence persuades people to give it away.^[7]

3 Immortan Joe

In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, survivors would naturally look for guidance. Immortan Joe provides that guidance in the Mad Max movies. He amasses an army of followers, promising to lead them toward a brighter future. To reach that better world, they must rise from the ashes of the ruined one. Such a pursuit often calls for their lives, as they can then rise from their own ashes to the highways of Valhalla. The Viking parallels are no accident. More so than death, however, these warriors attain glory by serving their leader.

Joe strives to build a mighty dynasty. He puts his War Boys to work on his towering citadel, building weapons and vehicles for desert conquests. More importantly, he keeps any healthy women for himself. His greatest aspiration is to father a line of future conquerors. Legacy is everything to the Immortan; he gives meaning to lost souls by making them part of that legacy.^[8]

2 Daughters of Aku

Aku proudly stands as the essence of evil. The archnemesis of Samurai Jack, he comes into being when the malevolent remnants of a divine war drift to Earth and manifest in feudal Japan. He eventually takes over the world, keeping residents under his thumb for thousands of years. Though mainly relying on demonic tricks and robotic troops, he also has a handful of sentient servants.

After several millennia, his reign heralds the Daughters of Aku. These masked assassins exist to spread the supremacy of their lord. Their High Priestess births them after consuming Aku’s mystical essence, effectively making them demon-human hybrids. To reach their full potential, they must endure years of physical hardship. This inhumane treatment seems like trauma for its own sake, but the Priestess motivates her disciples with a simple doctrine: Aku is the world’s savior, while Jack is a cold-hearted destroyer. How better to craft an elite cabal of killers?^[9]

1 Temple of Morgoth

Every evil creature in Middle-earth owes its existence to Morgoth. As one of the Valar who molded the world, he’s essentially a dark deity who wants to corrupt all creation. He wreaks utter havoc throughout The Silmarillion, turning the fantasy realm into a burning wasteland full of Orcs, demons, dragons, vampires, werewolves, and betrayers. Instrumental in these goals is his top lieutenant, Sauron. Although he eventually becomes the Lord of the Rings, this villain begins as a faithful servant. He’s so loyal that he continues his work even after Morgoth is vanquished.

As part of a grander scheme, Sauron secures a position in Númenor. This proud kingdom of Men owes its blessings to the Valar, but the Dark Lord begins preaching the word of Morgoth. On top of building a temple, he carries out human sacrifices in tribute to his master. These teachings amplify the kingdom’s growing distrust of the Valar, which ultimately leads to ruin when the Men try to invade the gods’ homeland. Thus, Sauron fells Númenor without losing a single soldier.^[10]