A tool inspired by swarming insects is helping people predict the future – making groups of people smarter than their members are by themselves.

Read the rest of this article at BBC Future.

Fake it till you make it. That old adage has never been so poignant in a year that has seen a surge in fake news. The rise in stories describing events that never happened, often involving fake people in fake places, has led Facebook and Google promising to tackle them. But are we really so gullible?

According to several studies, the answer is yes: even the most obvious fake news starts to become believable if it’s shared enough times…

Read the rest of this article at New Scientist – the home of Brain Scanner, my monthly column.  Image: Dimitris Kalogeropoylos