There is rarely time to write about every cool science paper that comes our way; many worthy candidates sadly fall through the cracks over the course of the year. But as 2024 comes to a close, we've gathered ten of our favorite such papers at the intersection of science and culture as a special treat, covering a broad range of topics: from reenacting Bronze Age spear combat and applying network theory to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, to Spider-Man inspired web-slinging tech and a mathematical connection between a turbulent phase transition and your morning cup of coffee. Enjoy!

Reenacting Bronze Age spear combat

An experiment with experienced fighters who spar freely using different styles. Credit: Valerio Gentile/CC BY

The European Bronze Age saw the rise of institutionalized warfare, evidenced by the many spearheads and similar weaponry archaeologists have unearthed. But how might these artifacts be used in actual combat? Dutch researchers decided to find out by constructing replicas of Bronze Age shields and spears and using them in realistic combat scenarios. They described their findings in an October paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

There have been a couple of prior experimental studies on bronze spears, but per Valerio Gentile (now at the University of Gottingen) and coauthors, practical research to date has been quite narrow in scope, focusing on throwing weapons against static shields. Coauthors C.J. van Dijk of the National Military Museum in the Netherlands and independent researcher O. Ter Mors each had more than a decade of experience teaching traditional martial arts, specializing in medieval polearms and one-handed weapons. So they were ideal candidates for testing the replica spears and shields.

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The staff of Mother Jones is, once again, rounding up the heroes and monsters of the past year. Importantly, this is a completely non-exhaustive and subjective list, giving our reporters a chance to write about something that brought joy or discontent. Enjoy.

I have always thought the music-for-charity genre was irredeemably corny. “We Are the World”? Far from “the greatest gift of all”—sorry! Band Aid’s, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” I hope they don’t know it’s Christmastime at all, because I’m returning this gift. Let’s not even get into that hauntingly bad celebrity cover of “Imagine” from the darkest days of March 2020. 

Music for charity is, often, just bad. And it can read as patronizing, frivolous, and a useless effort by out-of-touch celebrities who could help needy masses a lot more by giving money directly to everyone as opposed to donating a song. 

But this year, two different albums were different. In 2024, the Charity Compilation was good. 

Transa, a Red Hot release from November, is a four-hour, hundred-artist behemoth. Often heavy on the ambient, you should expect tons of reverb, harp, and flute. At its core, the record isn’t so much about being transgender as it is about loving trans people. Sade’s standout hymn to her trans son, “Young Lion,” distills that spirit. (So do the samplers from the New York City Trans Oral History Project included on the album, as does André 3000’s 26-minute instrumental track, with the unwieldy title, “Something Is Happening and I May Not Fully Understand But I’m Happy to Stand for the Understanding.”) 

Producer Dust Reid and artist and activist Massima Bell started developing the album in 2021. Since then, things for trans folks in America have gone from bad to worse. Twenty-six states have passed bans on gender-affirming care for young people. Adults are rationing hormones, and some are rushing through legal name and sex changes before President-elect Donald Trump comes to power again. Just last week, a provision banning gender-affirming care for the children of military families passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which caused a friend to text me, baffled, “What does that even have to do with defense?” 

It would be naive to suggest that music can do much to solve anti-trans law or even really counteract the reactionary wave we’re now caught up in. Transa won’t stop America from throwing people under the bus. But here’s the reason it’s important: This is good music. And good music matters. It tells the listener, we survived. We are still here, and we are making something beautiful.

Another mammoth compilation album released this year proves the same point. Cardinals at the Window, a 10-hour Bandcamp exclusive released 12 days after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina. The record—well over 100 tracks long, with over 100 artists pitching in—admittedly lacks the sonic cohesiveness of Transa. Instead, it sounds like a jam session among old friends meeting up after the storm passes. Thus far, the album has raised over $340,000 for organizations like Holler Harm Reduction and BeLoved Asheville, bringing tangible help to a region too often neglected. (North Carolina is still very much recovering from Helene: Some survivors are turning to yurts and tents for winter housing after their homes were destroyed.) 

Other musical aid efforts this year merit a mention, too. From cramped house shows to sold-out arenas, artists have raised money for the people of Gaza and Sudan—often at a cost to their careers. (One surprise: Macklemore, of “Thrift Shop” fame, has reinvented himself as a protest artist.) 

I can’t find a non-trite way to write about how music keeps us human when our worlds collapse around us. But I do know that from now on, I will not be disregarding Charity Compilation Albums. These artists aren’t heroes in the sense of saving lives, really, but I think that those who give us little moments of joy and hope in cataclysmic times deserve hero status, too.

The staff of Mother Jones is, once again, rounding up the heroes and monsters of the past year. Importantly, this is a completely non-exhaustive and subjective list, giving our reporters a chance to write about something that brought joy or discontent. Enjoy.

Camo hat, orange letters. The ever-present “Hot to Go!” dance. VMA alien makeout. Beyoncé covering Dolly Parton—and Dolly loving it in return. Feuds. Flirting. That shade of green.

There was a lot of buzz around pop music over the past year, and our younger colleagues have assured us that it wasn’t all hype. The music, especially the pop music, was legitimately good.

Even the numbers back it up. The data shows that 2024 was the year of the “pop star (re)emergence.” But the trend extended to other genres, from country to musical theater and the ’80s power ballads, experiencing a resurgence thanks to their association with pop stardom. The common denominator throughout? Women were at the forefront of all of it:

• Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter rocketed to stardom (and brought sapphic energy with them).
• Charli XCX turned the internet green.
• Only for Ariana Grande to then turn it pink and green.
• Beyoncé revolutionized country.

We won’t attempt to explain all of the moments. Impossible! But plugged-in colleagues—Sam Van Pykeren and Henry Carnell, Mother Jones’ digital producer and fellow, respectively—take a crack at explaining why pop stars were so compelling and what about the music that kept our team returning.

Okay, hello, I am once again your stand-in Old Person (a la our Brat explainer—remember that!?), and I’m here, at the end of the year, to talk about pop. First question: Was it good this year? 

Sam Van Pykeren: I mean, I had a good time with this year’s lineup! Dare I even say a great time?

Henry Carnell: This was the first time a pop artist has ever been my No. 1 on Spotify Wrapped, which I think says I liked it.

Obvious question, Henry. Who was top?

Henry: Do you even need to ask? I’m a Gen Z queer person. It was Chappell Roan.

Great, as an Old, this gets to one of my key questions. What is a Chappell Roan, and why is it happening in my neighborhood?

Henry: Chappell was a breakout pop star—though she makes sure everyone knows she has been working at this for a long time—known for extravagant drag outfits and explicitly gay music.

Sam: THE diva, THE moment, a queer woman from Missouri who is arguably making some of the best pop in the game.

Henry: Sam’s response is better.

Sam: You nailed it with why I think she’s happening in the neighborhood. She’s quickly risen from a general unknown to amassing millions of fans worldwide.

Henry: The consensus is that Chappell changed the genre on multiple levels.

I’m scared, but go on if you have more to say about Ms. Roan. I am curious how she “changed the game.”

Henry: Musically, she imbued new sounds into the genre. She plugged synth, rock, disco, early-2000s punk, ’80s power ballads into the genre kinda all at once. Visually and lyrically, she brought queerness to the forefront. She performs in drag, she sings about queer clubs, explicit sex, and coming of age. And with viral moments around her canceling shows due to mental health, refusing to endorse Kamala Harris due to genocide, and calling out fans for creepy behavior—she has brought a “take no shit” energy that isn’t necessarily new but nevertheless noteworthy.

Sam: She was one of my top artists as well, and I had the privilege to be one of the hundreds of thousands who have seen her IRL this year. I think the excitement is warranted! One of the reasons is her dedication to theatricality and unflinching queerness—as Henry notes, the drag is not a gimmick, which can’t be said of many other artists these days. That, coupled with actual live vocal talent, brings an authenticity to her music in an era where we’re all craving more of that.

Who else this year for you both brought something to pop music that felt new?

Sam: Well, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my No. 1: Beyoncé.

Henry: You may sense a trend for me, but Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish. I want to hear Sam’s words on Beyoncé, though.

Sam: I mean, she’s Beyoncé. I don’t know if I have anything original or unsaid to add. But Cowboy Carter was a hit for me. I’ve always been a Beyoncé boy, and getting to be alive as she releases these projects and continues to push entire industries with projects like this and Renaissance (another top 10 album of the year for me) just feels like something really nice when the world is really hard. And, coming from a community where country music is hyper-masculinized, associated with racism more than not, and all that, it was nice to be reintroduced to the genre I’ve grown up with through her eyes.

Sam: I mean, because of her, I got really into Shaboozey, Tanner Adell, and Linda Martell. Which is what I think is really fun about pop. It’s a gateway into other communities and types of music. Even with Chappell and her queerness! I find even when it seems like the culture is pushing one way, the popularity of people like her and Beyoncé and others reminds me that many, many others in this country feel like I do! 

Henry: There is a lot of discourse about pop being superficial. But it is grappling with social and political change more so than other genres. I was thinking a lot this year about how “I Kissed a Girl” (circa 2008, and which Katy Perry has distanced herself from) felt so scandalous at the time. But now we have Billie and Charli singing “Guess.” There is a lot of movement and growth in the space. 

Sam: So, sorry to be the millennial in the chat, but “I Kissed a Girl” is a classic.

I like that song.

Henry: While I get the criticism of the lyrics, there is something undeniable about the impact of that song. Hearing it as a kid created space for the possibility of queerness in the world. Also, it’s a bop.

On present-day pop: You have given me a lot of names. I am excited to research these stars. But I want to talk about the other person you mentioned above. What is going on with Sabrina Carpenter?

Sam: She’s probably my biggest blindspot. I enjoy her and the hits when they’re played. But I’m not seeking out her entire album.

Henry: The quick bio: Sabrina was a Disney star–turned–Mean Girls lead–turned–pop icon. Sabrina’s song “Espresso” was the top-streamed song globally. Though Charli and Chappell have gotten a lot of pop-girl airtime, I actually think there is a strong case that Sabrina is 2024’s Pop Girl of the Year. I think her work is really summed up by her recent Christmas special, which adds lyrical quips to classic Christmas songs alongside skits. She is very clever and silly with her music.

Sam: I do think her whole Catholic scandal thing is pretty iconic.

Henry: Her response to that scandal—“Jesus was a carpenter”—is so irreverent, but also smart. Her songs are full of those fun turns of phrases. I’ll give the example of “Switch it up like Nintendo” from “Espresso,” too.

Sam: Her coming from Mean Girls, it really was the year of musical theater. I feel like that’s a separate hero. 

Henry: SO much to say about our girl Ariana and Wicked. I do think the crossover of musical theater with pop feels new, too. It was the year of pop finding harmony with other genres.

Sam: With Wicked, but that’s a WHOLE other can of worms. But there is Eternal Sunshine, which wasn’t a top listen of mine until I revisited it after seeing Ari as Glinda. And upon revisiting it, I wish I had given it a second chance sooner! But Chappell is also so musical theater-coded!

Henry: I would argue drag is the love child of pop and musical theater. Pop has just gotten more campy.

Sam: I think I would agree myself, and the history of the art of theater is dressed in drag.

Can I say one thing about Sabrina?

Sam: Please.

In the supermarket, I heard her sing a lyric that made my brain feel bad. And that was: “(Yes), I know I Mountain Dew it for ya.” My question is: That lyric is not criminal? If so, why is it not against the law?

Sam: I mean, “Wiggle Wiggle” by Bob Dylan exists, so I don’t get your point. ;)

Moving on. Don’t talk about him. I feel like we’ve talked about the Big Stars: Sabrina, Beyoncé, Ms. Roan, etc. Do we need to say anything about Taylor? Can we skip that this year?

Sam: I plead the 5th.

Henry: I don’t want Swifties to come at me, but the Eras Tour lasted for over a year. It had a lot of moments already.

Briefly, this has been discussed at length. But: Brat. How do you all feel about it after summer has faded and as winter takes hold? (Sam, I don’t care that you live in California, pretend you have weather.)

Sam: You’re talking to an original Angel here. Charli is always on repeat, Brat or no!

Henry: I was never huge on Brat. I will say that Brat was dampened by it being co-opted by Kamala, as discussed in the previous pub the chat. It is hard for a cultural moment to feel potent when it becomes a marketing strategy.

Sam: Glad she’s getting the recognition, the partnerships, the everything! She deserves it, and those who know, know! But I get she’s not for everyone, and I’m ready for her next stuff.

I am still a Cooker. I A. G. Cooked.

Sam: Those who know, know.

My Dad loved Britpop—like a lot. He talked about it a great deal.

[Cue confusion as we distinguish Britpop the album from Britpop the genre.]

Anyway, can I ask you all about a bigger idea? Something that…you’ll have to give me some leniency here.

Henry: I love a big idea.

Here’s my issue: When I listen to a lot of pop music, the weight of how it is synthesized to be sold feels heavier and burdensome. In the music itself, I feel like I can literally hear the capitalist machinations, and that makes it irredeemably mid. That’s true for a lot of stuff, but god, it feels prominent in pop music. And so I am curious, for you both, how you feel about how pop music is so marketed and so much about marketing. Does that tinge your experience?

Sam: I guess feel that way about everything, so pop music doesn’t feel particularly burdensome over things like reading the news, watching a film/television, even just going about my day. Every piece of our lives has been calculated to sell us something, so I guess it just blends into that noise.

Henry: I also think you forget that the artists work in medium knowing the bells, whistles, and scandals accompanied with it. Some pop artists are just bad and bogged down by that stuff. But the best ones, the ones we are talking about, use their skills to activate the marketing to say and do interesting things.

Henry: For example, Sabrina’s music video for “Taste” was so over the top in a way that wouldn’t be possible in any other genre. And so clickbaity in many ways. Pulling in [Jenna] Ortega, the horror, the kiss. But it was aware that it was doing all of that. I think there is some inversion of the aforementioned capitalist machine going on, too. 

Sam: Pop music, for me, feels like one of the few spaces where artists can still actively grapple with their awareness of such heavy commodification and use it to their advantage. Beyoncé and Chappell are probably the best examples.

Henry: I do think part of the reason Chappell soared is because she was intentional about how and when she marketed herself. She has a performance persona that she curates expertly, but she also holds complete creative control over it, as far as I can tell. There is something very authentic about that.

Sam: Chappell using this machine to introduce deep queerness into the mainstream…

Sam: Beyoncé using it to remind us of country’s roots…

Henry: Ultimately, they are performers. They don’t need to be “real.” But they do need to do real things with the performance. If that makes sense.

Sam: I see the critique, and I feel it. But I think I’ve only ever known music as an industry to sell us things.

That makes sense. Well, we can solve how to take pleasure under capitalism next year—finally. But for now, any artists we missed you want to shout out?

(In terms of pop and not the jazz bullshit I listen to, I was actually really charmed by “I LUV IT” by Camila Cabello and Playboi Carti.)

Henry: Nemo was the first nonbinary artist to win Eurovision. They are doing some cool and interesting things with genre and pop. They included opera, which I didn’t think I would love and did.

Sam: Have to shout out “JOYRIDE” by Kesha, one of my favorite singles of the year, and has me excited for her album next year! I also adored Omar Apollo’s album God Said No and Dua Lipa’s Tame Impala-produced Radical Optimism (the extended versions though!). And I would be amiss to not mention Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal as another album I’ve had on repeat since its release (and so glad to see her get her flowers this year!).

Great stuff. Thanks for talking. The only thing left for me to say is everyone should listen to “Saaheem” by SahBabii. See you all next year?

Henry: I’ll put it on my queue right now. Happy New Year!

Sam: Thanks, old man!

The staff of Mother Jones is, once again, rounding up the heroes and monsters of the past year. Importantly, this is a completely non-exhaustive and subjective list, giving our reporters a chance to write about something that brought joy or discontent. Enjoy.

Modern kids’ songs, the stuff of literal torture, are in lockstep with the AI slop that defines the current era of crushing, synthetic sameness. They suck. So you can imagine my surprise, amid a technicolor migraine brought on by the tyranny of “Daddy Finger” one morning, when the algorithm threw out a familiar voice. With equal parts amusement and skepticism, I asked my husband, “Is this the dude from…Fall……………Out Boy?”

I have zero affection for Fall Out Boy. If anything, I’m certain I thought I was above this music; that’s what idiot teens on the verge of escaping the suburbs think. But I’m back in the ’burbs and have discovered something surprising.

Indeed, the voice belonged to none other than Patrick Stump, singing the theme song of a TV series beloved by my 3-year-old son, Spidey and His Amazing Friends. And there was Stump again on the vocals of every other song that followed. “Spin, Spin, Spin,” “Trace-E Shake,” “Time to Spidey Save the Day,” and so forth. Over the course of the soundtrack, I found myself tickled, even intrigued to hear where Stump would take Team Spidey. And after weeks of marathon listening—at home, in the car, on vacation—my sanity remains strangely intact.

Which isn’t to say that I enjoyed the music. Given a choice between silence and Spidey, the former will always be more appealing. Nor do I have an iota of affection for Fall Out Boy, the band that made Stump famous in the early aughts. If anything, I’m certain I thought I was above this music because that’s what idiot teens on the verge of escaping the suburbs think. But exactly 20 years after leaving the ’burbs, I’m back, toddler in tow, understanding that in each of the songs on Spidey and His Amazing Friends, one quality separates Stump from nearly everyone else in the genre: Stump cares. At times, you can even detect passion, as Stump fully commits to the cheer, “Go, webs, go! Go, webs, go! Go, webs go!” He confers on each song the same gusto of younger, noughtier days.

I was suspicious, though. Why would any self-respecting musician do this? Sure, he probably has children to impress. (Two of them, in fact.) But that still didn’t explain his involvement, at least to my satisfaction. That’s when a more shameful curiosity took hold: The guy must really need a paycheck, huh? What else could justify lyrics about shooting “thwips” to web up Zola than a nice Disney paycheck?

But after a few more clicks into my research, it became clear that my thinking was misguided, cruel even. It turns out Stump is quite wealthy, and more importantly, the guy could not have been more enthusiastic to participate in the project. As he told Billboard in 2021:

“Composing and writing all of the music for the series has been incredible because I am such a big Spidey fan,” Stump says. “The theme song for Spidey and His Amazing Friends, you couldn’t pull me away from the studio after I recorded it because I just wanted to add more stuff. I was just so excited. There’s a certain frenetic energy to Spidey—and the webs swinging—that I just wanted to put into it. So it was all of those things sped up and made overexcited, because that’s how I was feeling.”

Now here is a man, similar in age to the adults forced to listen along, showcasing what it means to pivot with grace. To evolve—yes, maybe to lesser forms!—but with the same big ideas you carried when life brimmed with more promise. To still have fun with it, even at the outset of middle age, when life dulls to the logistics of school pickups and a mortgage.

The truth is that my attempts to reckon with why an erstwhile radio fixture was now slinging Spidey songs say a lot more about me than anything else. At 37, I have settled into a comfortable place with the notion of creative mediocrity. But thankfully, others have figured out the tricky balance of aging and creating—something I now think about every time Spidey makes his way back into our car rides. Will a younger ambition return to me one day? I hope so. Who knew a kids’ song could inspire a grown-up?

Universal Music Group and Amazon Music have announced an expanded global relationship that will “enable further innovation, exclusive content with UMG artists, and advancement of artist-centric principles including increased fraud protection,” according to the announcement. While full details were not disclosed, the deal is intended to advance UMG’s “Streaming 2.0” strategy, which focuses less on […]

In a long-rumored move, Virgin Music Group, the independent music division of Universal Music Group, announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Downtown Music Holdings LLC for $775 million (approximately €737 million). The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the second half of 2025.  “Justin Kalifowitz, Andrew Bergman and Pieter Van Rijn have […]