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Yesterday — 1 June 2024NYT: Science

Meet Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the NASA Astronauts Riding on Boeing’s Starliner

✇NYT: Science
By: Kenneth Chang
1 June 2024 at 11:48
After a May 6 liftoff was scrubbed, the astronauts returned to their home base in Houston and continued their preparations for Saturday’s flight.

© Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA, via Shutterstock

The astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on their way to the Starliner spacecraft on May 6, before the launch was called off.
Before yesterdayNYT: Science

FDA Reviews MDMA Therapy for PTSD, Citing Health Risks and Study Flaws

✇NYT: Science
By: Andrew Jacobs and Christina Jewett
31 May 2024 at 15:08
The agency’s staff analysis suggests that approval of the illegal drug known as Ecstasy for treatment of PTSD is far from certain, with advisers meeting next week to consider the proposed therapy.

© Noel Celis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A seizure of the drug MDMA, known as Ecstasy or molly. It and other psychoactive drugs are still classified as illegal drugs with a potential for abuse.

Bird Flu Has Infected a Third U.S. Farmworker

✇NYT: Science
By: Apoorva Mandavilli
30 May 2024 at 15:45
The worker had respiratory symptoms, unlike the first two. But the risk to the public remains low, federal health officials said.

© Aaron Ontiveroz for The New York Times

A dairy farm in Colorado in 2019.

PTSD Has Surged Among College Students

✇NYT: Science
By: Ellen Barry
30 May 2024 at 11:00
The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among college students rose to 7.5 percent in 2022, more than double the rate five years earlier, researchers found.

© Tristan Spinski for The New York Times

The campus of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, in 2020.

Richard Ellis, 86, Dies; Artist Whose Works Included a Museum’s Whale

✇NYT: Science
By: Michael S. Rosenwald
30 May 2024 at 23:29
Once called the “poet laureate” of deep-sea creatures, he melded science with art in paintings, books and a notable life-size installation in New York.

© Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Richard Ellis in 2012 at the American Museum of Natural History, in front of the life-size blue whale he helped build. In fusing his artistic flair with an encyclopedic knowledge of ocean creatures, Mr. Ellis became invaluable to conservationists and educators.

The Textbooks Were Wrong About How Your Tongue Works

✇NYT: Science
By: Joanne Silberner
29 May 2024 at 11:08
The perception of taste is remarkably complex, not only on the tongue but in organs throughout the body.

© Alamy

The taste bud diagram, used in many textbooks over the years, originated in a 1901 study but was actually showing the sensitivity of different areas of the tongue.

Health Officials Tried to Evade Public Records Laws, Lawmakers Say

✇NYT: Science
By: Benjamin Mueller
28 May 2024 at 19:09
N.I.H. officials suggested federal record keepers helped them hide emails. If so, “that’s really damaging to trust in all of government,” one expert said.

© Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Dr. David Morens, a former adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking before the House subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic on May 22.

Damages From PFAS Lawsuits Could Surpass Asbestos, Industry Lawyers Warn

✇NYT: Science
By: Hiroko Tabuchi
28 May 2024 at 19:14
At an industry presentation about dangerous “forever chemicals,” lawyers predicted a wave of lawsuits that could dwarf asbestos litigation, audio from the event revealed.

© E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune, via Getty Images

A 3M plant on the Mississippi River. The company has faced legal action over manufacturing the chemicals.

Carbon Offsets, a Much-Criticized Climate Tool, Get Federal Guidelines

✇NYT: Science
By: Brad Plumer
28 May 2024 at 08:41
The new principles aim to define ‘high-integrity’ offsets amid concerns that current practices often don’t cut greenhouse gas emissions as claimed.

© Zinyange Auntony/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Seedlings at a carbon offset partnership in Zimbabwe.

Climate Change Added a Month’s Worth of Extra-Hot Days in Past Year

✇NYT: Science
By: Raymond Zhong
28 May 2024 at 04:30
Since last May, the average person experienced 26 more days of abnormal warmth than they would have without global warming, a new analysis found.

© Fareed Khan/Associated Press

Receiving treatment for heatstroke in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, on Thursday.

How the Tree Lobster Escaped Extinction

✇NYT: Science
By: Darren Incorvaia
28 May 2024 at 00:01
The Lord Howe Island stick insect vanished from its home, but an effort at zoos in San Diego and Melbourne highlights the possibilities and challenges of conserving invertebrate animals.

© John Francis Peters for The New York Times

When ‘Prior Authorization’ Becomes a Medical Roadblock

✇NYT: Science
By: Paula Span
25 May 2024 at 05:03
Medicare Advantage plans say it reduces waste and inappropriate care. Critics say it often restricts coverage unnecessarily.

© Caroline Yang for The New York Times

Marlene Nathanson, right, with her husband, was abruptly refused a request to cover further treatment from her Medicare Advantage plan as she recovered from a stroke. “She has to leave our facility by Friday,” a therapist told her.

NASA Astronauts to Wait Another Week for Boeing Starliner Launch

✇NYT: Science
By: Kenneth Chang
24 May 2024 at 14:56
Officials from NASA and Boeing say they have worked out a solution to a helium leak that has kept the Starliner astronaut capsule grounded.

© Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on their way to the Starliner spacecraft on May 6, before the launch was called off.

Countries Fail to Agree on Treaty to Prepare the World for the Next Pandemic

✇NYT: Science
By: Apoorva Mandavilli
24 May 2024 at 13:57
Negotiators plan to ask for more time. Among the sticking points are equitable access to vaccines and financing to set up surveillance systems.

© Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Last year’s World Health Assembly in Geneva. Member countries have failed to reach their goal of finalizing a pandemic treaty before this year’s session begins on Monday.

Younger Adults Are Missing Early Warning Signs of Colon Cancer

✇NYT: Science
By: Roni Caryn Rabin
24 May 2024 at 13:42
A new analysis of dozens of studies has identified the most common warning symptoms in adults under 50, whose rates of colon and rectal cancer are on the rise.

© Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters

Beef Tissue from Sick Cow Tests Positive for Bird Flu Virus

✇NYT: Science
By: Emily Anthes and Dani Blum
24 May 2024 at 13:39
Muscle from a sick dairy cow tested positive for the virus. The meat did not enter the commercial food supply, which officials said remained safe.

© Aaron Josefczyk/Reuters

These Teens Adopted an Orphaned Oil Well. Their Goal: Shut It Down.

✇NYT: Science
By: Delger Erdenesanaa
24 May 2024 at 05:02
Students, nonprofit groups and others are fund-raising to cap highly polluting oil and gas wells abandoned by industry.

© Cornell Watson for The New York Times

From left: Lila Gisondi, Mateo De La Rocha and Sebastian Ng, high school seniors in Cary, N.C., who adopted an oil well in Ohio that was leaking gas.

Russia Is Increasingly Blocking Ukraine’s Starlink Service

✇NYT: Science
By: Paul Mozur and Adam Satariano
25 May 2024 at 13:42
Russia has deployed advanced tech to interfere with Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Ukrainian officials said, leading to more outages on the northern front battle line.

© Sasha Maslov for The New York Times

Members of the Achilles Drone battalion of Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade in Kharkiv, Ukraine. They depend on Starlink service for communications and to conduct drone strikes.

Louisiana Lawmakers Vote to Make Abortion Pills Controlled Substances

✇NYT: Science
By: Emily Cochrane and Pam Belluck
23 May 2024 at 14:44
The legislation would make possession of the drugs without a prescription a crime in Louisiana, punishable with jail time.

© Jackie Molloy for The New York Times

The Food and Drug Administration does not consider the two medications to have potential for abuse or dependence, and years of research have shown both pills to be overwhelmingly safe.

Ascension Hospitals Reel From Cyberattack, Causing Patient Care Delays

✇NYT: Science
By: Reed Abelson
23 May 2024 at 16:48
For two weeks at the 140-hospital system, doctors and nurses have had little access to digital records for patient histories, resorting to paper and faxes to treat people.

© Lauren Justice for The New York Times

Ascension, one of the nation’s largest medical systems with 140 hospitals in 19 states, has yet to recover from a large-scale cyberattack earlier this month.

Fate of Retired Research Chimps Still in Limbo

✇NYT: Science
By: Emily Anthes
23 May 2024 at 05:03
The National Institutes of Health, which owns the chimps at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico, has no plans to move the animals to sanctuary, despite a ruling from a federal judge.

© Emil Lippe for The New York Times

Carlee, a chimpanzee living in Chimp Haven, a 200-acre sanctuary in Louisiana that serves as the designated retirement home for federally owned chimps.

Abortion Pills May Become Controlled Substances in Louisiana

✇NYT: Science
By: Pam Belluck and Emily Cochrane
22 May 2024 at 21:57
A bill that is expected to pass would impose prison time and thousands of dollars in fines on people possessing the pills without a prescription.

© Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Mifepristone, one of the two abortion medications that Louisiana lawmakers want to reclassify as harmful controlled substances.

A Second Dairy Worker Has Contracted Bird Flu, C.D.C. Reports

✇NYT: Science
By: Apoorva Mandavilli and Emily Anthes
22 May 2024 at 22:46
The new case, in a Michigan farmworker, did not suggest that bird flu was widespread in people, health officials said, adding that the risk to the general public remained low.

© Jackie Katz Cynthia Goldsmith/CDC, via Associated Press

An electron microscope image of an avian flu virion.

Some Wind Turbines in Iowa Crumpled by Tornadoes

✇NYT: Science
By: Christopher Flavelle
22 May 2024 at 14:55
The damage was unusual, experts say, because turbines are built to withstand extreme weather. Iowa is a wind powerhouse, with thousands of turbines.

© Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

The remains of a tornado-damaged wind turbine in a field near Prescott, Iowa, on Tuesday.

Setback Deals Blow to Neuralink’s First Brain Implant Patient, but He Stays Upbeat

✇NYT: Science
By: Christina Jewett
22 May 2024 at 11:57
Elon Musk’s first human experiment with a computerized brain device developed significant flaws, but the subject, who is paralyzed, has few regrets.

© Rebecca Noble for The New York Times

The Algebra Problem: How Middle School Math Became a National ‘Flashpoint’

✇NYT: Science
By: Troy Closson
22 May 2024 at 11:35
Top students can benefit greatly by being offered the subject early. But many districts offer few Black and Latino eighth graders a chance to study it.

© Andrew Mangum for The New York Times

How to make algebra more equitable is a puzzle districts across the country have struggled to solve.

Dr. Paul Parkman, Who Helped to Eliminate Rubella, Dies at 91

✇NYT: Science
By: Sam Roberts
21 May 2024 at 22:13
He also identified the virus, which can cause infants to be born with severe physical and mental impairments as well as causing miscarriages and stillbirths.

© National Institutes of Health

Dr. Paul D. Parkman, right, and Dr. Harry M. Meyer Jr. inspecting a culture of the rubella virus in 1967. Working with a team of researchers, they created a vaccine for the disease.

In the House of Psychiatry, a Jarring Tale of Violence

✇NYT: Science
By: Ellen Barry
21 May 2024 at 07:04
At the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, a patient described a restraint that haunts him, more than eight years later.

© Diana Cervantes for The New York Times

Matthew Tuleja, a former college football player, hopes that sharing his story will help reduce the use of restraints in psychiatry.

The Disease Detectives Trying to Keep the World Safe From Bird Flu

✇NYT: Science
By: Stephanie Nolen and Thomas Cristofoletti
20 May 2024 at 22:00
When a child in a small Cambodian town fell sick recently, his rapid decline set off a global disease surveillance system.

Members of a team from Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture took a swab from a duck during surveillance of the poultry section of the Orussey market in Phnom Penh this month.

How the Cockroach Took Over the World

✇NYT: Science
By: Sofia Quaglia
20 May 2024 at 15:00
A genetic analysis of the German cockroach explained its rise in southern Asia millenniums ago, and how it eventually turned up in your kitchen.

© Erik Karits/Alamy

A genomic analysis of 281 cockroaches collected from 17 countries around the world suggests that Blattella germanica, the German cockroach, originated in India or Myanmar around 2,100 years ago.

Does Legalizing Cannabis Increase Adolescent Use?

✇NYT: Science
By: Matt Richtel
20 May 2024 at 12:15
Contrary to expectation, a major study found that weed use among minors was lower in states where the drug was legal.

© Kayana Szymczak for The New York Times

Rebekah Levine Coley, professor of developmental and educational psychology at Boston College.

Legalized Weed is Landing More Seniors in the E.R.

✇NYT: Science
By: Matt Richtel
20 May 2024 at 11:20
In Canada, cannabis poisonings rose sharply among people 65 and older after the country legalized the drug, a new study found.

© Chris Carlson/Associated Press

Edible marijuana samples at a cannabis testing laboratory in Santa Ana, Calif.
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