T/science

For Pope, a New World of Lung Cancer Therapy

Lung cancer is still a leading cause of cancer death, but that rate is half what it was in the 1990s, partly because newly developed treatments are working.

How Top Trump Officials Stoked Fears of a Nuke That Could Fry the Power Grid

For more than a decade, conservative activists held that a single atomic bomb could, without killing Americans directly, lay waste to the country — a claim that built fervor for war with Iran.

They Created a Cell That’s Almost Alive. What to Do With It Now?

SpudCells may one day produce new medicines and materials. But first scientists have to improve them — and make sure they aren’t misused.

Worlds More Habitable Than Earth? They’re Out There.

Scientists believe there are planets outside our solar system where life is even more abundant and sustainable.

Martin Shkreli Violated Lifetime Ban From Drug Industry, U.S. Says

The attorneys general of New York and six other states joined the Federal Trade Commission in accusing the disgraced former pharmaceutical executive of repeatedly violating the ban.

When A.I. Comes for Your Purpose in Life

In the span of just a few months, A.I. systems have solved some of the biggest outstanding problems in math — adding mathematicians to the list of those terrified of losing their job to the technology.

What Can Four-Winged Dinosaurs Teach Us About Birds?

Flight was probably more widespread in dinosaurs than previously thought. A newly identified species sheds light on how some achieved liftoff.

28 Miles and Counting: NASA’s Perseverance Rover Sets a Mars Driving Record

Advances in self-driving technology have made it easier to traverse distant worlds.

How Do Cuttlefish Hide?

Cephalopods are masters of camouflage. Scientists want to decipher how the process works in the brain.

A New Space Editor Has Her Eye on the Cosmos

On the Science desk, Victoria Jaggard spends her days pondering the universe’s most pressing mysteries.

Who Owns the Moon?

Superpowers Race to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon

Scientists Warn of Another Unseen Risk From Fire: Ozone

These Birds Are Louder Than Elephants, Jackhammers and Chain Saws

Scientists Untangle the Biology of an ‘Undruggable’ Cancer Gene

Trump’s U.F.O. Team Begins Its Hunt. What Does It Expect to Find?

How Did Christa Pike Survive 2 Supposedly Lethal Injections?

China’s A.I. Shines in Hacking Contest, Pointing to Its Power and Perils

A Short-Acting Anesthetic, Ketamine Is Easily Procured

Chaos at Jack Smith’s Senate Hearing

Clues to Why a Breakthrough Pancreatic Cancer Drug Eventually Stops Working

New Cancer Drugs Are Revolutionary. Why Don’t More Patients Get Them?

Drone Strike Deals Blow To Sciences In Ukraine

Radio Waves Coming From an Alien Planet May Be a Cosmic First

What if A.D.H.D. Isn’t About Attention at All?

Do I Really Need to Eat 30 Different Plants Each Week?

V.A. Institutes New Consent Requirements for Some Psychiatric Drugs

Despite Setbacks, NASA Gives Boeing’s Starliner Spacecraft a Boost

This Virus Stole a Human Gene and Won’t Let Go of It

30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts

Starship Made It to Orbit, but Had to Return Early

Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own?

Dogs Will Fight Bears. But Not Because of the Reason You Might Think.

In an $80 Motel Room, a Discovery to Shed Light on the Origins of Life

Byron D. Sher, Early Environmental Warrior in California, Is Dead at 98

A.I. Firms Want Curbs On Copying Technologies

Feral and Learned: What Humans Throw Away, Raccoons Consider for Play

In a New Anthropic Lab, A.I. Turns to Biology

Google Takes the A.I. Data Center Race to Outer Space

Taking One Small Step for Data Centers in Space

Clues About Bats’ Origins Emerge From the Dark

Much Is Lost by Ceding Math’s Hardest Problems to A.I.

The Heat is really On: Even at 145 Degrees, an Amoeba Still Manages to Keep Its Cool

A.I. Is Thwarting Scientific Progress

Push to Diagnose C.T.E. in the Living Gains Urgency

New Risk Is Feared: Making A.I. Act Too Human

Teen Mental Health Improves, Data Show

Sudden Impact: A Huge New Crater and Its Meaning for Future Moon Bases

Space Operas: A Starter Pack

White House Moves to Have Final Say in Awarding Grants for Scientific Research

A.I. Plays Along to Decode Rules to an Ancient Game

Creating a Kill Switch to Shut Down a Rogue A.I. Is Harder Than It Sounds

It’s a House Cat. No, a Tiger Cat. No, It’s a New Feline Species Entirely.

Will A.I. Kill Us? Can It Hack My Bank Account? Your A.I. Questions Answered

In Old NASA Data, Scientists Find a Surprising New Type of Cosmic Object

Rare Gene Tied To Lung Cancer In Nonsmokers

When A.I. Breaches the Boundaries of Human Preferences

Natural Defense: Newest Gene-Editing System Could Also Be the Oldest

A Feather Found in Dinosaur Poop Might Explain How Birds Beat Extinction

The Large Hadron Collider Is Getting an Overhaul

Microscopic Videos That Show the Invisible Wonders Around Us

T. Rex, King of the Dinosaurs, Had a Body Temperature of 97 Degrees

Massive Black Holes May Have Started as Little Red Dots

Scientists Fuse Human Neurons Into Brains of Mice

California’s Educational Juggernaut Doesn’t Need the SAT

Case Unsettles A Consensus On Psychiatry

A Possibility That Terrifies A.I. Doomsayers

Badlands Discovery: Tape Measure in Hand, Teacher Sizes Up a T. Rex Footprint

The Most Promising Planets Beyond Our Solar System

U.S. Discloses Deployment Of Weapons In Earth Orbit

Exploring a Boundless Universe of Ideas

Grand Jury Indicts Former N.I.H. Official

Prosecutors accused Dr. David Morens, a former adviser to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, of hiding records related to the onset of the pandemic.

Global Wildlife Trade Fuels Spread of Disease From Animals to People

Live animal markets and the illegal sale of wildlife pose particular dangers, but any sale of wild animals or animal products poses spillover risks, a new study suggests.

Scientists Get a Glimpse to How New Pandemics Are Made

Researchers have devised a new tool for discerning between naturally occurring viral outbreaks and those resulting from lab accidents.

He Built a Server to Protect Indigenous Health Data

Joseph Yracheta was in charge of a repository that compiled and protected tribal health data. Then its funding was cut.

How the Pandemic Lockdowns Changed a Songbird’s Beak

For ecologists, the Covid-19 pandemic has presented a remarkable natural experiment in what can happen to wild animals when humans stay home.

America Is Abandoning One of the Greatest Medical Breakthroughs

Giving up on mRNA is a dangerous decision.

F.D.A. Approves Novavax Covid Vaccine With Stricter New Conditions

The agency narrowed who can get the shot and added new study requirements that could cost the company tens of millions.

Genetic Study Retraces the Origins of Coronaviruses in Bats

As China and the United States trade charges of a lab leak, researchers contend in a new paper that the Covid pandemic got its start, like a previous one, in the wildlife trade.

U.S. Switches Covid Site To Page on Leak Theory

The White House has thrown its weight behind the lab leak theory, an idea that has divided intelligence agencies.

Covid Learning Losses

We explain the ways students haven’t recovered.

Reading Ability of America’s Children Plummets

With little post-pandemic recovery, experts wonder if screen time and school absence are among the causes.

U.S. Students Show Declines That Are Dire In Math Exam

On the test, American fourth and eighth graders posted results similar to scores from 1995. It was a sign of notable stagnation, even as other countries saw improvements.

Pharma Is Bracing For Tension

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other candidates for top health posts are at odds with the drug industry, setting the stage for tense battles over regulatory changes.

A Crisis Neither Candidate Will Address

Covid learning loss and chronic absenteeism aren’t going to fix themselves

Fauci Calls Claims He Hid Leak of Covid From Lab ‘Preposterous’

Dr. Fauci testified before a House panel investigating Covid’s origins. The panel found emails suggesting that his aides were skirting public records laws.

Mouse or Saturn: Can You Tell Which?

A scientist finds beauty in the “visual synonyms” that exist in images seen through microscopes and telescopes.

White House Tightens Rules on Research That Could Risk Pandemic

A long-awaited new policy broadens the type of regulated viruses, bacteria, fungi and toxins, including those that could threaten crops and livestock.

Republicans Step Up Attacks on Scientist at Heart of Lab Leak Theory

A heated hearing produced no new evidence that Peter Daszak or his nonprofit, EcoHealth Alliance, were implicated in the Covid outbreak.

Biotech Exec Gets 7 Years in Prison for False Claims About Rapid Covid-19 Test

Prosecutors said Keith Berman falsely claimed he had invented a blood test that could detect Covid-19 in 15 seconds. His lawyer said he had put “genuine effort” into developing such a test.

¿Cuál es la siguiente fase del coronavirus?

Los científicos que estudian la evolución continua del virus y las respuestas inmunitarias del organismo esperan evitar un rebrote y comprender mejor la covid prolongada.

Scientists Prepare for the Next Phase of the Coronavirus

Scientists studying the virus’s continuing evolution, and the body’s immune responses, hope to head off a resurgence and to better understand long Covid.

Covid Set Off Animals’ Wary Dance

A new study of camera-trap images complicates the idea that all wildlife thrived during the Covid lockdowns.

A Fern’s ‘Zombie’ Fronds Sprout Unusual Roots

In the Panamanian rainforest, scientists found the first known plant species to transform decaying tissue into a new source of nutrients.

Early Clue to Coronavirus From China Was Overlooked, Then Deleted

Newly released documents indicate that a U.S. genetic database had received the sequence of the coronavirus two weeks before it was made public by others.

Two Years Later, Omicron Isn’t Done

The dominant variant of the coronavirus has proved to be not only staggeringly infectious, but an evolutionary marvel.

Lab Leak Fight Stalls Research By Virologists

Scientists doing “gain-of-function” research said that heightened fears of lab leaks are stalling studies that could thwart the next pandemic virus.

Inside a High-Security Virus Lab

High-security labs, like this one at Penn State, are at the center of a debate over research that alters viruses to make them more dangerous.

The Nation’s Top-Performing Public School System

Schools run by the Defense Department educate 66,000 children of civilian employees and service members.

We Can Fight Learning Loss Only With Accountability and Action

Let’s bring back an era of accountability.

Pandemic-Era Learning Gaps Are Not Closing

Despite billions in federal aid, students are not making up ground in reading and math: “We are actually seeing evidence of backsliding.”

13-Year-Olds in U.S. Record Lowest Test Scores in Decades

The results are the federal government’s last major data release on the academic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Wild Mammals Roamed Widely When Pandemic Corralled People

Strict pandemic lockdowns may have allowed animals to range more widely and spend time closer to roads, a new study suggests.

Schools Get Mixed Grades for Use of Covid Aid

Pandemic aid was supposed to help students recover from learning loss, but results have been mixed.

Many American Women Are Afraid of Giving Birth

Tokophobia, as it’s called, is not often studied in the United States. But a new survey finds that it may be very common, particularly among Black women and in disadvantaged communities.

We Could Easily Make Risky Virological Research Safer

Lab safety doesn’t need to torpedo scientific progress.

History and Civics Test Scores Are Dropping

The latest test results continue a nearly decade-long decline. Try a sample quiz to test your knowledge.

Scientist Revisits Data on Raccoon Dogs and Covid, Stressing the Unknowns

After analyzing genetic data swabbed from a Wuhan market in early 2020, a virologist said it was unclear if animals for sale there had been infected.

Africa’s Vaccine Ambitions

Leaders on the continent have vowed that if there is another pandemic, they won’t be shut out of the vaccine market.

China Publishes Data Showing Raccoon Dog DNA at Wuhan Market

Scientists from the Chinese C.D.C. confirmed that DNA from raccoon dogs and other animals susceptible to the coronavirus was found at the market in early 2020.

Wuhan Market Report Found Genetic Traces of Virus and Animals

In a much-anticipated study, experts described a swab that was positive for the coronavirus and contained loads of genetic material from raccoon dogs.

New Data Links Pandemic’s Origins to Raccoon Dogs at Wuhan Market

Genetic samples from the market were recently uploaded to an international database and then removed after scientists asked China about them.

Biden Proposal Would Ban Online Prescribing of Certain Drugs

Some medications, like Ritalin and Vicodin, would require an in-person doctor’s visit under the new rules, a reaction to the pandemic-era rise of telemedicine.

After Extended Delay, Moderna Pays N.I.H. For a Vaccine Technique

Moderna has paid $400 million to the government for a chemical technique key to its vaccine. But the parties are still locked in a high-stakes dispute over a different patent.

To Play a Crucial Role In the Path to a Vaccine

Kizzmekia Corbett helped lead a team of scientists contributing to one of the most stunning achievements in the history of immunizations: a highly effective, easily manufactured vaccine against Covid-19.

When Animals Are Used in Research

Readers discuss experimentation on lab animals. Also: Racism in America; preparing for the next pandemic; maternal deaths; Amazon’s donations.

Expert Panel Recommends Stricter Rules for Research on Risky Viruses

The White House will decide whether to adopt the panel’s recommendations on so-called gain of function experiments.

N.I.H. Did Not Properly Track a Group Studying Coronaviruses, Report Finds

An internal federal watchdog said that the health agency had not given adequate oversight to EcoHealth Alliance, which had been awarded $8 million in grants.

Health Experts Warily Eye XBB.1.5, the Latest Omicron Subvariant

A young version of the coronavirus makes up one-quarter of Covid cases across the United States and over 70 percent of new cases in the Northeast.

Your Tuesday Briefing: China’s Space Push

Plus China’s vaccination pivot and the year’s most stylish “people.”

Your Monday Briefing: The World Cup Semifinals Loom

Plus, China’s sluggish economy and the arrest of the Lockerbie bombing suspect.

Ómicron cumple un año. Así ha evolucionado

Al cumplirse el aniversario del descubrimiento de la variante, los expertos en virología siguen intentando ponerse al día con la rápida transformación de ómicron.

Omicron Is Proving To Be a Slippery Virus

One year after the variant’s discovery, virologists are still scrambling to keep up with Omicron’s rapid evolution.

Colleges Face Generation of Students Left Behind

Students missed a lot of high school instruction. Now many are behind, especially in math, and getting that degree could be harder.

Pandemic Learning Loss Is Not an Emergency

In a vacuum, test score declines look like bad news. But none of this happened in a vacuum.

Republican’s Report on Virus Suggests It Was Lab Leak, but Without Much Proof

The report, signed by Senator Richard Burr, foreshadows a new wave of political wrangling over Covid’s origins if Republicans gain control of the House or Senate.

Testing Reveals Alarming Drop In Math Skills

The results, from what is known as the nation’s report card, offer the most definitive picture yet of the pandemic’s devastating impact on students.

Lab Manipulations of Covid Virus Fall Under Murky Government Rules

Mouse experiments at Boston University have spotlighted an ambiguous U.S. policy for research on potentially dangerous pathogens.

They Made Each Minute Count To Avert Pandemic Dip in Math

Benjamin Franklin Elementary in Connecticut overhauled the way it taught — and the way it ran the classroom. Every minute counted.

Russia’s New Onslaught Against Ukraine

Readers respond to the latest Russian attacks in Ukraine. Also: The wonders of math; pandemic spending; Republicans and crime.

¿Quién tenía la culpa de que los alumnos de la Universidad de Nueva York estuvieran reprobando química orgánica?

Maitland Jones, un profesor respetado, defendió sus estándares. Pero los estudiantes hicieron un reclamo y la universidad lo despidió.

N.Y.U. Students Were Failing Class. The Professor Lost His Job.

Maitland Jones Jr., a respected professor, defended his standards. But students started a petition, and the university dismissed him.

Math Scores in New York City Reflect Pandemic’s Disruption

The first standardized test results that capture how most city schoolchildren did during the pandemic offered a mixed picture.

¿La variante ómicron llegó para quedarse?

La decimotercera variante con nombre del coronavirus parece tener una capacidad sorprendente para evolucionar con nuevas particularidades.

The Omicron Variant, Both Wily and Hardy, Endures

Omicron, the 13th named variant of the coronavirus, seems to have a remarkable capacity to evolve new tricks.

The Quiet Cost of Family Caregiving

Many employees reduce their hours or stop working to help ailing family members. But it may be years before they fully return to the work force, studies indicate.

Pandemic Set Schools Back Two Decades

The results of a national test showed just how devastating the last two years have been for 9-year-old schoolchildren, especially the most vulnerable.

How Bad Is the Teacher Shortage? It Depends on Where You Live.

Urgently needed: teachers in struggling districts, certified in math or special education. Perks: maybe a pay raise, or how about a four-day week?

Pathogen Sleuths Find Clues After Toilets Flush

Here’s how a scrappy team of scientists, public health experts and plumbers is embracing wastewater surveillance as the future of disease tracking.

El viaje evolutivo de la COVID-19 ha sido funesto e impresionante

El coronavirus, como muchos otros virus, evoluciona deprisa. ¿Los seres humanos y su ingenio podrían adaptarse más rápido a él?

Science Is Still in a Race Against the Coronavirus

Human ingenuity must keep up with the coronavirus.

Combined nasal and throat testing swabs would detect more Omicron infections, two papers suggest.

The papers, which have not yet been published in scientific journals, suggest that testing just a single type of sample is likely to miss a large share of infections.

As Pace of Learning Rebounds, Students Are Still Years Behind

A new report estimates that it may take students at least three to five years to recover from the pandemic. Federal relief money will most likely have run out by then.

‘Anthropause’ During Pandemic Healed Nature, but Hurt It, Too

Covid precautions created a global slowdown in human activity — and an opportunity to learn more about the complex ways we affect other species.

Bat Virus Studies Raise Questions About Tinkering

Working in a laboratory in Paris, scientists gave a close relative of the Covid virus the chance to evolve to be more like its cousin.

The pandemic kept many children less active around the world, researchers find.

Pandemic shutdowns and restrictions led to a 20 percent drop in average daily physical activity among children and adolescents, a new analysis shows.

The U.S. government will buy 3.2 million doses of Novavax’s Covid vaccine.

The vaccine has not yet been authorized but is expected to be soon.

A Rabbit-Killing Virus That’s Immune to Time

The myxoma virus, fatal to millions of Australian rabbits, is a textbook example of the unexpected twists in the evolution of viruses and their hosts.