NYT > Science

1. Could Alien Life Thrive in Sulfuric Acid Instead of Water?
   Best known for dissolving bodies in bathtubs, sulfuric acid has the potential to be the elixir of life on other worlds.
2. El Niño Is Hitting California Hard
   Rising sea levels and violent weather are testing residents in some of the most picturesque cities along the Pacific Coast.
3. How Did Greek Fire Work? And 6 Other Lost Inventions.
   Even once-widespread innovations have been forgotten, leaving scholars puzzling over the details.
4. An Anti-Trump Protest. Police Threats. Inside a Rift in Diabetes Research.
   It began with a protest at an American Diabetes Association conference. Now a resulting boycott has caused a scientific slowdown, with no end in sight.
5. Did These Scientists Find Evidence of Blood in a Dinosaur Bone?
   Mineralized “structures” discovered in the bone were the fossilized remains of red blood cells, according to a recent study. Other experts aren’t so sure.
6. NASA Is Selecting Future Astronauts. Here’s How to Apply.
   The space agency is recruiting its next class of space travelers for missions to low-Earth orbit and the moon. Applications are due Dec. 3.
7. Top Astrophysicist Leaves U.S. After Trump Policies Affect Her Work 
   Kelly Holley-Bockelmann was one of the top astrophysicists in the country until President Trump’s policies affected every part of her work.
8. Still on the President’s Agenda: Daylight Saving Time
   Following an election-year rout for Republicans, Trump castigated lawmakers for not passing the Sunshine Protection Act. Some scientists have warned against the change.
9. New Research Compares Long-Term Relief From 21 Antidepressants
   In the meta-analysis, a few drugs stood out for offering greater effectiveness over time.
10. From Climate Activism to the House of Representatives
    William Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, flipped a seat in Michigan for the Democrats.
11. The U.S. Has Lost Its Measles-Elimination Status, Data Suggests
    An international panel of scientific experts will convene on Tuesday to evaluate the status, but genetic data already shows the virus is once again entrenched in the United States.
12. Iran War Unexpectedly Drove Down Carbon Emissions This Year
    It’s the first drop in planet-warming pollution since the pandemic in 2020. But researchers cautioned that the decline could be short-lived.
13. What Is Congress’s Plan to Speed Up Energy Permits?
    The sprawling bill, which has divided Democrats, would overhaul major environmental laws to streamline the permitting process.
14. A Guide to COP31 Climate Talks in Antalya, Turkey
    Negotiators and leaders are gathering for annual United Nations climate talks. They come as global temperatures are set to breach a key threshold.
15. With Hopes Low and Temperatures High, Climate Summit Opens in Turkey
    War, artificial intelligence and the Trump era have overshadowed climate change. But officials from nearly every nation are meeting to confront global warming.
16. How an Intern and a Biologist Rescued an Orphaned Walrus in Alaska
    An injured five-month-old walrus was found huddled next to carcasses in remote Alaska after it became separated from its mother. Its rescue took days and lots of patience.
17. Doctors Absorb the Stunning Failure of Two High-Profile Heart Drugs
    By every measure, the drugs were no better than placebos, full data revealed on Saturday. Was it the fault of the design of the studies, or our very hypotheses about heart disease?
18. Biotech Firm Claims Some Credit for Groundbreaking Virus Research
    Radical Numerics turned heads with its announcement about a novel treatment. Now a former partner, Tabula Bioscience, says it performed much of the research.
19. Lonnie Thompson Has Died. He Dodged Avalanches to Preserve Climate History.
    His observations helped establish shriveling mountain glaciers as an unmistakable consequence of human-caused warming. He was 78.
20. These Newly Elected Lawmakers Know Something Trump Doesn’t: Science
    Among those elected to Congress on Tuesday are a mathematician, a microbiologist and a chemical engineer. They plan to take on a White House that has threatened funding cuts to research.
21. What a Democratic Congress Could Mean for Science
    The Trump administration has sought to reshape the nation’s research infrastructure. Democratic lawmakers, newly empowered, are preparing to push back.
22. How A.I. Just Blew Up a Key Tenet of Computer Science
    A longstanding hypothesis held that some problems would always be hard for computers to solve quickly. But OpenAI disproved it — raising the possibility of radical new efficiencies.
23. Disaster-Prone Communities Face Cuts and Slowdowns in Federal Help
    The Trump administration is scaling back or stalling investments that help vulnerable places harden themselves to rising flood and fire threats.
24. Environmental Ballot Wins
    Voters around the country approved measures on conservation, water and data centers on Tuesday.
25. Were These Ancient Siberian Nomads the First Stoners?
    Scientists ran a drug test on hair found in a 2,800-year-old burial mound. It came back positive for pot, the earliest known evidence of psychoactive cannabis use.
26. Tiny Chihuahuas Hold a Big Surprise: A Sliver of Coyote DNA
    The breed is descended from indigenous canines, which may have been intentionally mixed with wild coyotes long before Europeans arrived in the Americas.
27. Beverly Whipple Has Died. She Introduced the G-Spot to the Mainstream.
    Dr. Whipple studied the female erogenous zone and, with collaborators, wrote a best seller about women’s sexuality. She was 85.