NYT > Science

1. A.I. Could Possibly End Humanity. How Are Humans Supposed to Process That?
   The technology is far from the only existential risk our species faces. But weighing such cosmic fears can become a mind-bending exercise.
2. How the New iPhone Duo’s Glass Screen Bends Without Breaking
   The screens of foldable phones are a triumph of materials science and microengineering.
3. The Mathematician Crushed Between OpenAI and Anthropic Over a Math Problem
   Tristan Buckmaster was on the path toward an important proof when one of the A.I. giants used its staggering resources to get there first.
4. Could Your Chatbot Be Stealing Ideas From You? It’s a Thorny Question.
   A controversy around OpenAI’s latest math proof raises a fear that might become increasingly common: that A.I. tools could take valuable insights from one user and hand them to another.
5. Scientists Discover the Earliest Evidence of Drug Use in Really Old Teeth
   A hunter-gatherer who lived in Indonesia as early as 25,000 years ago may have regularly sucked on betel nuts to release their psychoactive properties.
6. Scientists Who Study Sleep and Narcolepsy Win Prestigious Lasker Award
   Two researchers who study the debilitating sleep disorder have won a prestigious Lasker Award. Their research in animals laid the groundwork for a new drug that addresses the condition’s root cause.
7. OpenAI Says It Has Cracked One of Math’s ‘Millennium Problems’
   The company’s announcement is the most dramatic sign yet that artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming the field of higher mathematics.
8. What Is Navier-Stokes, the ‘Millennium’ Math Problem OpenAI Claims to Have Solved?
   OpenAI announced today that it had solved the problem, one of seven “Millennium Problems” seen as among the most important in higher mathematics.
9. Top Mathematician Announces New Institute for A.I. Safety
   Jacob Tsimerman, a recent recipient of the Fields Medal, believes that higher mathematics can help curb the dangers of runaway artificial intelligence.
10. Choking Global Trade
    Low rainfall and shrinking rivers are causing shipping bottlenecks, and higher prices, around the world.
11. The Iran War Is Pushing Global Coal Use to Record Highs
    Five years after virtually every world leader agreed to “phase down” the burning of coal for climate reasons, the fuel is more widely used than ever.
12. August Ties for Hottest Month on Record
    Sweltering summer temperatures put last month on par with July 2023 for global warmth, scientists said. More records could be broken in the months ahead.
13. States File 2 Lawsuits Over Trump’s Cuts to Endangered Species Act
    Two lawsuits seek to reverse the Trump administration’s moves to open the habitats of imperiled wildlife to commercial activities.
14. Toxic PFAS Cleanups at Military Sites Face Decades of Delay
    The Pentagon has again postponed PFAS cleanups at hundreds of military sites, in some cases up to 19 years, prompting bipartisan anger in Congress.
15. A New Drug Lifts the Fog of Sleepiness for Those With Narcolepsy
    The first-of-its-kind drug offers a reprieve for people who live with the debilitating sleep disorder.
16. California’s Ambitious Plan for Textile Waste
    A recycling law coming into force now could change fashion.
17. U.S. to Lend $1.9 Billion to Restart a Shuttered Nuclear Plant in Iowa
    No company in the United States has ever restarted a reactor that was seemingly closed for good, but there are now three major efforts underway to do so.
18. A Newer Kind of Gene Editing Promises to Edit ‘Nurture’ Over ‘Nature’
    Traditional gene editing rewrites DNA. But a new approach, called epigenome editing, aims to treat the molecular scars we collect throughout our lives.
19. Early Data Indicates an A.I.-Generated Drug Could Slow Aging
    Artificial intelligence was used to help develop a drug candidate, rentosertib, for a rare lung condition. Its maker says the drug also seems to reduce the biological hallmarks of age.
20. How Ancient Farmers Used Floral Designs to Track Goods
    A Mesopotamian culture’s decorated ceramics show some early roots of math, researchers argued.
21. The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice
    Joan Birman thought her major discoveries were behind her. Then came an email from a young neighbor — a girl who knew little but wanted to learn.
22. Is There Alien Debris on the Moon? Some Scientists Plan to Find Out.
    Researchers want to explore the idea that microscopic particles shed by alien civilizations have accumulated on the lunar surface, making it an archive of extraterrestrial technology.
23. The Heart Drug Pelacarsen Fails, Shocking Novartis and Cardiologists
    Doctors were hopeful the drug, which was being tested in a large clinical trial by Novartis, was going to be a powerful new tool to fight heart disease.
24. Pentagon Agreement With N.I.H. on Biodefense Draws Alarm From Democrats
    Under a new partnership, the Defense Department would play a larger role in biodefense and pandemic preparedness. Democrats warned it could allow a Pentagon cash grab.
25. Hideki Shirakawa, Who Helped Turn a Lab Error Into a Nobel, Dies at 90
    The Japanese chemist played a key role in the discovery of electricity-conducting plastics, largely by accident.
26. The World’s First Bugs Had Way More Legs
    Meet the earliest known insects. Shaking hands with them will take a while.
27. Plumbing the Shipwrecks of an Infamous Pirate Cove
    For the marine archaeologist Sean Kingsley, the most honest history can be found on the seafloor.
28. The Brains of F1 Drivers Are Indeed Strange
    They are moving too fast for the normal mind to keep up, but elite drivers have more densely packed brain cells where it counts and use their minds more efficiently.