NYT > Science

1. Most People Don’t Think About Culverts. Their Failure Can Be Deadly.
   Scientists simulated what happens when the pipes and tunnels that divert rainwater fail. In one scenario, 30 percent of local residents couldn’t reach an E.R.
2. A Mastodon Tooth Is Discovered in a California Creek
   A researcher surveying a San Mateo County creek stumbled upon a preserved Pacific mastodon molar estimated to be at least 10,000 years old.
3. As Millions of Birds Migrate, Residents Are Asked to Turn Off the Lights
   Birds are drawn to lights, and more than a billion die each year after crashing into buildings, experts said.
4. Mercury Is Shrinking, and Faster Than We Thought
   New estimates using the planet’s surface wrinkles show that our smallest planet is growing even smaller, at a faster clip than expected.
5. How Did a Heart Drug With So Much Promise Fall So Flat?
   Cardiologists are struggling to figure out why a drug that should have prevented heart attacks didn’t work at all.
6. 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.
7. How the New iPhone Duo’s Glass Screen Bends Without Breaking
   The screens of foldable phones are a triumph of materials science and microengineering.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Court Strikes Down Trump Order to Keep an Aging Coal-Burning Plant Running
    The 64-year-old Michigan power plant was set to retire. Then the Trump administration intervened in a way that overstepped its authority, a court ruled.
11. Racing to Contain Invasive Green Crabs in Puget Sound
    Tribes and scientists are mounting an urgent trapping effort to keep European green crabs from devastating a corner of Puget Sound.
12. Choking Global Trade
    Low rainfall and shrinking rivers are causing shipping bottlenecks, and higher prices, around the world.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. California’s Ambitious Plan for Textile Waste
    A recycling law coming into force now could change fashion.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. How Ancient Farmers Used Floral Designs to Track Goods
    A Mesopotamian culture’s decorated ceramics show some early roots of math, researchers argued.