NYT > Science

1. New Winged Robot Can Fly and Swim Like a Puffin
   Inspired by the physical feats of diving birds, researchers have created a robot that can plunge into the water and flap back into the air.
2. Researchers Claim to Have Solved the Perplexing ‘Reverse Sprinkler’ Problem That Stumped Feynman
   Physicists have debated which way a submerged sprinkler sucking in water would spin. Careful experiments provide an answer.
3. A Sweet Surprise: Scientists Find Sugar Deep in Our Galaxy
   It’s the first time a sugar molecule has been detected in interstellar space. The discovery provides tantalizing new clues into how life may have arisen on Earth.
4. Dark Sky Defenders Raise Alarm Along the Border of West Texas
   Residents fear that the Trump administration’s plans to build a border wall will threaten the region’s spectacular starry skies.
5. ‘We’re Fighting Satan’: The War to Save Bees From a Hornet Invasion
   As yellow-legged hornets spread through South Carolina’s Lowcountry region, threatening the local honey crop, a state team of bee defenders is racing to the rescue.
6. What Is an Aortic Dissection?
   The condition that killed Senator Lindsey Graham is deadly, sudden and difficult to treat — “like a knife to the heart,” one expert said.
7. F.C.C. Approves Test of Space Mirror to Light Night Sky Despite Outcry
   A start-up company has permission to try its plan to bounce solar rays onto the dark side of Earth, turning night to day for a three-mile-wide patch.
8. What China’s Successful Rocket Launch Means for the Future of the Space Race
   A space neophyte not long ago, China is now the United States’s main competitor for supremacy throughout the solar system.
9. Your Cat Is Being Nice? Think Again.
   A new study finds that sometimes cats groom each other specifically to be annoying.
10. Climate: An extraordinary White House meeting
    A new book sheds light on President Trump’s affinity for fossil fuels.
11. Public Health Groups Sue F.D.A. Over Flavored E-Cigarette Policy
    Executives unhappy with the agency donated and lobbied President Trump directly. Major companies have already begun to prepare and ship new products.
12. Roger Worthington Is Suing Over a Heat Wave
    Roger Worthington is helping to lead a $50 billion lawsuit against oil producers. This week he’ll face powerful critics in Congress.
13. Trump Sharply Cuts the Size of Two National Monuments in Utah
    Native American tribes and environmental groups are expected to challenge the move to shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
14. Appeals Court Revives Lawsuits Tying Tylenol Use in Pregnancy to Autism and A.D.H.D.
    A federal appeals court overruled a district court judge who dismissed the lawsuits, citing unreliable scientific evidence.
15. Years After He Quit Smoking, a Lung Cancer Scan Saved His Life
    Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and older adults are at higher risk. But only about a quarter of patients eligible for screening are up-to-date.
16. Kids Can’t Stop Watching ‘Moana.’ There’s a Scientific Explanation.
    The 2016 release has become the most watched movie on Disney+. Parents and experts explain why kids can’t get enough.
17. Trump Cuts Habitat Protections for Endangered Species
    The rule change ends a safeguard that had been in place for 50 years and could hasten the demise of imperiled animals.
18. U.S. Department of Energy Underestimated Potential Los Alamos Plutonium Leak Danger, Study Finds
    An accident at the lab that produces America’s nuclear bomb cores could lead to more fatalities than previously estimated by the federal government, according to new research.
19. She Studied Ways to Make People Smarter. Then Her Grant Was Cut.
    Jessica Cantlon had a grant with the U.S. Navy to explore whether people could improve spatial problem-solving skills through training. Then the program was cut.
20. New York Sues Companies Over ‘Forever Chemicals’
    The lawsuit claims that the companies, including 3M and DuPont, contaminated the environment and engaged in fraud by withholding information from the public about the harms of the chemicals, known as PFAS.
21. Nobel-Winning U.S. Chemist Omar Yaghi Will Move to China to Lead A.I. Institute
    Omar Yaghi of the University of California, Berkeley, will head an initiative to apply artificial intelligence to the discovery of new materials.
22. Advanced Recycling Hits a Rough Patch
    In the past weeks, two sites in the United States have halted operations.
23. Joseph Fraumeni, 93, Dies; Helped Discover Genetic Link to Cancer
    Considered the founder of molecular epidemiology, he worked with Frederick P. Li to identify a hereditary disorder that increased the risk of developing cancer at a young age.
24. This Star Just Ate a Planet, and It’s Not Done Yet
    A star 1,300 light-years away appears to have just consumed one world and is gearing up for seconds.
25. Trump’s Plans for Nuclear Power Lurch Ahead
    Recent technological advances have brought the president’s goals a bit closer to reality.
26. Wally Funk, Who Set an Age Record for Space Travel, Dies at 87
    As a young woman in the 1960s, she wasn’t allowed to become a NASA astronaut. She finally realized her long-held dream of flying in space as an octogenarian.
27. These Fossils May Be the Earliest Evidence of Handedness in Animals
    Scientists propose that recently uncovered fossils may be the earliest evidence of behavioral “handedness” in animals.
28. A Chinese Spacecraft Captures First Image of Quasi-Moon
    A Chinese spacecraft has captured the first image of the asteroid Kamo‘oalewa.
29. I.U.C.N. Update Says Deep-Sea Mining Threatens Mollusks Around Hydrothermal Vents
    The snails and other mollusks around hydrothermal vents have evolved to thrive in extreme conditions, but mineral extraction could drive more than half to extinction.
30. How to Turn Your Phone Into a Personal Health Dashboard
    Free apps from Google, Samsung and Apple can help you track your diet, exercise and well-being — and provide vital information during emergencies.
31. This Kind of Obsessive Attraction Isn’t Love. But It Has a Name.
    Limerence is more than a crush, psychologists say, and it can persist for months or years.
32. Western Europe Had Its Hottest June on Record
    An unusually early heat wave smashed records across France, Britain and Spain. Temperatures in some areas are starting to soar again.
33. Spread of Seafloor Directly Observed for the First Time
    The spread of the ocean floor, as tectonic plates spread apart, is known but hard to observe. Scientists have now documented the process in action.
34. Global Warming Could Ravage the Amazon’s Useful Plant Species, Study Finds
    Hotter temperatures and harsher droughts could cause Indigenous societies to lose many of the species they have used for medicine, rituals and more, scientists found.
35. Our Bacteria Are Talking. We’ve Just Begun to Understand What They’re Saying.
    The human microbiome is essential to our health, but scientists still know very little about it. Two researchers set out to map this largely uncharted terrain.
36. Chernobyl’s Wildlife Cameras Reveal How War Affects Wild Animals
    A rare camera-trap study logged the effects of armed conflict on wild animals in real time.