Science Times: How Animals Vote

Plus: The Farm That Harvests Metals from Plants —

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Husni Che Ngah/Biosphoto, via Alamy   Sneezing Dogs, Dancing Bees: How Animals Vote The 2020 election is off to a complicated start. Maybe we can draw some comparative political lessons from the animal kingdom. By Elizabeth Preston

Antony van der Ent   Down on the Farm That Harvests Metal From Plants Hyper-accumulating plants thrive in metallic soil that kills other vegetation, and botanists are testing the potential of phytomining. By Ian Morse William E. Sauro/The New York Times   Freeman Dyson, Math Genius Turned Visionary Technologist, Dies at 96 After an early breakthrough on light and matter, he became a writer who challenged climate science and pondered space exploration and nuclear warfare. By George Johnson Giacomo Gambineri   News Analysis To Take On the Coronavirus, Go Medieval on It Quarantines and restrictive measures served a purpose in the old days. They can now, too. By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

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Stephen D. Atkinson   Trilobites This Parasite Doesn’t Need Oxygen to Survive But that’s not the weirdest thing about this jellyfish cousin that turns up in the muscles of salmon. By Veronique Greenwood China Lunar Exploration Program   China’s Rover Finds Layers of Surprise Under Moon’s Far Side The Chang’e-4 mission, the first to land on the lunar far side, is demonstrating the promise and peril of using ground-penetrating radar in planetary science. By Kenneth Chang Jurgen and Christine Sohns/FLPA, via Alamy   Trilobites This Mom Is Still Pregnant. But She’s Already Having Another Baby. Female kangaroos and wallabies are known to use both of their uteruses, but the swamp wallaby uses both at the same time. By Veronique Greenwood Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times   Should Robots Have a Face? As automation comes to retail industries, companies are giving machines more humanlike features in order to make them liked, not feared. By Michael Corkery

Earth’s Deepest River Conceals an Evolutionary Mystery The lower Congo River’s depths have made it a natural lab for convergent evolution, yielding fish with unexpected features. By Asher Elbein China’s Ban on Wildlife Trade a Big Step, but Has Loopholes, Conservationists Say The coronavirus epidemic prompted China to permanently ban trade of wild animals as food, but not for medicinal use. By James Gorman trilobites Sunspots and Stranded Whales: A Bizarre Correlation A collaboration between biologists and an astronomer sought to add evidence to the idea that whale migration is affected by solar weather. By Joshua Sokol An Orbital Rendezvous Demonstrates a Space Junk Solution Two satellites docked together high above Earth on Tuesday, successfully extending the life of one that was running out of fuel. By Kenneth Chang trilobites The Leopard Cub With the Lioness Mom Scientists documented a rare and very cute interspecies adoption in a national park in India. By Cara Giaimo trilobites Salamanders and Frogs Hide a Glowing Secret Many amphibians — possibly all of them — are biofluorescent, according to a new survey. By JoAnna Klein

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THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK iStock   Stop Touching Your Face! It’s a quirk of human nature that we touch our eyes, noses and mouths all day long. It’s also a major way we pick up infections like coronavirus. By Tara Parker-Pope Omar Marques/Getty Images   How to Prepare for the Coronavirus Coronavirus cases continued to be confirmed in the United States. By following some basic steps, you can help reduce your risk, and do your part to protect others, if your community is affected. By The New York Times Roman Pilipey/EPA, via Shutterstock   Most Coronavirus Cases Are Mild. That’s Good and Bad News. More than 80 percent of confirmed coronavirus cases are not severe, according to a large Chinese study. But mild symptoms could also make the epidemic harder to contain. By Vivian Wang Grant Hindsley for The New York Times   Coronavirus May Have Spread in U.S. for Weeks, Gene Sequencing Suggests Two cases detected weeks apart in Washington State had genetic links, suggesting that many more people in the area may be infected. By Sheri Fink and Mike Baker New York State Department of Health   As Coronavirus Numbers Rise, C.D.C. Testing Comes Under Fire Federal health officials botched an initial diagnostic test and restricted widespread screening. Missteps may have raised the risks to Americans, critics say. By Roni Caryn Rabin, Knvul Sheikh and Katie Thomas Lauren DeCicca for The New York Times   Inside The Outbreak He Drove Her to the Hospital. She Gave Him the Coronavirus. Taxi and bus drivers are on the forefront of the spread of the coronavirus in Asia, even as a tourism downturn hurts their business. By Hannah Beech

HEALTH Gracia Lam   Personal Health Before Prostate Surgery, Consider ‘Active Surveillance’ Not to be confused with “watchful waiting,” active surveillance is not a do-nothing approach. By Jane E. Brody Elaine Thompson/Associated Press   Are Foods Labeled ‘Low Sugar’ Misleading Consumers? Food and drink claims like “just a tad sweet” or “healthy” may mask high levels of added sugars. By Anahad O’Connor iStock   Phys Ed How Exercise Might Affect Our Food Choices, and Our Weight Men and women who started an exercise program no longer found high-calorie, fatty foods quite so irresistible. By Gretchen Reynolds iStock by Getty Images   The Checkup The Benefits of Exercise for Children’s Mental Health Even light physical activity among adolescents was linked to better mental health as they got older, new research shows. By Perri Klass, M.D. Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times   The New Old Age When a Drug Study Abruptly Ends, Volunteers Are Left to Cope A participant might commit months or years to a drug trial, only to see it vanish overnight. By Paula Span Doug Mills/The New York Times   Supreme Court to Hear Obamacare Appeal The Affordable Care Act, which has survived two major challenges in the Supreme Court, faces another test. By Adam Liptak and Abby Goodnough

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CLIMATE CHANGE Victor J. Blue for The New York Times   A Trump Insider Embeds Climate Denial in Scientific Research An Interior Department official has pressed scientists to include misleading climate language—including debunked claims that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial—into their work. By Hiroko Tabuchi Tony Luong for The New York Times   A Mini-Mississippi River May Help Save Louisiana’s Vanishing Coast A $1.4 billion project to protect the Louisiana coast from subsidence and climate change is being tested in a warehouse-size lab in Massachusetts. By John Schwartz and Tony Luong

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