Science Times: When Your Therapist Is a Bot

Plus: You Can Buy a Piece of a Nobel Prize-Winning Discovery —

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story June 1, 2021 Simone Noronha Something Bothering You? Tell It to Woebot. When your therapist is a bot, you can reach it at 2 a.m. But will it really understand your problems? By Karen Brown NASA/GSFC/SDO Out There Will the Next Space-Weather Season Be Stormy or Fair? As another 11-year cycle of solar activity begins, scientists debate how violent our stellar friend is likely to be. By Dennis Overbye University of California, Berkeley You Can Buy a Piece of a Nobel Prize-Winning Discovery Berkeley will auction NFTs of invention disclosure forms filed by the creators of CRISPR and cancer immunotherapy. By Kenneth Chang Benjamin Norman for The New York Times Subway Swabbers Find a Microbe Jungle and Thousands of New Species A team of international researchers has assembled an atlas of microorganisms present in 60 cities around the world. By Emily Anthes Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Email us Let us know how we're doing at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com. NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (STScI); Adrienne McCann Out There What to Name a Bunch of Black Holes? You Had Some Ideas. Recently, astronomers asked aloud which plural term would best suit the most enigmatic entity in the cosmos. The responses were plentiful. By Dennis Overbye Dept. of Defense handout/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images Guest Essay I'm a Physicist Who Searches for Aliens. U.F.O.s Don't Impress Me. There are good reasons to believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, but this is not one of them. By Adam Frank Benjamin Norman for The New York Times the media equation The Internet's Favorite Catalog of Weird Places Rewrites History Atlas Obscura has reviewed how it tells its stories about curious places in light of last year's shift in how Americans view their past. By Ben Smith NatureDiver, via Alamy How the 'Wandering Meatloaf' Got Its Rock-Hard Teeth The dentition of the gumboot chiton, a lumbering mollusk, contains a rare mineral never before seen in a living animal. By Emily Anthes Archaeologists vs. Computers: A Study Tests Who's Best at Sifting the Past When it came to the tedious task of categorizing pottery fragments, a deep-learning model was found to be just as accurate as four human experts, and far more efficient. By Heather Murphy Two New Laws Restrict Police Use of DNA Search Method Maryland and Montana have passed the nation's first laws limiting forensic genealogy, the method that found the Golden State Killer. By Virginia Hughes Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT CLIMATE CHANGE Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters Big Setbacks Propel Oil Giants Toward a 'Tipping Point' A surprising mix of environmentalists, pension fund managers and big money investors have scored startling victories against oil and coal, opening new battle fronts in the climate fight. By Somini Sengupta Where Wind and Solar Power Need to Grow for America to Meet Its Goals A broad shift toward renewable energy could transform landscapes and coastlines all over the United States. By Veronica Penney Anna Filipova for The New York Times Here's the Arctic Station That Keeps Satellites Connected The world's northernmost tracking base, on a Norwegian island, plays a crucial role in supporting research on climate change. By Anna Filipova and Henry Fountain SUBSCRIBE TODAY If you've found this newsletter helpful, please consider subscribing to The New York Times — with this special offer. Your support makes our work possible. THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Scientists Don't Want to Ignore the 'Lab Leak' Theory, Despite No New Evidence Many scientists welcomed President Biden's call for a more rigorous investigation of a virus lab in Wuhan, China, though they said the so-called lab leak theory was still unlikely. By Carl Zimmer, James Gorman and Benjamin Mueller Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times Immunity to the Coronavirus May Persist for Years, Scientists Find Important immune cells survive in the bone marrow of people who were infected with the virus or were inoculated against it, new research suggests. By Apoorva Mandavilli Jae C. Hong/Associated Press 70 Percent Covid Vaccination Rate May Be in Reach, New Poll Suggests The survey found big increases over last month in Latinos getting the shot and in unvaccinated people who say they have made an appointment. By Jan Hoffman Sarah Blesener for The New York Times C.D.C. Will Not Investigate Mild Infections in Vaccinated Americans At least 10,000 vaccinated people were infected with the coronavirus through the end of April. Now the agency has stopped pursuing the mildest cases. By Roni Caryn Rabin Guillem Casasus Why Apple and Google's Virus Alert Apps Had Limited Success The virus-tracing effort raises questions about the power of Big Tech to set global standards for public health tools. By Natasha Singer Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT HEALTH 'On That Edge of Fear': One Woman's Struggle With Sickle Cell Pain Cures for a disease that mostly afflicts Black people seem near but may come too late for Lisa Craig, who lives with an agony like knives stabbing her bones. By John Eligon and William DeShazer Susan L. Angstadt/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle, via Getty Images Poor Americans More Likely to Have Respiratory Problems, Study Finds Despite improvements in air quality and other advances, low-income Americans more often have asthma, lung disease and related illnesses. By Roni Caryn Rabin Filip Singer/EPA, via Shutterstock Phys Ed The Best Time of Day to Exercise for Metabolic Health Late-day exercise had unique benefits for cholesterol levels and blood sugar control, a study of overweight men eating a high-fat diet found. By Gretchen Reynolds Gracia Lam Personal Health Clinics Close, but Abortion Continues Even as abortion is restricted, telemedicine allows some women to end unwanted pregnancies using legal medications. By Jane E. Brody Lauren Justice for The New York Times A Vaccine Side Effect Leaves Women Wondering: Why Isn't the Pill Safer? Scientists were alarmed by blood clots possibly linked to the J&J vaccine. Some women wondered if there shouldn't be more concern about oral contraceptives. By Apoorva Mandavilli Make a friend's day: Forward this email. Got this from a friend? Subscribe to the Science Times newsletter. Check out other New York Times newsletters (all free!) including: Climate Fwd: for climate coverage and expert analysis. The Upshot for a data-driven look at the news. Well for the latest on health, fitness and nutrition. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Science Times from The New York Times. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018