Science Times: Mammal DNA yields its secrets

Plus: Can artistry be built into a machine? —

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story May 2, 2023 Noah Snyder, Marcos Amend, Erica Morcegos From Alpacas to Yaks, Mammal DNA Yields Its Secrets The genomes of monkeys, bats, whales and many other mammals are helping scientists tackle big questions about physiology, evolution and one very famous sled dog. By Emily Anthes Dr. Gopal Murti/Science Source What Cheetahs, Armadillos and Whales Revealed About Human DNA Over a decade, scientists compared the genomes of 240 mammals to see how humans are the same — and different. By Carl Zimmer NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team OUT THERE Who Will Have the Last Word on the Universe? Modern science suggests that we and all our achievements and memories are destined to vanish like a dream. Is that sad or good? By Dennis Overbye Kristian Thacker for The New York Times MIND Can Artistry Be Built Into a Machine? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University developed a robot that can paint an abstract acrylic. Is it art? By Oliver Whang Anna Giecco LOST & FOUND Ancient Romans Dropped Their Bling Down the Drain, Too Archaeologists have recovered a trove of fallen, forgotten ring stones from an 1,800-year-old bathhouse in England. By Franz Lidz Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Email us Let us know how we're doing at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com. Chloe Ellingson for The New York Times 'The Godfather of A.I.' Leaves Google and Warns of Danger Ahead For half a century, Geoffrey Hinton nurtured the technology at the heart of chatbots like ChatGPT. Now he worries it will cause serious harm. By Cade Metz Jerry Tang and Alexander Huth A.I. Is Getting Better at Mind-Reading In a recent experiment, researchers used large language models to translate brain activity into words. By Oliver Whang NASA, ESA, CSA, T. Morishita (IPAC), A. Pagan (STScI) OUT THERE Back Then, Baby Galaxies. Next, a Super-Mega Galactic Cluster? The Webb telescope has spotted some of the oldest known collections of stars. They may have a very bright future. By Dennis Overbye S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF) OUT THERE A Fresh View of an Increasingly Familiar Black Hole Radio astronomers have captured a wide-angle image of one of the most violent locales in the cosmos. By Dennis Overbye via Reed family Overlooked No More: Elizabeth Wagner Reed, Who Resurrected Legacies of Women in Science Reed made several discoveries in genetics and dedicated her career toward supporting women scientists. Yet she herself fell into obscurity. By Rachel May Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT SpaceX Rocket Struggled to Self-Destruct as It Spun Out of Control In an update on the first flight of the most powerful rocket ever, Elon Musk offered a timeline of what went wrong while staying optimistic about forthcoming launches. By Kenneth Chang TRILOBITES Fruitarian Frogs May Be Doing Flowers a Favor Researchers may have discovered the first example of a frog that pollinates flowering plants. By Sofia Quaglia Second 'Impossible' Ring Found Around Distant Dwarf Planet Astronomers had already detected one unlikely ring around Quaoar, a small object far beyond Neptune's orbit. Now they have found a second ring. By Kenneth Chang TRILOBITES Why Are Insects Drawn to Light? A Perennial Question Gets a New Answer. A new study offers an alternative to earlier explanations for why moths and other bugs are attracted to artificial sources of illumination. By Joshua Sokol CLIMATE CHANGE Khadija Farah for The New York Times What Climate Change Could Mean for the Coffee You Drink As global warming threatens the two main varieties, coffee growers in Uganda are betting on a type that can stand up to heat, drought and pests. By Somini Sengupta Eduardo Soteras/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Climate Change Made East Africa's Drought 100 Times as Likely, Study Says The findings starkly show the misery that the burning of fossil fuels, mostly by rich countries, inflicts on societies that emit almost nothing by comparison. By Raymond Zhong Enjoy all of The New York Times in one subscription — the original reporting and analysis, plus puzzles from Games, recipes from Cooking, product reviews from Wirecutter and sports journalism from The Athletic. Experience it all with a New York Times All Access subscription. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT HEALTH Tim Gruber for The New York Times Emergency Room Visits Have Risen Sharply for Young People in Mental Distress, Study Finds From 2011 to 2020, the proportion of mental health-related visits to emergency rooms by young people roughly doubled, health experts report. By Matt Richtel Ian Allenden/Alamy Bilingualism May Stave Off Dementia, Study Suggests People who spoke two languages daily in their youth tended to score higher on memory tests later in life, the researchers found. By Jaya Padmanabhan Kristan Lieb/Chicago Tribune, via Alamy Live News Researchers Identify Possible New Risk for Breast Cancer Women's breasts become less dense with age. Cancer may be more likely in breast tissue that is persistently denser over time, a new study suggests. By Roni Caryn Rabin Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Scientist Revisits Data on Raccoon Dogs and Covid, Stressing the Unknowns After analyzing genetic data swabbed from a Wuhan market in early 2020, a virologist said it was unclear if animals for sale there had been infected. By Benjamin Mueller F.D.A. Approves Drug for Rare Form of A.L.S. The drug, which will be sold as Qalsody by the pharmaceutical company Biogen, targets a genetic cause of a devastating neurological illness. By Rebecca Robbins A Century-Old Vaccine Fails to Protect Against Covid Early in the pandemic, scientists began testing an old TB vaccine against the coronavirus. But the trial enrolled fewer participants than expected as new Covid vaccines were introduced, and no discernible effect was found. By Roni Caryn Rabin The Weekend-Only Exercise Plan Can't find time to exercise on weekdays? Here are five ways to get more out of a Saturday and Sunday routine. By Danielle Friedman Your Next Fitness Coach Could Be a Robot A.I. fitness trainers are here, at a fraction of the price of human coaching. But how useful are they? By Hilary Achauer 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. 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