Science Times: Illegal trafficking of corals

Plus: 3,000-year-old beer, jumping leeches and the earliest galaxy yet —

View in browser|nytimes.com June 25, 2024 Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times Unlikely Wild Animals Are Being Smuggled Into U.S. Ports: Corals With the sea creatures making up a growing share of illegal animal seizures around the world, U.S. officials are working to overcome struggles to safely house them. By Jason Bittel Kobi Wolf/Contact Press Images Ancient Shipwreck Preserves a Deep Bronze Age Time Capsule About a mile beneath the sea, the ship suggests that trade in the eastern Mediterranean Sea traveled much farther from the safety of land. By Franz Lidz and Kobi Wolf via Evelina Fedorenko Origins Do We Need Language to Think? A group of neuroscientists argue that our words are primarily for communicating, not for reasoning. By Carl Zimmer Kim Raff for The New York Times How to Make 3,000-Year-Old Beer An amateur brewer in Utah gathered rare figs and a strain of yeast from 850 B.C. to make a sour, fruity concoction inspired by ancient Egyptian recipes. By Alexander Nazaryan Email us Let us know how we're doing at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images China Becomes First Country to Retrieve Rocks From the Moon's Far Side The Chang'e-6 mission's sample, which might hold clues about the origins of the moon and Earth, is the latest achievement of China's lunar exploration program. By Katrina Miller NASA Johnson 'Arctic Blast' of Leaky Water Halts Spacewalk by NASA Astronauts It was the second scheduled spacewalk by NASA astronauts aboard the space station that faced an interruption this month. By Kenneth Chang Gerard Talavera Trilobites Scientists Find First Evidence That Butterflies Crossed an Ocean Researchers discovered painted ladies on a South American beach and then built a case that they started their journey in Europe or Africa. By Monique Brouillette NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), P. Cargile (CfA) Out There Piping Up at the Gates of Dawn Astronomers have found the earliest and most distant galaxy yet. By Dennis Overbye Gritsevich et al., Meteoritics and Planetary Science 2024 An Odd Rock in a Box Gets Linked to a Shooting Star That Fell 54 Years Ago An Austrian forest ranger picked up the rock in 1976. Decades later, scientists discovered the object's origin story while digging through old photos. By Katherine Kornei Origins How Flounder Wound Up With an Epic Side-Eye Flatfish offer an evolutionary puzzle: How did one eye gradually migrate to the other side? By Carl Zimmer Lokiceratops, a Horned Dinosaur, May Be a New Species Researchers analyzed a skull found in Montana of a plant-eating member of the ceratops family, finding distinct traits. By Asher Elbein Trilobites Videos Show That Leeches Can Jump in Pursuit of Blood There has long been anecdotal evidence of the wormy creatures taking to the air, but videos recorded in Madagascar at last prove the animals' acrobatics. By Veronique Greenwood New 'Detective Work' on Butterfly Declines Reveals a Prime Suspect Agricultural insecticides were a key factor, according to a study focused on the Midwest, though researchers emphasized the importance of climate change and habitat loss. By Catrin Einhorn After a Weather Disaster, a Surprise: Some Ornery Monkeys Got Nicer Macaques, reeling from a hurricane, learned by necessity to get along, a study found. It's one of the first to suggest that animals can adapt to environmental upheaval with social changes. By Rachel Nuwer CLIMATE CHANGE Cassandra Klos for The New York Times The Weatherman Who Tried to Bring Climate Science to a Red State Chris Gloninger said he was hired to talk about global warming in his forecasts. That's when things heated up. By Cara Buckley Blacki Migliozzi/The New York Times A Ride in a Chemical-Sniffing Van Shows How Heat Amps Up Pollution In heat waves, chemicals like formaldehyde and ozone can form more readily in the air, according to researchers driving mobile labs in New York City this week. By Hiroko Tabuchi Atul Loke for The New York Times Three Ideas to Beat the Heat, and the People Who Made Them Happen As temperatures soar around the world, practical experiments are emerging to protect people. By Somini Sengupta We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. HEALTH Sara Andreasson Is Delaying Menopause the Key to Longevity? Scientists are studying how to keep the ovaries working longer — and potentially, prevent age-related diseases in the process. By Alisha Haridasani Gupta and Dana G. Smith Photo illustration by Jens Mortensen for The New York Times the middlemen The Opaque Industry Secretly Inflating Prices for Prescription Drugs Pharmacy benefit managers are driving up drug costs for millions of people, employers and the government. By Rebecca Robbins and Reed Abelson Aaron Ufumeli/EPA, via Shutterstock New Drug Provides Total Protection From H.I.V. in Trial of Young African Women An injection given just twice a year could herald a breakthrough in protecting the population that has the highest infection rates. By Stephanie Nolen Jean-Francois Monier/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Global Health South Africa Runs Out of Insulin Pens as Global Supply Shifts to Weight-Loss Drugs The shortage highlights a widening gulf in the standard of care for people with diabetes, most of whom live in low-income countries. By Stephanie Nolen Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press Surgeon General Declares Gun Violence a Public Health Crisis Dr. Vivek Murthy is calling for a multipronged effort to reduce gun deaths, modeled on campaigns against smoking and traffic fatalities. By Ellen Barry Is Fish Oil Helpful or Harmful for the Heart? Despite decades of research, the evidence for omega-3 supplements is murky. By Alice Callahan How Heat Affects the Brain High temperatures can make us miserable. Research shows they also make us aggressive, impulsive and dull. By Dana G. Smith What Your Heart Rate Can Tell You About Your Fitness Most fitness trackers offer a wealth of heart-rate data. Here's how to make sense of it. By Talya Minsberg Walking Can Be a Powerful Remedy for Back Pain A new study adds to a large body of evidence on the effectiveness of movement for treating and preventing pain. By Talya Minsberg Make a friend's day: Forward this email. Got this from a friend? 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