Science Times: The hunt for dark matter

Plus: How many continents are there? —

View in browser|nytimes.com November 5, 2024 John P. Dessereau Can Axions Save the Universe? The hunt for dark matter is shifting from particles to waves named after a laundry detergent. By Dennis Overbye and Katrina Miller Federico Rios for The New York Times Where There's Joy in a Terror Bird In Colombia, a fossil-collecting rancher has found a giant, flightless killer from 13 million years ago — and a missing link to the region's evolutionary history. By Jennie Erin Smith and Federico Rios Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times Exhale Through the Gift Shop Museums are adding scents as another tool for communicating information about science and other subjects in their exhibits. By Becky Ferreira Dusty Klifman Diving to Drink a 19th-Century Shipwreck's Treasure A team recently dived deep beneath Lake Huron hoping to harvest grain that may one day be distilled into whiskey with a flavor forgotten to history. By Cara Giaimo Elsa/Getty Images Trilobites The Science That Makes Baseball Mud 'Magical' Scientists dug up the real dirt on the substance applied to all the baseballs used in the major leagues. By David Waldstein Email us Let us know how we're doing at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com. Luke Auld-Thomas Et Al, via Reuters Behind a Wall of Trees, Archaeologists Discover a Maya City A city with temple pyramids not far from the road and a site with a Maya complex built alongside a sinkhole lend to evidence that the Maya civilization was even more sprawling than known. By Alan Yuhas Andrew Beardmore (Univ. of Leicester) and NASA/Swift Out There Two Black Holes Are Giving the Cosmos a Fright The ghosts of stars are up to their usual mischief. By Dennis Overbye The National Museum of Denmark Was Stone Age Scandinavia Struck by Plague? New research by geneticists hints at the deadly work of Yersinia pestis 5,000 years ago. By Franz Lidz How Many Continents Are There? You May Not Like the Answers. Recent earth science developments suggest that how we count our planet's largest land masses is less clear than we learned in school. By Matt Kaplan Elon Musk's SpaceX, Already a Leader in Satellites, Gets Into the Spy Game The Pentagon needs what the company offers to compete with China even as it frets over its potential for dominance and the billionaire's global interests. By Eric Lipton Instead of Going Boldly on Space, Harris Has Taken a Steady Approach As chair of the White House's National Space Council, the vice president largely emphasized continuity with policies set by the Trump administration. By Kenneth Chang and Katrina Miller Trilobites Fossil Reveals Oldest Known Tadpole That Grew to the Size of a Hot Dog A 161 million-year-old fossil, linked to a line of extinct frog-like amphibians, is the oldest tadpole ever found. By Asher Elbein Trilobites This Toad Is So Tiny That They Call It a Flea A "toadlet" in Brazil is the second-smallest vertebrate known to exist on the planet. By Sofia Quaglia Do You Know These Space Books That Were Adapted Into Hit Movies? This short trivia quiz tests your knowledge of fiction and nonfiction works that were made into popular films about space exploration and the quest to connect with other worlds. By J. D. Biersdorfer CLIMATE CHANGE Kristian Thacker for The New York Times Clean Energy Is Booming in the U.S. The Election Could Change That. Trump has suggested he would dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act, which has reshaped America's energy landscape. It won't be easy. By Brad Plumer Gabriel Aponte/Getty Images Global Summit on Nature Adopts a Novel Way to Pay for Conservation Delegates at the U.N. talks created a system that would compensate countries for the use of genetic information but failed to make headway on a broader funding commitment. By Catrin Einhorn We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. HEALTH Kenny Holston/The New York Times How Public Health Could Be Recast in a Second Trump Term Breaking up the C.D.C., moving funds from the N.I.H. — conservatives have floated changes should Mr. Trump regain office. By Apoorva Mandavilli Audra Melton for The New York Times Why Is Harris So Passionate About Abortion Rights? Her Past Work Holds Clues. For a politician who has been criticized for shifting positions on some issues, this is an area where she has shown unwavering conviction. By Heather Knight and Pam Belluck Ian C. Bates for The New York Times From A.I. to Musk's Brain Chips, the F.D.A.'s Device Unit Faces Rapid Change The new director overseeing medical devices will confront criticisms about hasty approvals as she ushers in revolutionary technology. By Christina Jewett Lee Klafczynski for The New York Times Can John Green Make You Care About Tuberculosis? With a forthcoming nonfiction book and an online army of Nerdfighters, the young-adult author aims to eliminate an entirely curable global scourge. By Maddie Bender Cost of Mpox Shot Deters Americans at Risk, Critics Say The epidemic in Africa continues to grow, prompting fears of another outbreak in the U.S. But the vaccine is no longer free, and vulnerable people are going without. By Apoorva Mandavilli 1 in 4 Child Deaths After E.R. Visits Are Preventable, Study Finds If every emergency room in the United States were fully prepared to treat children, thousands of lives would be saved and the cost would be $11.84 or less per child, researchers found. By Emily Baumgaertner Being Sugar-Deprived Had Major Effects on These Children's Health British data shows that children conceived and born during a period of sugar rationing were less likely to develop diabetes or high blood pressure later in life. By Gina Kolata Obesity Drug Shows Promise in Easing Knee Osteoarthritis Pain A large trial showed that semaglutide, sold as Ozempic for diabetes and as Wegovy for obesity, was better than any current medications in alleviating symptoms. By Gina Kolata Richard A. Cash, Who Saved Millions From Dehydration, Dies at 83 He worked alongside another doctor to show that a simple rehydration therapy could check the ravages of cholera and other diarrhea-inducing diseases. By Clay Risen 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. 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