Don't Bogart My Blog: Science Times: How Many Space Stations Does This Planet Need?

Plus: Researchers Explore a Cancer Paradox —

View in Browser | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

NYTimes.com/Science »

A model of the Olympus space station module at Bigelow Aerospace near Las Vegas. Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times

How Many Space Stations Does This Planet Need?

By KENNETH CHANG

The Trump administration wants to shift to a capitalist free-for-all in orbit. But the readiness of commercial space outposts to take NASA's place is far from certain.

Scott Menchin

What's Life Like After Depression? Surprisingly, Little Is Known

By BENEDICT CAREY

Most research on depression focuses on the afflicted, a new paper argues, overlooking a potentially informative group: people who have recovered.

Healthy cells of the esophagus. A study of such cells found that they develop an unexpectedly large number of mutations, mainly from the normal aging process.

Steve Gschmeissner/Science Source

Researchers Explore a Cancer Paradox

By CARL ZIMMER

Healthy cells carry a surprising number of cancer-linked mutations, but they don't turn into tumors. What's holding them back?

A young lion in Nairobi National Park in Kenya. Their numbers in Africa have dropped 43 percent in the past 20 years.

Tony Karumba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In Africa, 'Paper Parks' Are Starved for Cash

By RACHEL NUWER

In a unique analysis, researchers put a price on protecting Africa's wildlife: at least $1.2 billion each year.

An image from a video showing men chugging milk. White nationalists are using genetic research — like the ability to digest lactose in milk as adults — as a sign of racial identity.

Geneticists Criticize Use of Science by White Nationalists to Justify 'Racial Purity'

By AMY HARMON

In a statement, the American Society of Human Genetics said "there can be no genetics-based support of claiming one group as superior to another."

• Writing About Science When Even the Scientists Are Nervous

An Ariane 5 rocket lifts off in French Guiana on Friday, carrying the BepiColombo spacecraft to the planet Mercury.

European Space Agency

BepiColombo Launches on Long Journey to Mercury

By KENNETH CHANG

The European-Japanese spacecraft will be the third mission to the rocky planet closest to the sun.

University of Edinburgh

Drifting Dandelion Seeds Produce a Vortex Never Before Seen

By JAMES GORMAN

The air flowing through the bristly tufts of dandelion seeds creates a vortex scientists had never viewed in nature.

Piranhamesodon pinnatomus, a fish of the late Jurassic with sharp teeth, inset, that would have allowed it to eat prey much larger than itself, like modern piranhas.

M. Ebert and T. Nohl

With Piranha-Like Teeth, This Prehistoric Predator Never Bit Off More Than It Could Chew

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR

A fossil discovered in southern Germany is the earliest known flesh-eating bony fish.

Daniel McFadden/Universal Pictures

Why Does 'First Man' Say Gemini as 'Geminee'? NASA Explains. Sorta.

By JOHN SCHWARTZ

The pronunciation of the 1965-66 program is a space agency thing. Sometimes it was pronounced normally. NASA's chief historian gives the back story.

• Remembering the Moon Landing, Nearly 50 Years Later: 'We Were All Completely Silent'

Giovanni Carboni, at the Museum of Origins in Rome, holding a 5,000-year-old artifact that is believed to have been used to make music.

Nadia Shira Cohen for The New York Times

Italy's Oldest Instrument Hints at Sounds of Prehistoric Rome

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

The music of the ancient world is largely lost, but recent findings and recreations of antique instruments can give a taste.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

'Headless Chicken Monster' Spotted in the Deep Sea

By LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA

A sea cucumber, previously only filmed off the Gulf of Mexico, was seen floating near Antarctica.

A scientist in France examined a sample of seawater from the Mediterranean containing microplastics. Most microplastics are the unintended result of larger plastics breaking apart.

Microplastics Find Their Way Into Your Gut, a Pilot Study Finds

By DOUGLAS QUENQUA

Q&A

Do all plants need sunlight?

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Climate Change

Julia Olson on a hike near Eugene, Ore. She is representing 21 young people who are suing the federal government.

Young People Are Suing the Trump Administration Over Climate Change. She's Their Lawyer.

By JOHN SCHWARTZ

Julia Olson is representing 21 young plaintiffs, who may soon get their day in court. "She has built not just a case, but a movement," a colleague says.

California's Underwater Forests Are Being Eaten by the 'Cockroaches of the Ocean'

By KENDRA PIERRE-LOUIS

Climate change is ravaging California's underwater kelp forests. That's caused what one scientist called a "perfect storm" in the ecosystem.

Climate Change Is No Joking Matter. Except, This Week, It Was.

By JOHN SCHWARTZ

Global warming made the rounds on the late-night comedy shows this week. It was funny, but do jokes blunt the message that climate change is a threat? Hardly, experts say.

GIVE FEEDBACK

Let us know what you like and don't like about this newsletter. Email us at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com.

Health

Gracia Lam

Personal Health

A National Goal: Prevent a Million Heart Attacks and Strokes by 2022

By JANE E. BRODY

There is already a well-established path to countering cardiovascular disease. All it really requires is the will of individuals and society to follow it.

Demonstrators outside the White House protesting President Trump's move to define gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America

Anatomy Does Not Determine Gender, Experts Say

By DENISE GRADY

Efforts by the Trump administration to narrowly define gender as determined by genitals defy medical and scientific knowledge.

The Telfair County Hospital in McRae, Ga., closed in 2008, one of eight rural Georgia hospitals to shutter in the last decade, with many more at risk.

Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times

Stacey Abrams Hopes Medicaid Expansion Can Be a Winning Issue in Rural Georgia

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

By framing expansion as a pragmatic business move, Ms. Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor, is hoping to siphon some traditionally Republican rural votes.