Don't Bogart My Blog: Science Times: The Mysteries of Animal Movement

Plus: How to Turbocharge Flu Protection (Llamas Required) —

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Monday, November 5, 2018

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David Hu of Georgia Tech studies the biomechanics of animal locomotion. Melissa Golden for The New York Times

The Mysteries of Animal Movement

By JAMES GORMAN

A scientist's unfettered curiosity leads him to investigate the physics at work in some very odd corners of the natural world.

While 50 million people died in the 1918 flu pandemic, each year less potent viral strains circulate, killing as many as 646,000 people worldwide.

MPI/Getty Images

How to Turbocharge Flu Protection (Llamas Required)

By CARL ZIMMER

A giant antibody created in the laboratory shielded mice against dozens of flu strains, offering new hope against a winter misery.

The bell tower of the church of Santiago Apóstol in Kuño Tambo, Peru. Built by the Spanish in 1681, it has been weakened by earthquakes, but traditional techniques are helping with its restoration.

Angela Ponce for The New York Times

In a Land of Quakes, Engineering a Future for a Church Made of Mud

By MICHELLE Z. DONAHUE

High in the Andes Mountains, conservators are testing traditional methods for strengthening adobe buildings.

An elephant tusk uncovered at the Ti's al Ghadah excavation site in Saudi Arabia, which scientists say was once covered in grassland vegetation, with aridity levels similar to those found in open savanna settings in eastern Africa today.

Michael Petraglia

When Human Relatives First Visited a Green Arabian Peninsula

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR

Evidence of the activities of early hominins found in the Saudi desert suggests that they found an area that once was similar to the East African savanna.

Gracia Lam

Personal Health

Need a Flu Shot? Get It Now

By JANE E. BRODY

Immunity tends to wane by 20 percent a month, leaving those who got their shot in August or September with less than desirable protection by the time they're exposed.

How the Jumping Spider Sees Its Prey

By JAMES GORMAN

Researchers looked deep into the eyes of a predatory spider to learn what it was looking at.

The fossilized teeth of Simiolus minutus, a tiny ape that lived in East Africa during the Miocene Era.

James B. Rossie, Andrew Hill

Tiniest Ape Ever Discovered Hints at the Rise of the Monkeys

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR

The newly identified extinct primate weighed slightly less than an average house cat.

Matt McCann

The Great Speckled Dinosaur Egg

By JAMES GORMAN

Eggs of different colors evolved in dinosaurs before the appearance of birds.

An artist's conception of the Kepler-444 system, consisting of five planets orbiting a sun-like star. They're just a handful of the thousands of confirmed planets discovered by the Kepler spacecraft.

Tiago Campante/Peter Devine

Kepler, the Little NASA Spacecraft That Could, No Longer Can

By DENNIS OVERBYE

After nine and a half years in orbit, 530,506 stars observed and 2,662 planets around other stars discovered, the telescope will be left to drift forever around the sun.

Sunset on the Tapajós River, deep in the Amazon rain forest.

Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

Scientists Warn That World's Wilderness Areas Are Disappearing

By LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA

"Wild areas provide a lot of life support systems for the planet," said the author of a study that found 77 percent of earth's land had been modified by humans.

Various images made by the Deep Discoverer, a remote operated vehicle, showing lava deposits made by the eruption, including pillow tubes, glass and other formations.

Chadwick WW Jr. et al

A Vault of Glass and the Deepest Volcanic Eruption Ever Detected

By ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS

Close to the Mariana Trench and nearly three miles below sea level, scientists found evidence of an underwater eruption that was only months old.

A view of the asteroid Ceres, which the NASA Dawn spacecraft has been studying since 2015.

NASA's Dawn Mission to the Asteroid Belt Says Good Night

By CHRIS BUCKLEY

Q&A

Why do I see so many tugboats pushing barges rather than towing them?

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

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Climate Change

A coral reef in the Maldives has been bleached white by heat stress.

The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey

Taking the Oceans' Temperature, Scientists Find Unexpected Heat

By KENDRA PIERRE-LOUIS

Using a new technique, researchers found that between 1991 and 2016 the oceans warmed an average of 60 percent more per year than previous estimates.

• Supreme Court Lets Youths' Case Demanding Climate Action Proceed

• Five Midterm Votes That Could Have an Outsize Impact on Climate Change

One of the longest dry spells on record has left part of the Rhine in Germany at record-low levels for months, forcing freighters to reduce their cargo or stop plying the river altogether.

Gordon Welters for The New York Times

The Rhine, a Lifeline of Germany, Is Crippled by Drought

By CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE

One of the worst dry spells on record has left parts of the river at record-low levels, forcing freighters to reduce their cargo or just stop plying the river.

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