Don't Bogart My Blog: Science Times: World War I

Plus: Small Rockets, Roadkill and the Oldest Figurative Painting —

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Tuesday, November 13, 2018

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At the American University Experiment Station in Maryland, soldiers tested gas masks in a "man-test" laboratory. National Archives and Records Administration

The Chemists' War

By THEO EMERY

One hundred years after the end of World War I, the Army Corps of Engineers is still cleaning up the relics of experiments that helped develop chemical weapons to counter the Germans' gas attacks.

A dead caiman on a highway in Brazil's Pantanal region. Twenty percent of the world's biodiversity is found in Brazil, where economic development is rapidly expanding the road network.

Ricardo Fraga

In Brazil, Animals Cross a Road of No Return

By REBECCA BOYLE

Highway BR-262 is among the deadliest in the world for wildlife. Biologist Wagner Fischer has been monitoring its grim toll for more than two decades.

The drawing at lower left is the oldest known figure made by humans, scientists have found. It may represent a type of wild cattle.

Luc-Henri Fage

In Cave in Borneo Jungle, Scientists Find Oldest Figurative Painting

By CARL ZIMMER

A cave drawing in Borneo is at least 40,000 years old, raising intriguing questions about creativity in ancient societies.

Excavation of a skeleton approximately 9,600 years old in a rock shelter in Brazil. New DNA analyses show the earliest known Americans split into distinct groups after they crossed a land bridge from Asia.

André Strauss

Crossing From Asia, the First Americans Rushed Into the Unknown

By CARL ZIMMER

Three new genetic analyses lend detail, and mystery, to the migration of prehistoric humans throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab's Modest Launch Is Giant Leap for Small Rocket Business

By KENNETH CHANG

The company's Electron rocket carried a batch of small commercial satellites from a launchpad in New Zealand, a harbinger of a major transformation to the space business.

The Atacama Desert in Chile is arguably the best place in the world to see the night sky. Above are antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, known as ALMA.

Tomas Munita for The New York Times

Where Will Science Take Us? To the Stars

By PETER KUJAWINSKI

A monthlong visit to observatories in Chile, Hawaii and Los Angeles revealed spellbinding visions of the heavens.

A house set alight by the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., on Thursday. The fast-spreading fire has been burning 80 acres per minute.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

Why Does California Have So Many Wildfires?

By KENDRA PIERRE-LOUIS

There are four key ingredients that make the state such a tinderbox.

• Minorities Are Most Vulnerable When Wildfires Strike in U.S., Study Finds

A pair of Amur tigers, a gift form a German merchant to Czar Alexander II, on display at the Zoological Museum in St. Petersburg.

Photographs by James Hill for The New York Times

A 'Time Capsule' for Scientists, Courtesy of Peter the Great

By JAMES HILL

A Russian zoological museum filled with centuries-old specimens finds renewed relevance in the age of genetics.

Shri Narayanan/USC SAIL

Trilobites

Watch Beatboxers Break It Down Inside an M.R.I. Scanner

By VERONIQUE GREENWOOD

Researchers got an inside look at beatboxers' lips, mouths and throats as they performed.

Neil deGrasse Tyson Explores the Symbiosis Between War and Astrophysics

By JENNIFER CARSON

A motorized wheelchair that belonged to the physicist Stephen Hawking sold for nearly $400,000 at auction in London.

Stephen Hawking's Wheelchair and Thesis Fetch More Than $1 Million at Auction

By JACEY FORTIN

Demonstrators marched against the Keystone XL pipeline during the Native Nations Rise protest in Washington last year.

Judge Blocks the Disputed Keystone XL Pipeline in a Setback for Trump's Energy Agenda

By LISA FRIEDMAN

Q&A

I saw on the news that two rare Scottish wildcat kittens were rescued. How could the rescuers tell they were really wildcats?

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

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Climate Change

Electric buses in White Plains, N.Y. The school district's pilot program relies on a state grant and a partnership with the local electric utility.

Byron Smith for The New York Times

The Wheels on These Buses Go Round and Round With Zero Emissions

By BRAD PLUMER

Some states, concerned about pollution and global warming, see school buses as the next frontier for electric vehicles. Prices are high, but that's starting to change.

An oil refinery in Alliance, La., seen from across the Mississippi.

Bryan Tarnowski for The New York Times

Climate Change and the Elections: Five Takeaways

By BRAD PLUMER AND LISA FRIEDMAN

Carbon taxes, renewable energy and climate bipartisanship were all on the ballot in various forms. Here's how they fared.

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Health

Gracia Lam

Personal Health

Too Much Caffeine May Stress the Heart

By JANE E. BRODY

In moderate doses caffeine has mainly positive effects for most people. But it increases production of cortisol, which can lead to health problems including anxiety, weight gain and heart disease.

Anthony Geathers for The New York Times

How Meditation Might Help Your Winter Workouts

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Some simple techniques might shore up our commitment to being physically active as the seasons change.

Ka Bao Vue, right, preparing young dancers for a ceremony at the Miss Hmong America Pageant this year in La Crosse, Wis.

Erik Daily/La Crosse Tribune, via Associated Press

The Ecosystem in Immigrants' Guts Is Shaped by the Place They Call Home

By STEPH YIN

By studying the relationship among ethnicity, migration history and the digestive system's microbiome, researchers hope to gain insights on health disparities in diverse communities.

Sandra Day O'Connor retired from public life earlier this year, announcing that she had dementia — a rare public acknowledgement.

T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images

Dementia Is Getting Some Very Public Faces

By PAULA SPAN

Stigma often prevents patients from acknowledging an Alzheimer's diagnosis. A series of high-profile disclosures may help change that.

Members of the ambulance training corps in Allentown, Pa., during World War I, a time when vaccinations were very limited.

National Archives/International Film Service

The War to End All Measles

By PERRI KLASS, M.D.

Young people who went to war 100 years ago often died from what are now preventable childhood diseases. We can try to keep today's children a little safer.

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Vitamin D and Fish Oils Are Ineffective for Preventing Cancer and Heart Disease

By RONI CARYN RABIN

The largest study to test vitamin D and omega-3 pills in healthy adults found they did little to prevent cardiovascular disease, but hinted at benefits for groups including African-Americans.