Science Times: The Earth’s Shell Has Cracked, and We’re Drifting on the Pieces

Plus: The Yoda of Silicon Valley —

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The San Andreas fault in the Carrizo Plain in California. Peter Menzel/Science Source The Earth's Shell Has Cracked, and We're Drifting on the Pieces By NATALIE ANGIER Plate tectonics helped make our planet stable and habitable. But slow peregrination of continents is still a mysterious process.

Brian Flaherty for The New York Times The Yoda of Silicon Valley By SIOBHAN ROBERTS Donald Knuth, master of algorithms, reflects on 50 years of his opus-in-progress, "The Art of Computer Programming." NASA Saturn With No Rings? It Could Happen, and Sooner Than Astronomers Expected By NADIA DRAKE The "ring rain" that falls into the gas giant is so abundant that the icy bands could disappear in 300 million years, or even sooner. Philipp Gunz Narrower Skulls, Oblong Brains: How Neanderthal DNA Still Shapes Us By CARL ZIMMER Two genes inherited from our evolutionary cousins may affect skull shape and brain size even today. What that means for human behavior is a mystery. Adrian Smith This Dracula Ant's Jaws Could Make It the Fastest Animal on Earth By DOUGLAS QUENQUA You could call it an ant speed record.

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David Steen A Salamander of Legend Emerges From Southern Swamps By ASHER ELBEIN The reticulated siren is the largest vertebrate discovered in the United States in decades. Pool photo by Pontus Lundahl Women in Rare Company Accept Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry By SANDRA E. GARCIA "It is truly an amazing feeling when you know that you have built something that no one else ever has and it actually works," said Donna Strickland, only the third woman to win the physics prize. Mario Tama/Getty Images America's Most Hazardous Volcano Erupted This Year. Then It Erupted and Erupted. By ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS A landmark study unspools a timeline of the most destructive eruption in recorded history of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. Yuan Zhang/Nature Ecology & Evolution Feathers and Fur Fly Over Pterosaur Fossil Finding By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR An analysis of two fossils would push back the origins of feathers by about 70 million years, but more specimens may be needed for confirmation. Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters It Could Be the Age of the Chicken, Geologically By JAMES GORMAN With 65 billion chickens consumed each year, the signature fossil of the modern epoch may be the leftovers. Voyageurs Wolf Project Watch This Wolf Go Fishing By JIM ROBBINS Yes, researchers in Minnesota have recorded wolves diving into a stream to grab a meal.

It's the Solar System's Most Distant Object. Astronomers Named It Farout. By KENNETH CHANG One of Nature's Smallest Flowering Plants Can Survive Inside of a Duck By VERONIQUE GREENWOOD Russia Wants to Extend U.S. Space Partnership. Or It Could Turn to China. By ANDREW E. KRAMER Virgin Galactic Rocket Ship Reaches Space, a Milestone in Space Tourism By MATTHEW HAAG Trump's NOAA Nominee Won't Get Senate Vote This Year By LISA FRIEDMAN Why do albino animals have red eyes? By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

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Climate Change Janek Skarzynski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Climate Negotiators Reach an Overtime Deal to Keep Paris Pact Alive By BRAD PLUMER The deal puts in place detailed implementation rules, but analysts said it was now up to individual countries to honor their commitments. • The Paris Accord Promised a Climate Solution. Here's Where We Are Now. Joe MacGregor/NASA IceBridge Warming in Arctic Raises Fears of a 'Rapid Unraveling' of the Region By JOHN SCHWARTZ AND HENRY FOUNTAIN The Arctic has been warmer in the last five years than at any time since records began in 1900, a report from a United States scientific agency found.

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Health Brian Wood Is There an Optimal Diet for Humans? By ANAHAD O'CONNOR A study of modern hunter-gatherer groups found that they exhibit generally excellent metabolic health while consuming a wide range of diets. The New York Times Scant Evidence Behind the Advice About Salt By AARON E. CARROLL Low-sodium diets are widely urged on people who have a variety of ailments, but there's little proof they help those with heart failure. Alfred Pasieka/Science Source Mapping the Brain's Genetic Landscape By BENEDICT CAREY Scientists have taken a step toward building a computer model of the brain's genome, one that may help clarify the genetic roots of schizophrenia, autism and other disorders. Gracia Lam Personal Health The Brain Fog of Menopause By JANE E. BRODY 'Menopause-related cognitive impairment happens to women in their 40s and 50s, women in the prime of life who suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them,' an expert says. Elias Funez/The Union, via Associated Press The Case for Creative Play in a Digital Age By PERRI KLASS, M.D. A new statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents of young children to go for high-quality traditional toys rather than elaborate digital ones. Jason Chute/Unicef Pacific An Island Nation Starts an Experiment: Vaccines Delivered by Drone By DONALD G. MCNEIL JR. In Vanuatu, 20 percent of children miss their shots because villages are so hard to reach. It has hired an Australian company to fly them in.

Ask Well Is eating deli meats really that bad? Does it make a difference if it's organic, nitrate-free or uncured? By RONI CARYN RABIN When Report Cards Go Out on Fridays, Child Abuse Increases on Saturdays, Study Finds By JULIA JACOBS Study Shows Big Rise in Teen Vaping This Year By JAN HOFFMAN Is Aerobic Exercise the Key to Successful Aging? By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

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