Science Times: These Whales Are Serenaders of the Seas. It’s Quite a Racket.

Plus: What We've Learned About Ultima Thule —

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A juvenile male humpback whale in waters off Sri Lanka. Tony Wu/Minden Pictures These Whales Are Serenaders of the Seas. It's Quite a Racket. By KAREN WEINTRAUB Why do whales sing? Scientists still aren't certain, and maybe the whales aren't, either.

Bryan Meltz for The New York Times When the Illness Is a Mystery, Patients Turn to These Detectives By GINA KOLATA The Undiagnosed Diseases Network takes on the toughest cases, patients whose symptoms have defied explanation. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Jazmine Barnes Case Shows How Trauma Can Affect Memory By SANDRA E. GARCIA Eyewitness testimony is unreliable because people try to understand a traumatic event by using what they know about the world and fill in gaps, experts said. NASA/JHUAPL/Southwest Research Institute What We've Learned About Ultima Thule From NASA's New Horizons Mission By KENNETH CHANG The team that manages the spacecraft will have to wait 20 months for all of the data and images it recorded, but they have reported some early findings. NASA/JPL The Far Side of the Moon: What China and the World Hope to Find By SHANNON HALL The side of the moon we never see from Earth contains secrets about our solar system's early days, and it could help astronomers see the universe more clearly. • Interactive: Chang'e-4 Lands on the Moon

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Yamil Lage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Sounds That Haunted U.S. Diplomats in Cuba? Lovelorn Crickets, Scientists Say By CARL ZIMMER Diplomatic officials may have been targeted with an unknown weapon in Havana. But a recording of one "sonic attack" actually is the singing of a very loud cricket, a new analysis concludes. NASA/MIT/TESS Another Day, Another Exoplanet: NASA's TESS Keeps Counting More By DENNIS OVERBYE The latest discovery is a lumbering, dense ball of gas that orbits a red dwarf star 53 light-years away in the constellation Reticulum. Meliton Tapia Davila/Associated Press Archaeologists Find Pre-Columbian Temple of 'Flayed Lord' By ALAN YUHAS Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said archaeologists had found the first temple dedicated to an important fertility god, whose worshipers were said to wear the skin of sacrificial victims. Karolina Suchan-Okulska An Elephant-Size Relative of Mammals That Grazed Alongside Dinosaurs By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR Paleontologists believed dicynodonts died out as dinosaurs conquered the world, but fossils found in Poland suggest they survived millions of years more. University at Buffalo Watch Scientists Brew Their Own Lava By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR In controlled experiments, high-speed cameras caught video of explosions that occur when water hits hot liquid rock. KimStim 'Genesis 2.0' Review: How to Clone a Mammoth By BEN KENIGSBERG Is it possible to bring back the mammoth? The documentary "Genesis 2.0" investigates. Annie Tritt for The New York Times How to Make a Bucking Bull: Good Breeding and, Just Maybe, a Cow's Love By JAMES GORMAN It takes a high-tech village to raise a champion animal for bull riding. The cowboys, bred the old-fashioned way, can barely keep up. Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times A Trump County Confronts the Administration Amid a Rash of Child Cancers By HIROKO TABUCHI Parents in Indiana are demanding the clean-up of a toxic site and questioning environmental rollbacks that could prevent future chemical disasters like the one they face.

Nancy Roman, 'Mother of the Hubble' Telescope, Dies at 93 By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN Ocean Cleanup Plastic Collector Heading Home. In Pieces. By ERIC NAGOURNEY Toll on Science and Research Mounts as Government Shutdown Continues By ALAN BLINDER U.S. Carbon Emissions Surged in 2018 Even as Coal Plants Closed By BRAD PLUMER Australian Jellyfish Swarm Stings Thousands, Forcing Beach Closings By LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA Q&A Do animals play games? If so, why? By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE FOR THIS NEWSLETTER? It's a new year. Give us new comments and suggestions at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com.

Health Getty Images The Unbearable Heaviness of Clutter By EMILIE LE BEAU LUCCHESI A cluttered home can be a stressful home, researchers are learning. Nicolas Ortega Four Simple Words to Help You Live Well By TARA PARKER-POPE This year, take a small step every day to build healthy habits for your body, mind and spirit. Getty Images Stand More, Lounge Less? Don't Do It to Lose Weight By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS People burn more calories when they stand than when sitting or lying down, but the increase is smaller than many of us might hope. Stuart Briers Dementia May Never Improve, but Many Patients Still Can Learn By PAULA SPAN In "cognitive rehabilitation," therapists train patients in simple tasks that can make daily life much easier. iStock Managing Children's Pain After Surgery By PERRI KLASS, M.D. We've come a long way from the days when surgeons were taught that infants' nervous systems were too undeveloped to feel pain. Gracia Lam Personal Health Managing Teenage Acne By JANE E. BRODY If the face a teenager presents to the world is marred by prominent lesions of acne, the ordinary stresses of adolescence can be that much more difficult to weather.

Ask Well Can I ever recover from acute diverticulitis? By RICHARD KLASCO, M.D. A Virus Even More Dangerous Than Zika to Pregnant Woman By EMILY BAUMGAERTNER Donors of Rare Blood Type Sought to Save a Miami Toddler By CHRISTINA CARON 11-Year-Old Boy's Death in Brooklyn May Have Been Caused by Airborne Fish Proteins By CHRISTINA CARON

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