Don't Bogart My Blog: Science Times: Frances Arnold Turns Microbes Into Living Factories

Plus: A Billion-Year-Old Fungus May Hold Clues to Life's Arrival on Land —

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Tuesday, May 28, 2019

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Erika Gerdemark for The New York Times

Profiles in Science

Frances Arnold Turns Microbes Into Living Factories

By NATALIE ANGIER

Instead of synthesizing new biochemicals from scratch, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist puts nature to the task — with astonishing results.

Ublanca Adams, 60, who has H.I.V., takes her morning medication around 8 a.m. and begins to the feel the side effects shortly afterward. The search for a cure must include more women, experts say.

Jason Henry for The New York Times

Half of H.I.V. Patients Are Women. Most Research Subjects Are Men.

By APOORVA MANDAVILLI

Trials of vaccines and treatments have not included enough female participants. Now that scientists are exploring possible cures, the need to enroll women is greater than ever.

The Huntington Canyon coal-fired power plant in Utah. The White House, already pursuing major rollbacks of greenhouse-gas emission restrictions, is amplifying its attack on fundamental climate-science conclusions.

Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science

By CORAL DAVENPORT AND MARK LANDLER

In a significant escalation, policymakers are seeking to undermine or discard research showing the most dire risks of inaction on climate change.

A microfossil of Ourasphaira giraldae, a fungus. It is the oldest fungus fossil ever found, scientists reported.

C.C. Loron/University of Liège

A Billion-Year-Old Fungus May Hold Clues to Life's Arrival on Land

By CARL ZIMMER

A cache of microscopic fossils from the Arctic hints that fungi evolved long before plants.

A false color synchrotron X-ray image of a fossilized mouse. The yellow regions are rich in zinc and sulfur, suggesting the mouse's fur had red pigments.

Nature Communications

Seeing Red in the Fossil Record

By CARA GIAIMO

A discovery in a fossilized mouse could help scientists work out the true colors of dinosaurs and other creatures from prehistory.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, right, and Vice President Mike Pence, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston in August. As chairman of the National Space Council, Vice President Pence coordinates the White House's space policy.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Can Trump Put NASA Astronauts on the Moon by 2024? It's Unlikely

By KENNETH CHANG

While the Artemis program faces obstacles, the administration's plan could speed the status quo for America's space program.

A garden snail, the same type of snail as Jeremy, the left-coiled snail who made headlines in recent years as he searched for a same-spiraled mate.

Becky Jones/University of Nottingham

It's a Lefty! Welcome to the World's First Crispr Snail Baby

By JOANNA KLEIN

Most snails are righties. Now scientists have found genes that make some of them born with shells coiling the other way.

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

How Making Chocolate Is Like Mixing Concrete

By VERONIQUE GREENWOOD

Researchers delved into the physics of conching, the stirring process that transforms ground cacao into a meltingly smooth treat.

Women's scores on math tests increased by 27 percent when the temperature rose from below 70 degrees Fahrenheit to above 80 degrees.

Birmingham Post and Mail Archive/Mirrorpix, via Getty Images

'Battle of the Thermostat': Cold Rooms May Hurt Women's Productivity

By VERONIQUE GREENWOOD

In a new study, women scored better on tests they took in warmer rooms.

An all-white giant panda captured on camera in southwestern China last month was the first of its kind to be documented.

White Panda Is Spotted in China for the First Time

By GEORGE JOHNSON

Q&A

Humans can't drink seawater. So what do sea lions, whales, dolphins and sea birds drink?

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

HOW ARE THINGS IN YOUR PART OF THE UNIVERSE?

Send your ideas and feedback to sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com.

Climate Change

James O'Brien

Older People Are Contributing to Climate Change, and Suffering From It

By PAULA SPAN

Growing numbers of seniors are using more energy. They also are most likely to suffer in extreme weather, which has become more common as the planet warms.

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington toured a yogurt plant in Londonderry, N.H., last week. Climate change is the core issue of his campaign.

Elizabeth Frantz for The New York Times

Climate Change Is Catching On With Voters. Why Isn't Jay Inslee?

By TRIP GABRIEL

The Washington governor has long been a leading voice on climate change. He believes he will gain prominence as more voters learn of his record and proposals.

Health

Gracia Lam

Personal Health

Sleep Apnea Can Have Deadly Consequences

By JANE E. BRODY

The condition is on the rise because the most frequent cause is obesity, which continues its unrelenting climb among American adults.

Mice inhaling acetaldehyde, an organic compound found in some e-cigarette smoke, part of an experiment at the Medical-Dental Research Building at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

Leah Klafczynski for The New York Times

Scientists Wanted: Recruited by Juul, Many Researchers Say No

By SHEILA KAPLAN

Juul needs good science to prove to the F.D.A. that its e-cigarettes offer more benefits than risks. Some researchers say they are loath to take the company's money.

Getty Images

A Possible Weight Loss Strategy: Skip Breakfast Before Exercise

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

A new study finds that the choice to eat or omit a meal before an early workout could affect our relationship to food for the rest of the day.

Music therapy in the hospital nursery. No, it won't turn a baby into the next Mozart.

Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

There's Evidence on How to Raise Children, but Are Parents Listening?

By EMILY OSTER

Day-to-day individual choices matter less than we think, but national policies seem to matter a lot.

Malachi Anderson, now nearly 4, with his parents Tina and Torence, was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at four months and received a new gene-therapy treatment in December.

Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

This New Treatment Could Save the Lives of Babies. But It Costs $2.1 Million.

By KATIE THOMAS

The price set by the Swiss drugmaker Novartis may be the world's highest for a single treatment — prompting renewed debate about how society will pay for gene-therapy breakthroughs.

Saffiatu Sillah, whose circumcision caused her to endure agonizing pain during the births of her children, Mijan Kamara, foreground, and Jaria Kamara, asked a surgeon to help her.

4 Women With Lives Scarred by Genital Cutting: Could a Surgeon Heal Them?

By PAM BELLUCK AND MADDIE MCGARVEY

Over 200 million women and girls alive today have been circumcised. Four of them shared with The Times their pain, emotional trauma and sexual struggles — and their journey to feel whole.