Don't Bogart My Blog: Science Times: ‘Knitting Is Coding’ and Yarn Is Programmable in This Physics Lab

Plus: Synthetic Genomes, a Narcissism Study and the Helium Shortage —

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Friday, May 17, 2019

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A Geared Cuboctahedral Jitterbug. Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

'Knitting Is Coding' and Yarn Is Programmable in This Physics Lab

By SIOBHAN ROBERTS

For Elisabetta Matsumoto, knot theory is knit theory.

A colored scanning electron micrograph of the bacteria E. coli. Scientists in Britain created bacteria with

Nano Creative/Science Source

Scientists Created Bacteria With a Synthetic Genome. Is This Artificial Life?

By CARL ZIMMER

In a milestone for synthetic biology, colonies of E. coli thrive with DNA constructed from scratch by humans, not nature.

The widespread belief that young adults are more self-absorbed may have been fueled by the fact that social media has made today's narcissists much easier to find, the study's lead author said.

Rolf Vennenbernd/DPA — Getty Images

Attention Young People: This Narcissism Study Is All About You

By NIRAJ CHOKSHI

New research found that those aged 18 to 25 believe theirs is the most narcissistic and entitled living generation. But that doesn't make it true.

A colored CT scan showing a tumor in the lung. Artificial intelligence was just as good, and sometimes better, than doctors in diagnosing lung tumors in CT scans, a new study indicates.

Voisin/Science Source

A.I. Took a Test to Detect Lung Cancer. It Got an A.

By DENISE GRADY

Artificial intelligence may help doctors make more accurate readings of CT scans used to screen for lung cancer.

An orange picker collecting oranges on a grove in Zolfo Springs, Fla.

Michael Adno

Citrus Farmers Facing Deadly Bacteria Turn to Antibiotics, Alarming Health Officials

By ANDREW JACOBS

In its decision to approve two drugs for orange and grapefruit trees, the E.P.A. largely ignored objections from the C.D.C. and the F.D.A., which fear that expanding their use in cash crops could fuel antibiotic resistance in humans.

• Earlier stories in the Deadly Germs, Lost Cures series

Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's chief technology officer, is leading the social network's efforts to build the automated tools to sort through and erase the millions of posts with toxic content.

Peter Prato for The New York Times

Facebook's A.I. Whiz Now Faces the Task of Cleaning It Up. Sometimes That Brings Him to Tears.

By CADE METZ AND MIKE ISAAC

Facebook has heralded artificial intelligence as a solution to its toxic content problems. Mike Schroepfer, its chief technology officer, says it won't solve everything.

The Hunter power plant in Castle Dale, Utah, which burns an estimated 4.5 million tons of coal a year.

Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

E.P.A. Plans to Get Thousands of Deaths Off the Books by Changing Its Math

By LISA FRIEDMAN

The E.P.A. plans to change the way air pollution health risks are calculated in a way that would sharply lower estimated deaths from new, looser rules for coal plants.

Rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago, which is just to the southeast of the main part of Puerto Rico and was hit hard by Hurricane Maria.

Glenna Gordon for The New York Times

Primal Fear: Can Monkeys Help Unlock the Secrets of Trauma?

By LUKE DITTRICH

Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico's "monkey island." The surviving primates could help scientists learn about the psychological response to traumatizing events.

Balloons are perhaps the most visible use of helium, but other businesses rely on the element as well.

Carlos Giusti/Associated Press

The Global Helium Shortage Is Real, but Don't Blame Party Balloons

By HEATHER MURPHY

It's not just Party City. Everyone is running out of helium. Part of the problem is that it's so difficult to store.

Getty Images

Alone, They Stink. Together They Create Dark Chocolate's Alluring Aroma.

By VERONIQUE GREENWOOD

With the help of a trained panel of sniffers, chemists uncovered the molecules that give a rich treat its scents.

Bats were thought to be the first hosts of bedbugs, but new research shows that the parasites evolved about 50 million years earlier than bats.

Mark Chappell, University of Cailfornia, Riverside

Bedbugs Menaced the Dinosaur Age Before Moving Into Our Mattresses

By BECKY FERREIRA

We may not even be their preferred meal.

A honey bee queen surrounded by attendants as she lays eggs.

Striking Down the Queen Won't Save You From the Swarm

By HEATHER MURPHY

Q&A

I started a grapefruit tree from seed as a kindergarten class project about 50 years ago. The tree is thriving but has never borne fruit. Why?

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

HOW ARE THINGS IN YOUR PART OF THE UNIVERSE?

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

Climate Change

The world's boreal forests have been largely earthworm-free since the last Ice Age. But as invaders arrive and burrow into the leaf litter, they free up carbon and may accelerate climate change.

Cristina Gonzalez Sevilleja

'Earthworm Dilemma' Has Climate Scientists Racing to Keep Up

By ALANNA MITCHELL

Worms are wriggling into Earth's northernmost forests, creating major unknowns for climate-change models.

A farmer feeding his cattle with purchased cotton seeds in the face of a crippling drought in Narrabri, New South Wales, Australia.

David Maurice Smith for The New York Times

It Was Supposed to Be Australia's Climate Change Election. What Happened?

By DAMIEN CAVE

On Saturday, in a result that stunned most analysts, voters re-elected the conservative coalition that has long resisted plans to sharply cut down on carbon emissions and coal.

Health

Various products that have been advertised as containing CBD.

Jamie Chung for The New York Times. Prop styling by Anna Surbatovich.

Can CBD Really Do All That?

By MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF

How one molecule from the cannabis plant came to be seen as a therapeutic cure-all.

Gracia Lam

Personal Health

Millions Take Gabapentin for Pain. But There's Scant Evidence It Works.

By JANE E. BRODY

"There is very little data to justify how these drugs are being used and why they should be in the top 10 in sales," a researcher said.

Kelley Oliver Douglass, left, with her daughter Maryn. Ms. Douglass has a genetic mutation that can cause a range of cancers. A new study suggests that indole-3-carbinol, commonly sold as a supplement, may help restore the gene's activity.

Todd Anderson for The New York Times

A Rare Genetic Mutation Leads to Cancer. The Fix May Already Be in the Drugstore.

By GINA KOLATA

A common dietary supplement may help overcome mutations in the Pten gene. Should patients take it?

iStock

Is 'Digital Addiction' a Real Threat to Kids?

By PERRI KLASS, M.D.

Think of screens as something to handle in moderation, like food, rather than something without any healthy place in our lives, like heroin, experts say.

Surgeons performing a laparoscopic gastric bypass at Rose Medical Center in Denver. A new study found that teenagers fare just as well as adults who receive weight-loss surgery.

Rick Wilking/Reuters

A Daunting Operation Offers Relief to Obese Teenagers

By GINA KOLATA

Gastric bypass surgery works as well in adolescents as it does in adults, researchers report. But the procedure requires a major commitment.

Produce for sale in a market in Georgetown, Guyana.

Seth Kugel for The New York Times

We Have Abundant Food. Why Is Our Health — and the Planet's — So Bad?

By CORBY KUMMER

Bee Wilson's "The Way We Eat Now" delves into the startling consequences of the globalization that has revolutionized our relationship to food.

<strong>Processed Snacks:</strong> Baked potato chips (Lay's); dry roasted peanuts (Planters); cheese & peanut butter sandwich crackers (Keebler); Goldfish crackers (Pepperidge Farm); applesauce (Lucky Leaf)

Photographs courtesy of Paule Joseph and Shavonne Pocock

Why Eating Processed Foods Might Make You Fat

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

People who followed a diet of ultra-processed foods ate about 500 more calories a day compared to when they ate a whole foods diet.

William Glen Miller Sr. has been using heroin since he was 13 years old. He lost one leg to a heroin-related infection and now lives in a nursing home in Baltimore.

Lexey Swall for The New York Times

In Cities Where It Once Reigned, Heroin Is Disappearing

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

The rise of the more potent fentanyl in its place has put a generation of older users, who had managed their addiction, at far greater risk of overdose.