Don't Bogart My Blog: Science Times: Wired Bacteria Form Nature’s Power Grid: ‘We Have an Electric Planet’

Plus: 10 medical myths and a drone on Titan

View in Browser | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book.

Monday, July 1, 2019

NYTimes.com/Science »

Gordon Studer

Wired Bacteria Form Nature's Power Grid: 'We Have an Electric Planet'

By CARL ZIMMER

Electroactive bacteria were running current through "wires" long before humans learned the trick.

A dead elephant inspected by a soldier in Chobe, northern Botswana, in September. Poachers, mostly from Zambia, now are operating in Botswana, conservationists report.

Monirul Bhuiyan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Poachers Are Invading Botswana, Last Refuge of African Elephants

By RACHEL NUWER

New data leave little doubt that the illegal ivory trade has reached the country, scientists say.

Ingo Fast

10 Medical Myths We Should Stop Believing. Doctors, Too.

By GINA KOLATA

Researchers identified nearly 400 common medical practices and theories that were contradicted by rigorous studies. Here are some of the most notable findings.

A North Atlantic right whale and a calf off the coast of Georgia in 2009. The older whale, named Punctuation, was found dead on June 20.

New England Aquarium

Grandmother and Grandfather Among 4 Endangered Whales That Died This Month

By KAREN WEINTRAUB

The North Atlantic right whales all were found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence recently, dealing a setback to the shrinking population.

Johns Hopkins/APL

NASA Announces New Dragonfly Drone Mission to Explore Titan

By DAVID W. BROWN

The quadcopter was selected to study the moon of Saturn after a "Shark Tank"-like competition that lasted two and a half years.

ONE GIANT LEAP: THE APOLLO 11 MOON LANDING, 50 YEARS ON

On July 21, The New York Times presents the reading of a short play by Tony Award-winning author J.T. Rogers. Commissioned specifically for this event, the play weaves together transcripts of the Apollo 11 mission, Times coverage from the period and excerpts from interviews with the men and women who made it happen.

Following the reading, Michael Barbaro of "The Daily" will host an onstage conversation with Michael Collins, command module pilot on Apollo 11, Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station, and Poppy Northcutt, the first female engineer to work in NASA's mission control, starting with Apollo 8.

Tickets $50–$200. For more information, see https://timesevents.nytimes.com/onegiantleap.

While not science's sleekest machine, this microscope was able to capture M.R.I. scans of single atoms.

IBM Research

Scientists Took an M.R.I. Scan of an Atom

By KNVUL SHEIKH

The hospital technology, typically used to identify human ailments, captured perhaps the world's smallest magnetic resonance image.

When cicadas are infected by a parasitic fungus, the insect's innards get digested and their rear ends are replaced by a chalky white plug of spores.

Kasson et al.

Drugged, Castrated, Eager to Mate: the Lives of Fungi-Infected Cicadas

By JOANNA KLEIN

"This really has all the elements of a sci-fi horror story," a mycologist said.

NASA

This World Is a Simmering Hellscape. They've Been Watching Its Explosions.

By JOSHUA SOKOL

Researchers have released a five-year record of volcanic activity on Io, a moon of Jupiter, hoping others will find more patterns.

James D. Livingston and Sherry H. Penney in 2014. They are among at least three dozen people nationwide, many of them older car owners, who have died of carbon-monoxide poisoning related to keyless vehicles.

Provided by Susan Livingston

'Very Smart People,' but a Keyless Car's Downside Killed Them

By DAVID JEANS

A couple with careers in academia and science died of carbon-monoxide poisoning. A second congressional bill has been introduced to mandate safety features.

The mighty, fearsome, frond-feasting crocodylomorph Simosuchus.

Jorge Gonzalez

Crocodiles Went Through a Vegetarian Phase, Too

By CARA GIAIMO

Ancestors of modern crocodiles evolved to survive on a plant diet at least three times, researchers say.

An electroencephalogram, or EEG, shows electrodes attached to a patient's head. When used on unresponsive brain-injury patients, an EEG can help detect hidden brain activity.

Zephyr/Science Source

'It's Gigantic': A New Way to Gauge the Chances for Unresponsive Patients

By BENEDICT CAREY

Researchers have found a way to detect "covert consciousness" that could aid the recovery of people with severe brain injuries.

With four wings, the diminutive RoboBee X-Wing can achieve the thrust efficiency of similarly sized insects such as bees.

Unleashed, Robo-Insect Takes Flight

By JOE DRAPE AND CORINA KNOLL

Q&A

Why have bedbugs become such a problem? Are there any new ways to attack them?

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

EMAIL US

Let us know how we're doing at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com.

Health

The antidepressant Paxil is one of a class of medications, called anticholinergic drugs, which a new study suggests might increase the risk of dementia with long-term use.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Risk for Dementia May Increase With Long-Term Use of Certain Medicines

By PAM BELLUCK

Here's what research suggests about a class of drugs called anticholinergics, which treat a wide range of ailments, from depression to bladder issues.

Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris raised their hands at the debate Thursday to indicate that they would eliminate private health insurance. Ms. Harris later said she misinterpreted the question.

Mike Segar/Reuters

Democrat vs. Democrat: How Health Care Is Dividing the Party

By ABBY GOODNOUGH AND THOMAS KAPLAN

An issue that united the party in 2018 has potential to fracture it in 2020.

Gracia Lam

Personal Health

Reversing the Damage of a Stroke

By JANE E. BRODY

For one patient, a decade of recovery took determination, persistence and the courage to weather repeated setbacks.

Photographs by Eli Baden-Lasar for The New York Times

I'm 20. I Have 32 Half Siblings. This Is My Family Portrait.

By ELI BADEN-LASAR

I always knew I was conceived using a sperm donor. But I never really understood what that meant until I went searching for my brothers and sisters.

• Sperm Donors Can't Stay Secret Anymore. Here's What That Means.

A woman receives the HPV vaccine in Shanghai. In countries where it has long been available, the vaccine has greatly reduced the incidence of precancerous lesions and genital warts.

Imaginechina, via Associated Press

HPV Vaccines Are Reducing Infections, Warts — and Probably Cancer

By DONALD G. MCNEIL JR.

An analysis covering 66 million young people has found plummeting rates of precancerous lesions and genital warts after vaccination against the human papillomavirus.