Science Times: Endangered Lemurs Find a Private Refuge

Plus: Winged Dinosaurs, Moon Ice and Paying Drug Users to Stay Clean

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story October 27, 2020 Erik Vance/The New York Times In Madagascar, Endangered Lemurs Find a Private Refuge Climate change is shifting the habitats of endangered species and requiring conservation scientists to think outside traditional park boundaries. By Erik Vance Hannah Yoon for The New York Times   This Addiction Treatment Works. Why Is It So Underused? An approach called contingency management rewards drug users with money and prizes for staying abstinent. But few programs offer it, in part because of moral objections to the concept. By Abby Goodnough Reynolds et al., Quaternary Science Reviews 2020   Trilobites Footprints Mark a Toddler’s Perilous Prehistoric Journey Mammoths and giant ground sloths roamed the same terrain that a young adult swiftly moved through while toting a young child. By Katherine Kornei NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio   There’s Water and Ice on the Moon, and in More Places Than NASA Thought Future astronauts seeking water on the moon may not need to go into the most treacherous craters in its polar regions to find it. By Kenneth Chang Al Drago for The New York Times   The Trump Administration Shut a Vaccine Safety Office Last Year. What’s the Plan Now? The office was dedicated to the long-term safety of vaccines. Experts say plans to track coronavirus vaccines are fragmented and “behind the eight ball.” By Carl Zimmer Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Email us Let us know how we’re doing at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com. THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters   The Price for Not Wearing Masks: Perhaps 130,000 Lives The pandemic death toll could be lowered by next spring if more Americans wear masks, a new analysis finds. By Apoorva Mandavilli Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, via Associated Press   Experts Tell F.D.A. It Should Gather More Safety Data on Covid-19 Vaccines In a highly anticipated meeting of the agency’s vaccine advisory board, some said that the current guidelines, which require two months of safety data after a volunteer has been vaccinated, were not enough. By Katie Thomas David Degner for The New York Times   Schoolchildren Seem Unlikely to Fuel Coronavirus Surges, Scientists Say Researchers once feared that school reopenings might spread the virus through communities. But so far there is little evidence that it’s happening. By Apoorva Mandavilli Brittainy Newman for The New York Times   At 12, She’s a Covid ‘Long Hauler’ Although most young people recover quickly, doctors are seeing some children and teens with lingering fatigue and other chronic problems. By David Tuller Jim Wilson/The New York Times   Why False Positives Merit Concern, Too False negatives are not the only troublesome outcome of a faulty coronavirus test. By Katherine J. Wu David Dee Delgado/Getty Images   Voting in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Wear a Mask and Bring Your Own Pen A new C.D.C. report cites lessons learned from Delaware’s primary and suggests that voters could use some instruction in the right way to wear a mask. By Denise Grady Illustrations by Ori Toor   Studies Show How an Ill-Fated Fishing Voyage Helped Us Understand Covid-19 The threat posed by the virus makes randomized controlled trials extremely difficult. That means “real-life experiments” are especially important. By Kim Tingley Calla Kessler for The New York Times   Transforming Pandemic Grief Into Art Ansel Oommen, an artist and medical lab worker, has turned biohazard labels into an outlet for pandemic grief and trauma. Text by Emily S. Rueb Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT MORE SCIENCE NEWS Gilles Barbier/imageBROKER, via Alamy   No Grumpy Old Men in the World of Chimps Older male chimps follow a pattern that researchers also see in humans, preferring to have positive relationships with a few good friends. By James Gorman NASA   NASA Mission Springs a Small Leak After Touching an Asteroid The OSIRIS-REX spacecraft collected rock and dirt samples from Bennu, but it appears to be losing some of what it grabbed. By Kenneth Chang David Kisailus   Trilobites Meet the Diabolical Ironclad Beetle. It’s Almost Uncrushable. Just about any other living thing would be liquefied at the forces this insect can withstand. By Katherine J. Wu Gabriel Ugueto   These Winged Dinosaurs Hurtled Through the Trees Like Haywire Hang Gliders To call it flying would be generous. By Sabrina Imbler Larry Busacca/Getty Images for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival   James Randi, Magician Who Debunked Paranormal Claims, Dies at 92 Known professionally as the Amazing Randi, he dedicated his life to exposing seers who did not see, healers who did not heal and many others. By Margalit Fox CLIMATE CHANGE George Steinmetz for The New York Times   Belching Cows and Endless Feedlots: Fixing Cattle’s Climate Issues The United States is home to 95 million cattle, and changing what they eat could have a significant effect on emissions of greenhouse gases like methane that are warming the world. By Henry Fountain and George Steinmetz Jim Wilson/The New York Times   A Debate Pledge to ‘Transition’ From Oil Puts Climate at Center of Campaign Finale Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s debate statement that he would "transition" the country away from oil gave President Trump an opening and thrust climate change center stage. By Lisa Friedman Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT HEALTH Pool photo by Kevin Dietsch   How the F.D.A. Stood Up to the President After months of caving to pressures from the White House, Commissioner Stephen Hahn and a band of agency scientists have eked out a few victories. By Sheila Kaplan, Sharon LaFraniere, Noah Weiland and Maggie Haberman Gracia Lam   Personal Health Do You Have the Heart for Marijuana? Research suggests that smoking marijuana carries many of the same cardiovascular health hazards as smoking tobacco. By Jane E. Brody Omikron/Science Source   A Malaria Mystery, Partly Solved: What Happens When the Rains End? A study in Mali suggests that malaria parasites hide out during the dry season by altering the properties of red blood cells. By Donald G. McNeil Jr. iStock   Doctors Where Have All the Hospital Patients Gone? Except in areas where Covid is surging, there are still no lines of patients in the hospital halls. By Pauline W. Chen, M.D. Gracia Lam   Personal Health Think You Have ‘Normal’ Blood Pressure? Think Again Even levels of blood pressure that are generally considered “normal” may be high enough to foster the development of heart disease, new research shows. By Jane E. Brody via YouTube   Are ‘Kidfluencers’ Making Our Kids Fat? Popular YouTube channels often bombard young children with thinly veiled ads for junk food, a new study finds. By Anahad O’Connor phys ed Why Running Won’t Ruin Your Knees Running pummels knees more than walking does, but in the process it may fortify and bulk up cartilage, helping stave off knee arthritis. By Gretchen Reynolds the checkup Respecting Children’s Pain A new study challenges those who care for children to end what researchers say is the common undertreatment of pain in children, starting at birth. By Perri Klass, M.D. The F.D.A. Wanted to Ban Some Hair Straighteners. It Never Happened. In 2016, agency scientists deemed hair straighteners containing formaldehyde to be unsafe, according to newly obtained emails. By Roni Caryn Rabin J. Michael Lane, a General in the Rout of Smallpox, Dies at 84 At the C.D.C., he waged a 13-year campaign to vanquish a deadly infectious disease that had ravaged the world for centuries. Victory came in 1977. By Robert D. McFadden Make a friend’s day: Forward this email. Got this from a friend? Subscribe to the Science Times newsletter. Check out other New York Times newsletters (all free!) including: Climate Fwd: for climate coverage and expert analysis. The Upshot for a data-driven look at the news. Well for the latest on health, fitness and nutrition. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Science Times from The New York Times. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. 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