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As a scientist and historian of science, I get asked a lot by friends and family to comment on scientific questions. Are vaccines safe? Is red meat bad for you? How much time do we have left to fix climate change? Many of these matters are not nearly as complicated as they have sometimes been made out to be. Vaccination is broadly safe for most people; eating large amounts of red meat is associated with higher rates of death from a number of cancers; and scientists think we have about a decade left to get greenhouse gas emissions under control and avoid the worst consequences....

New search engines are improving the quality of results by delving deeper into the storehouse of materials available online, by sorting and presenting those results better, and by tracking your long-term interests so that they can refine their handling of new information requests. In the future, search engines will broaden content horizons as well, doing more than simply processing keyword queries typed into a text box. They will be able to automatically take into account your location–letting your wireless PDA, for instance, pinpoint the nearest restaurant when you are traveling....

From Nature magazine Social scientists hungry for Facebook’s data may be about to get a taste of it. Nature has learned that the social-networking website is considering giving researchers limited access to the petabytes of data that it has amassed on the preferences and behaviour of its almost one billion users. Outsiders will not get a free run of the data, but the move could quell criticism from social scientists who have complained that the company’s own research on its users cannot be verified....

Of all the indignities that come with aging, excessive earwax may be the most insidious. Don’t laugh. That greasy, often gross, buildup occurs more often in older ears than those of the young, experts say. And when it goes unrecognized, it can pose serious problems, especially for the 2.2 million people who live in U.S. nursing homes and assisted living centers. “The excessive amount [of earwax] can cause hearing loss or ringing in your ears....

During the summer of 1963, when I was six years old, my family traveled from our home in Philadelphia to Los Angeles to visit my maternal relatives. I already knew my grandmother well: she helped my mother care for my twin brothers, who were only 18 months my junior, and me. When she was not with us, my grandmother lived with her mother, whom I met that summer for the first time....

For the past five years, hundreds of scientists have been using a powerful new atom smasher at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island to mimic conditions that existed at the birth of the universe. Called the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, pronounced “rick”), it clashes two opposing beams of gold nuclei traveling at nearly the speed of light. The resulting collisions between pairs of these atomic nuclei generate exceedingly hot, dense bursts of matter and energy to simulate what happened during the first few microseconds of the big bang....

Giant galaxies such as the Milky Way and its neighbor Andromeda originated long ago after smaller galaxies crashed together and grew larger. Observing this process in action, however, is difficult because it requires detecting collisions between dwarf galaxies near the edge of the observable universe, where we see galaxies as they appeared more than 10 billion years ago. Now astronomers have uncovered evidence of a similar collision much closer to home—a mere 2....

When comedian Susan Prekel takes to the stage and spots an attractive man in the audience, her heart sinks. “By the end of my gig he’s going to find me repulsive, at least as a sexual being,” she says. In more than a decade of performing on the New York City comedy circuit, the attractive, tall brunette has been asked out only once after a show. But male comics get swarmed....

What distinguishes a fling that ends in tears from long-term love? Past research suggests that the most successful couples share common interests, values and personality traits. Now new research published in Psychological Science proposes that the simplest words lovebirds use to speak to each other also make a difference—both in determining how attracted they are and how likely they are to stay together. James Pennebaker and his colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin recorded 40 men and 40 women as they participated in a speed-dating exercise in which they talked to 12 strangers of the opposite sex for four minutes apiece....

As everything from consumer electronics to medical devices continues to shrink, manufacturers keep running up against the problem of detail: How do you make parts and pieces that are nearly microscopic while maintaining their finer points? Microfabrica, a company based in Van Nuys, Calif., has developed a process that combines 3-D printing, wherein structures are built up layer by layer, with the same manufacturing techniques used to make computer chips, whereby metal ions are essentially electroplated to a surface....

Astronomers have captured a close-up image of a rare and mysterious space object, prompting a renewed push to discover its origin. Odd radio circles (ORCs) are gigantic rings of radio waves. Only five have ever been sighted, and never in such spectacular detail. The image of ORC J2103-6200, also called ORC1, was captured by the high-resolution MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, which has given researchers unprecedented information about these rare phenomena....

By the end of next week, the House will have considered more than 50 bills aimed at staunching the opioid crisis. The volume “may well be a record for legislating on a single issue,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Tuesday on the House floor. The House’s work touches on most aspects of the crisis, aiming to better monitor opioid prescriptions, increase treatment funding, improve drug enforcement efforts, and provide additional support to families affected by the epidemic....

Much of Pres. Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Fla., sits less than two meters above the Atlantic Ocean, meaning big parts of the resort could rest beneath the waves by the end of this century as seas rise in response to global warming. Already nearby communities like Miami Beach are flooded even when the sun shines, as higher seas push water up and out of the porous limestone underneath the ground in southern Florida....

Despite a growing body of evidence that climate change is wreaking havoc on our environment and psyches, many people still resist making small lifestyle changes that may help mitigate disaster. The logic of climate science has not shaken enough people from their apparent complacency; neither has fear. So what will? Washington State–based thanatologist Kriss Kevorkian—a specialist in death, dying and bereavement—suggests that real motivation depends on people acknowledging their “environmental grief,” a term she coined after studying the decline of killer whale populations....

By Mark SchropeWith oil still gushing from an offshore well in the Gulf of Mexico, some scientists and environmentalists worry that US federal agencies have not done enough to gather precious data on the spill, now into its second month. The information could help efforts to contain the effects of the disaster and, in the longer term, “ensure we have the best underlying science to guide our response to the next spill,” says Ira Leifer, a chemical engineer at the Marine Sciences Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara....

The waters of the fjords of Svalbard—the Arctic archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole—are known to snap, crackle and pop with the sound of melting icebergs and glaciers. Now new research finds the fizz of a thawing glacier can be distinguished from the burble of a softening iceberg, and that these telltale sounds are more intense in places where ice is melting faster. The findings, published this month in Geophysical Research Letters, suggest this commotion can be tapped for useful clues as to how quickly glaciers may recede as temperatures climb—and thus how fast global sea levels might rise....

Key concepts Chemistry Polymer Solvents Material science Introduction Have you ever wished your drawings would come alive and the stick figures or objects on your paper could move around? It’s not as impossible as it sounds! In this activity you will make your drawing move around by letting it float on water. What makes this possible is the interesting chemistry of dry-erase markers. These markers are usually used to write on whiteboards or glass surfaces and can easily be erased....

Few aspects of human biology are as complex—or politically fraught—as sexual orientation. A clear genetic link would suggest that gay people are “born this way,” as opposed to having made a lifestyle choice. Yet some fear that such a finding could be misused “cure” homosexuality, and most research teams have shied away from tackling the topic. Now, a new study claims to dispel the notion that a single gene or handful of genes make a person prone to same-sex behavior....

During yoga pranayama exercises, people practice controlling the breath, or prana, to induce a state of calm and focus. Paying attention to breathing and slowing down respiration constitute a core component of many mindfulness practices. Research suggests the practice has multiple benefits—it induces an overall sense of well-being while reducing anxiety and improving sleep. But what exactly is going on in the brain during meditation? Imaging studies of humans have shown that brain regions involved in mind wandering, attention and emotion play a part in various stages of mindfulness practice....

From Nature magazine It has come to this: planetary scientists across the United States hawked baked goods to the public on Saturday in an effort to drum up awareness of their field’s dwindling financial support. They were protesting plans in US President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget request to cut 21% from NASA’s planetary-science budget, and 38% from its Mars projects. “The planetary programme is one of the shining examples of NASA at its best,” says Alan Stern, vice-president of research and development in the space science and engineering division at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, who coordinated the nationwide Planetary Exploration Car Wash and Bake Sale....