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The kangaroo rat is a wildlife manager’s nightmare. It is a crucial species in southern California—aerating soils and dispersing native plant seeds. And the adorable, bouncing mouse is popular with the public. But it also has the same taste in real estate as powerful developers, many of its subspecies are endangered and the animals are nearly impossible to relocate. As with many declining critters across the world, there is pressure to save them but not many strategies to use....

The international aerospace company Airbus recently unveiled a model of a new drone called the Low Observable UAV Testbed (LOUT), which reportedly combines several undisclosed stealth technologies. Hints in the aircraft’s description led some aviation experts to speculate that one of LOUT’s radar-evading powers could come from a lack of conventional moving control surfaces. For the past century, airplane control mechanisms have relied on hinged surfaces such as ailerons and rudders....

The House spent much of the last two weeks passing dozens of bills aimed at addressing the opioid crisis, an effort top lawmakers from both parties have long identified as a priority. Many are consensus proposals, though a few have generated controversy. Some are substantial in their scope, though many fund pilot programs or studies, or enact grants for which funding will expire within years. Outside experts, while applauding Congress for its focus on the issue, say they believe the current package fails to match the scope of the current crisis....

It was 3 A.M., and the smoke alarm wouldn’t stop beeping. There was no fire, so I didn’t need to panic. I just had to figure out a way to quiet the darn thing and tamp down my ire. I had taken out the battery and pushed and twisted all the buttons to no avail. Luckily for me, the possible solutions were all laid out in the YouTube tutorial I found....

Today’s digital assistants can sometimes fool you into believing they are human, but vastly more capable digital helpers are on their way. Behind the scenes, Siri, Alexa and their ilk use sophisticated speech-recognition software to figure out what you are requesting and how to provide it, and they generate natural-sounding speech to deliver scripted answers matched to your questions. Such systems must first be “trained”—exposed to many, many examples of the kinds of requests humans are likely to make—and the appropriate responses must be written by humans and organized into highly structured data formats....

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced the winners of its latest round of grants yesterday in a telephone conference. The funds will advance research projects geared toward improving energy efficiency, developing alternative fuels, improving electrical infrastructure and reducing U.S. dependence on foreign resources. “In America and around the world, we are in another Sputnik-like moment in the race to develop clean energy,” said Arun Majumdar, ARPA-E’s director. He said his agency’s goal is to seek out “transformational technology” to solve energy issues and spur the economy forward....

It is no secret that morals vary from one culture to another. Behaviors that are acceptable in one society may bring condemnation in another. In spite of these differences, certain universals seem self-evident. Intent, for example, weighs into moral judgments: If a transgression is an accident, we often hand out a reduced punishment. Similarly, if the offender had a legitimate reason to do what he or she did, we take that into account, too....

In a key step toward quantum computing and communication, two groups have used clusters of atoms to catch and release single photons, and a third has managed to entangle two such clusters. Many quantum-information schemes depend on transmitting quantum bits, or qubits, as photon states. Qubits sent down optical fibers would require periodic purification, which means storing and releasing photons. Teams from Harvard University and the Georgia Institute of Technology independently accomplished this feat....

Key concepts Traits Generations Natural selection From National Science Education Standards: Organisms and environments Introduction Have you ever wondered why some animals are so well camouflaged in their environments? Have you ever seen a walking stick? It’s an insect that looks just like a twig! How did it come to look so much like a stick? If walking sticks lived on sandy surfaces, would they be as hidden from their predators?...

Scientists using data from NASA’s Cassini orbiter have found evidence of active hydrothermal vents gushing from the interior of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, increasing the odds that alien life could await discovery in the watery depths of that icy world. Enceladus’s hydrothermal vents appear remarkably similar to some vents found on Earth. One of the leading theories for the origin of life on Earth postulates that it began in hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, where seawater percolating through hot rocks created energy- and nutrient-rich environments favoring the formation of the first cells....

The first half of 2016 has blown away temperature records, capped off by a record hot June, once again bumping up the odds that 2016 will be the hottest year on record globally, according to data released Tuesday. The monthly numbers from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts the planet on track to surpass 2015 as the hottest on record. “2016 has really blown that out of the water,” Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said....

This fall funding for embryonic stem cell research once again faces uncertainty. In August a federal district court judge blocked the use of federal funds for any project that would destroy embryos. In September a higher court restored funding temporarily, while it considers an appeal by the Justice Department. We offer a guide to the facts behind the controversy: Where do the embryos used for stem cell lines come from? All stem cell lines come from discarded IVF embryos....

Remember Napster or Grokster? Both services allowed users to share computer files—usually digital music—that infringed the copyrights for those songs. Now imagine that, instead of music, you could download a physical object. Sounds like something from a sci-fi movie—push a button and there’s the item! But that scenario is already becoming a reality. With a 3D printer, someone can download a computer file, called a computer-aided design (CAD) file, that instructs the printer to make a physical, three-dimensional object....

When Mats Brännström first dreamed of performing uterus transplants, he envisioned helping women who were born without the organ or had to have hysterectomies. He wanted to give them a chance at birthing their own children, especially in countries like his native Sweden where surrogacy is illegal. He auditioned the procedure in female rodents. Then he moved on to sheep and baboons. Two years ago, in a medical first, he managed to help a human womb–transplant patient deliver her own baby boy....

In less than a week, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun in the middle of the day blocking between 20 to 100% of the Sun’s light across the continental United States as it does. How much of an eclipse will I see? The geographic region that will see a total solar eclipse, known as the path of totality, is 70 miles wide, hitting land westward of Salem, Oregon (just south of Portland) around 10:15am and moving out over the Atlantic Ocean around 2:50pm just after passing through Columbia, South Carolina....

By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) - In a long-term study of more than 300,000 workers in France, the U.S. and the U.K., those with many years of exposure to low doses of radiation had an increased risk of dying from leukemia. Medical workers and even patients are also exposed to much more radiation than was common decades ago, the study authors point out, but it’s unclear what amount of low-level exposure raises cancer risk, they say....

In a speech full of commendation but without much concrete substance, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence discussed the future of the country’s space policy and highlighted the importance of a moon-orbiting space station that could host U.S. astronauts by 2024. The vice president spoke today (Aug. 23) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston after touring the facilities with Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt, who traveled on the country’s last crewed mission to the moon, in 1972....

The invitations come in the mail, covered in large print: “Investment Workshop—Free Gourmet Lunch!” “Avoid the Biggest Financial Mistakes Seniors Make!” “Protect Your Financial Security!” At the lunch, the salmon is accompanied by an investment pitch, with reminders that “there’s a high rate of return,” and “only a few opportunities are left.” Many of these free lunch seminars are scams aimed at retirees. Nearly six million seniors have attended such seminars in the past three years, the senior advocacy group AARP estimates—although conventional wisdom says that there’s no such thing as a free lunch....

By Meredith Wadman of Nature magazine The contentious issue of drug-industry influence over medical-research writing erupted on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia this week. A professor of psychiatry has alleged that several colleagues–including the chair of his department–allowed their names to be added to a manuscript while ceding control to the global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The professor, Jay Amsterdam, also claims that the manuscript, written with an unacknowledged contractor paid by GSK, unduly promotes the company’s antidepressant drug Paxil (paroxetine), the subject of the study....

As many as 50 billion devices will be online by the end of the decade. Along with smart thermostats and appliances, this so-called Internet of Things (IoT) includes swaths of tiny sensors that track everything from steps and calories to humidity and light. A web of power cords would undercut its usability. Thus, universities and companies alike are refining energy-harvesting techniques to free the IoT from plugs—for good. Piezoelectric This past summer Rochester, N....