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Plummeting numbers of several salmon and trout species have conservationists looking more and more to hatcheries—where fish are reared in comfortable captivity and then released into natural bodies of water. But this strategy may hurt wild populations, according to a paper published this week in Biology Letters. Researchers at Oregon State University (O.S.U.) found that not only do hatchery-raised steelhead—a Pacific trout sharing the same genus, Oncorhynchus, as salmon—produce relatively fewer and weaker offspring once back in a natural environment, but so do their wild-born spawn....

Life is full of trading favors. We assist a colleague who is racing to meet a looming work deadline, or we babysit for a fellow parent in a pinch, or we help a friend move a piece of furniture—and then, eventually, we ask for something in return. But once we offer that favor, if we’re hoping for payback, how long should we wait before we make our request? Social mores seem to dictate that we let an appropriate amount of time pass before we make our move; if we ask too soon, we may come off as gauche....

The researchers compiled data from 2012 to 2015 on Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers’ race, ethnicity and gender, as well as stops, arrests and use-of-force incidents. They analyzed only records for patrol officers (or “beat” cops), excluding others in specialized units that might, for instance, be policing gangs. White cops were far more likely to use force during an arrest than Black or Latinx officers, and male police were more likely to use force than their female counterparts....

As cities around the world experience the effects of urbanization and increased density, how and where we provide green space to urban dwellers becomes more important. Proximity to green spaces such as parks and biking trails helps to promote physical and mental health, and should be shared equally amongst urban communities. However, like many public goods, new green space can create higher demand for housing in areas nearby, driving up living costs and displacing low-income groups that have been there for decades....

Smoking is the most potent known cause of lung cancer. The question is: Why do some longtime smokers come down with the deadly disease whereas others escape it? New research points to a genetic culprit that also was fingered as upping a person’s likelihood of becoming hooked on cigarettes. Two new studies link a variation in a gene residing on chromosome 15 (of a person’s 23 pairs of chromosomes) to a heightened risk of developing lung cancer; a third study suggests that the same mutation affects a person’s tendency to become addicted to smokes and, by extension, develop the dreaded disease....

November 2nd marks 11 years since humans first floated on board the International Space Station. The anniversary also commemorates more than a decade of continuous human presence in space. Long before the success of this orbiting football field–size laboratory, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first space station, Salyut 1, in 1971. Two years later, the U.S. sent its Skylab station into orbit, where its last crew stayed for 84 days....

If you were disappointed with the meager showing put on by this year’s Leonid Meteor Shower, don’t fret. What potentially will be the best meteor display of the year is just around the corner, scheduled to reach its peak on Thursday night, Dec. 13: the Geminid Meteors. The Geminids get their name from the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. On the night of this shower’s maximum the meteors will appear to emanate from a spot in the sky near the bright star Castor in Gemini....

In the spring of 2017 I was serendipitously invited to what initially seemed to be the wrong scientific meeting. The invitation came thirdhand, and the details were murky but intriguing. I took a car to a train to a downtown hotel where I wound my way through a series of conference rooms before a sign on a door made it clear that something was terribly wrong. It said, “MAPS Phase 3 meeting....

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert Henry Holt, 2014 Of all the species to have ever lived on earth, more than 90 percent are thought to be extinct. Most of them perished sometime over the past half a billion years, in one of the five major mass extinctions that have profoundly reshaped the world. Kolbert, a contributing writer for the New Yorker, argues that we are now in the midst of a sixth extinction, one distressingly of our own making....

By Braden Reddall and Nichola GroomSAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California, whose green ambitions helped the solar and wind industries take root, is taking an essential next step by proposing a sharp rise in energy storage to better integrate renewable power with the rest of the grid.Power from sun and wind fluctuates dramatically, so capturing it for later use makes the supply more predictable.“We can’t just rely on sunlight,” Governor Jerry Brown told the Intersolar conference in San Francisco last month....

Predicting earthquakes is the holy grail of seismology. After all, quakes are deadly precisely because they’re erratic—striking without warning, triggering fires and tsunamis, and sometimes killing hundreds of thousands of people. If scientists could warn the public weeks or months in advance that a large temblor is coming, evacuation and other preparations could save countless lives. So far, no one has found a reliable way to forecast earthquakes, even though many scientists have tried....

Stvetomir Markovic knew something was different. Sometime around 2010, a fellow scientist at the Mayo Clinic had agreed to donate her healthy blood for use in the research laboratory where Markovic studies the interface between cancer and the immune system. In previous testing of the woman’s blood, her immune cells functioned normally. But then something changed, and nobody knew why. “We thought our assays weren’t working,” recalls Markovic, a hematologist and oncologist whose research focuses on developing immunotherapies for melanoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma....

SAN DIEGO—You are guiding a ship through rough waters. On your way you may encounter magical creatures. You can snap a photo or two, but your main job is to navigate the maze of waterways to find missing pieces of a long-lost journal. You might get lost occasionally, but that’s all right. After all, this is just a mobile game and the scientists behind it are tracking your performance to measure how people of all ages compare in their spatial navigation abilities....

The sweet, rich sound of Stradivarius violins enable them to fetch millions of dollars. For years violin aficionados have debated why the instruments made by Stradivari and his contemporary Guarneri sound so beautiful. Researchers have pored over their geometry and acoustics, but a new study concludes that chemistry makes the difference. “This answers the centuries-old question if Stradivari and Guarneri used wood that was natural or chemically treated,” says Joseph Nagyvary, a biochemist at Texas A&M University....

By Ryan McNeill and Deborah J. Nelson (Reuters) - Coastal flooding along the densely populated Eastern Seaboard of the United States has surged in recent years, a Reuters analysis has found. During the past four decades, the number of days a year that tidal waters reached or exceeded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flood thresholds more than tripled in many places, the analysis found. At flood threshold, water can begin to pool on streets....

Over the past 35 years, scientists have made several curious discoveries about Huntington’s disease. First, individuals with the neurological disorder are less likely than others to suffer from cancer; second, they tend to have more children than average—about 1.24 children for every one child born to unaffected siblings. Although no one yet knows what is behind these seemingly unconnected findings, a group at Tufts University has proposed that they are linked—and that one of the proteins implicated in Huntington’s may, ironically, provide patients with subtle health benefits....

As extreme weather events likely connected to the planet’s warming climate become increasingly common, low-income communities are positioned to suffer the worst consequences during the aftermath of natural disasters, write the authors of a report from the Center for American Progress called “One Storm Shy of Despair.” “These communities are simply more vulnerable and much more at risk to the impacts of climate change,” Cathleen Kelly, a senior fellow at CAP and one of the report’s authors, said of the difficulties residents in poorer neighborhoods face after natural disasters....

Estimates suggest that in the next 50 years, over one trillion gallons of water will be used in shale gas extraction but research from scientists in the US suggests that environmentally detrimental compounds are being created when this fluid is recycled. Shale gas is found in rock formations kilometers underground. Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, facilitates the release of this energy dense fuel in a cost-effective and timely manner. Water, sand and a combination of other additives are pumped into the ground at high pressure, breaking the shale formations apart, allowing the gas to migrate to the surface where it can be collected....

Muldrow Glacier, perched on the side of Alaska’s highest peak, is on the move for the first time in more than 60 years. Scientists noticed last month that the 39-mile stretch of ice had begun to “surge” down the northeast slope of Denali. Surges are natural events in which ice begins to flow downhill at faster and faster speeds. Muldrow is speeding down the mountain at a rate of about 30 to 60 feet per day—that’s 50 to 100 times faster than its normal rate over the last 60 years, according to the National Park Service....

A wood skyscraper might sound like a bad idea—and potentially a giant tinderbox. But architects around the world are steadily building more timber high-rises, partly with the aim of curbing carbon pollution. Lofty wood buildings are popping up in major cities from London to Melbourne. Many more are in the works—soon Portland, Ore., will be getting its own—and they continue to break height records for modern lumber construction. The world’s tallest such building completed, a 53-meter Vancouver high-rise called Brock Commons, officially opens in September....