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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday (May 1) to boost a classified spy satellite into orbit for the U.S. military, then turned around and touched down at a nearby landing pad. It was the 34th mission for SpaceX, but its first flight for the Department of Defense, a customer long-pursued by company founder Elon Musk. The privately owned SpaceX once sued the Air Force over its exclusive launch services contract with United Launch Alliance (ULA), a partnership of Lockheed-Martin and Boeing....

Materials scientists have created a small, wearable sensor that can read the molecular composition of sweat and send its results in real time to a smartphone. The flexible plastic patches—which can be incorporated into wristbands and headbands—may be able to provide early warning of changes in the body, say their creators. “The idea is to have this thumbs-up or thumbs-down device that will give real-time information: it could provide an alarm that you need to take some medication, or that you’re getting dehydrated and need to drink some water,” says Ali Javey, at the University of California, Berkeley, who helped to develop the sensors....

A clone of Earth, or even a rough approximation, has proved a difficult thing for scientists to find. The catalogue of planets orbiting other stars grew to more than 400 entries in October, but the goal that drives much of the research into extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, is the discovery of a habitable world, and that goal remains unmet. Some rough approximations, however, are starting to come into view. Based on humankind’s admittedly limited experience, habitability seems to mean a small world—a terrestrial planet rather than a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn—orbiting its star at a comfortable “Goldilocks” distance that allows water to persist in liquid form....

This week, we’re celebrating the American in Scientific American with a few cool stories about freedom (or lack thereof), independence and fireworks. Ever wonder how they make so many different color fireworks? The secret ingredient is burning metal. That’s right, we celebrate our freedom by shooting chunks of metal into the air and lighting them on fire. Now you can make your own colorful conflagration here on the ground in this (adult supervision very required) hands-on science experiment....

Former Philadelphia Eagles star defensive back Andre Waters was known as a fierce tackler during his 12 seasons. By the time he retired in 1995, he had racked up hundreds of tackles but had also sustained numerous concussions. After his playing days were over, he was reported to be suffering from depression. And in 2006, at age 44, he committed suicide with a gunshot to his head. According to forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu of the University of Pittsburgh, an autopsy after his death revealed that Waters’ brain had suffered so much damage from football injuries that it resembled that of an 85-year-old man with early stage Alzheimer’s disease....

Several of you have written to ask about seed cycling, a practice that claims to help with premenstrual syndrome, menopausal symptoms, and general hormonal balance. Does eating certain seeds at certain times really help regulate hormones? Let’s look at the research. What is seed cycling? Seed cycling is not really new but it is newly trendy. The idea behind seed cycling is that certain types of seeds, such as pumpkin, flax, and chia, can help regulate the levels of estrogen, progesterone and other hormones....

Editor’s Note (11/7/2016): A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck central Oklahoma on Sunday, Nov. 6, damaging buildings across the area. Experts have not yet tied the quake to oil and gas production, but the epicenter is near wastewater disposal wells, structures that have been implicated in earlier quakes in the state. To Cathy Wallace, the earthquakes that have been rattling her tidy suburban home in Dallas feel like underground thunderstorms. First comes a distant roar, then a boom and a jolt....

Teenagers from families at different income levels can have vastly diverging physical and psychological health, according to a new study that followed students in 34 countries. Those problems grew worse in countries with more economic inequality and could carry over into adulthood. Experts say it is essential to intervene as early as possible to prevent ongoing health issues. One intervention that has already met with success: the President’s Malaria Initiative, which began under George W....

PALO ALTO, Calif.—Tim Thomson needed a charge, quickly. With his all-electric Nissan Leaf fast losing battery power and no places to plug in along the highway from Fresno, Calif., to San Francisco, Thompson turned to his iPhone. He pulled up an application called PlugShare that maps charging stations for electric vehicle drivers. A resident in nearby Madera had advertised his home charging station, so Thomson called in a panic. “I was about to get stuck,” said Thomson, a 25-year-old nurse and student from Fresno....

CHERNOBYL EXCLUSION ZONE, Ukraine—In the early morning of April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, spewing radioactive material across the Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and parts of Europe. For eight months workers hurriedly built a tomb of steel and concrete to contain the radioactive remains. The sarcophagus, however, was only designed to last 30 years—until 2016. Weakened walls have been reinforced and holes have been patched but some radioactive dust and radiation could still leak from the aging structure....

Living along the Orinoco River that borders Brazil and Venezuela are the Yanomamö people, hunter-gatherers whose average annual income has been estimated at the equivalent of $90 per person per year. Living along the Hudson River that borders New York State and New Jersey are the Manhattan people, consumer-traders whose average annual income has been estimated at $36,000 per person per year. That dramatic difference of 400 times, however, pales in comparison to the differences in Stock Keeping Units (SKUs, a measure of the number of types of retail products available), which has been estimated at 300 for the Yanomamö and 10 billion for the Manhattans, a difference of 33 million times!...

When we learn something, for it to become a memory, the event must be imprinted on our brain, a phenomenon known as consolidation. In turn, every time we retrieve a memory, it can be reconsolidated—that is, more infor­mation can be added to it. Now psychologist Liz Phelps of New York University and her team report using this “reconsolidation window” as a drug-free way to erase fearful memories in humans. Although techniques for over­coming fearful memories have existed for some time, these methods do not erase the initial, fearful memory....

By Nick CareyWASHINGTON, Illinois (Reuters) - After breaking her leg late last year, having a double mastectomy in the summer and seeing her house destroyed by a tornado that swept through Washington, Illinois, on Sunday, Kim Wright said her luck was due to change.“They say bad luck comes in threes and I’ve had my three,” Wright, 56, said on Wednesday, standing in the pulverized wreckage of what just three days ago had been her home....

Facial-recognition technology is already being used for applications ranging from unlocking phones to identifying potential criminals. Despite advances, it has still come under fire for racial bias: many algorithms that successfully identify white faces still fail to properly do so for people of color. Last week the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a report showing how 189 face-recognition algorithms, submitted by 99 developers across the globe, fared at identifying people from different demographics....

Search “ocean zones” online, and you will see hundreds of illustrations that depict the same vertical profile of the sea. The thin, top layer is the “sunlight” or epipelagic zone, which receives enough light for photosynthesis by phytoplankton, algae and some bacteria. Below it is the twilight zone, where the light fades but is still strong enough for some animals to see by and where many animals make their own light through bioluminescence....

In August, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was interviewed on the New York Times podcast The Daily, where he was asked explicitly what his company will do if President Donald Trump uses Twitter to declare himself the winner of the 2020 election before the results have been decided. Dorsey paused, then provided a vague answer about learning lessons from the confusion that occurred in 2000 with the Florida recount and working with “peers and civil society to really understand what’s going on....

In the San Francisco Bay, levels of one class of flame retardants have fallen over the past decade, according to a new study. The data on the highly controversial polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) suggest that policies restricting use of a chemical, even a persistent one, can work quickly to reduce its burden on the environment, the researchers say (Environ Sci. Technol. 2014, DOI:10.1021/es503727b). “The study really shows that once regulations are put in place, things change fairly rapidly in the environment,” says Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University, who wasn’t involved in the work....

Rotting pig carcasses crawling with maggots are probably not the most appealing of study subjects for the average graduate student. And when Sarah Jones first faced the prospect of working with them, she didn’t know how she would handle the sight, the smell, and all the vermin. But as she worked on her project—profiling the chemical signature of death in decaying pig cadavers—it became far more interesting than she had imagined, and slightly less repulsive....

Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? Bodies, Behavior, and Brains—The Science behind Sex, Love and Attraction by Jena Pincott. Bantam Dell, 2008 ($20) There are two types of romantics: those who enjoy love and simply go along for the ride, and those who analyze and obsess about the whole process before it even begins. If you’re the latter, get excited: there’s fun reading in store from science writer Jena Pincott. Geared toward female readers, Pincott’s book tackles 95 burning questions about sex, love and attraction....

Americans are becoming more miserable, and lack of health insurance is one reason why, according to a survey by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. The center interviewed 1,340 Americans for a report entitled “Troubles in America: A Study of Negative Life Events across Time and Sub-Groups,” as part of its semiannual General Social Survey. Subjects were asked whether they had experienced trouble in any of 58 categories within eight domains such as health, work and finances....