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Doctors routinely urge their patients to quit smoking and exercise regularly. But what if there were a blood test that could show smokers and couch potatoes the damage their lifestyle was actually wreak­ing on their chromosomes? Two groups of prominent researchers have started companies to provide just such a test, which would measure the length of one’s telomeres. Telomeres are caps on the ends of chromosomes, protecting them much as plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces keep the laces from fraying....

Tick-borne Lyme disease in the U.S. has long been thought to be caused by a single microbe, a spiral-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. Last week this notion was challenged when a team led by scientists at the Mayo Clinic discovered that Lyme could be caused, albeit rarely, by a different bacterial species that may incite more serious symptoms ranging from vomiting to neurological issues. Scientists working in the contentious field of Lyme disagree, however, as to what this information means for public health and if these findings are truly the first of their kind....

On their own, cyanobacteria are tiny photosynthetic organisms floating in the sea. But when they join forces, linking together into chains and then mats by the millions, they can become a threat. Before long, the bacteria change the color of the sea’s surface and even soften the wind-tossed chop. One study of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, although they are not algae, predicted that rising sea temperatures could help the already widespread creatures expand their territory by more than 10 percent....

Mark Twain called the cherimoya and its cousin the sugar apple “the most delicious fruit known to men.” Though little more than exotic edibles to most Americans, such fruits of the Annona family have been cultivated by people in Central and South America for generations. Even in pre-Columbian times, Annona fruits were enjoyed for their sherbetlike texture and a flavor that resembles a mixture of banana and pineapple. But they also contain numerous hard seeds that make the fruit difficult to eat....

Peru is poised to launch its first Earth-observation satellite on September 15. Called PerúSAT-1, it will give the small South American country one of the sharpest space-based cameras available. PerúSAT-1 will collect visible light, and will deliver images in which the pixels are as small as 70 centimetres on one side—a bit larger than a standard chess board. “The resolution is definitely world-class,” Finer says. “It’s going to be a powerful tool for the government....

It’s the source of a long-standing cosmological quandary. Galaxies or black holes: Which came first? Today, they exist as neatly matched pairs, a black hole nested in the heart of a swirling galaxy, but it seems possible that the growth of one drove the growth of the other. By peering deep into the early universe, astronomers have edged ever closer to an answer. But they did not identify a leader of this cosmic tango, as galaxies and black holes appear to have matched each other step for step as early as a billion years after the universe began....

By the spring of 2014 I had largely given up on the three-body problem. Out of ideas, I began programming on my laptop to generate and search through approximate solutions. These attempts would never solve my problem outright, but they might garner evidence toward an answer. My lack of programming expertise and resulting impatience slowed the process, making it an unpleasant experience for a pencil-and-paper mathematician like myself. I sought out my old friend Carles Simó, a professor at the University of Barcelona, to convince him to aid me in my clunky search....

As Joe Biden takes office, his most immediate priority is dealing with the catastrophe of COVID-19, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S.—the highest toll of any country—and sickened and harmed millions. He is inheriting a dire situation from his predecessor, who resisted some of the most important measures to contain the new coronavirus, such as prompt testing and tracing and mask wearing, and who appeared unconcerned as a winter surge of infections devastated the country....

If the universe were a fairy tale, the celestial objects called brown dwarfs would be the ugly ducklings. Small and dim as they are, brown dwarfs are informally known as “failed stars.” But some scientists have proposed that brown dwarfs possess unrecognized majesty—that they are in fact gargantuan planets. Alas, a new study suggests that the story is not destined for a happy ending. Astronomers have detected the first direct evidence that these cosmic misfits are forged in a miniature version of star formation....

Editor’s Note (8/6/18): Although the country’s ninth Ebola outbreak was ultimately contained, a week after that outbreak was declared over evidence of a new Ebola emergency was reported elsewhere in the country. As of August 3, 2018, there were a total of 43 reported Ebola virus cases in the nation, including 33 deaths. An additional 33 cases are also suspected, pending laboratory confirmation. The affected area of the country, located along its borders with Rwanda and Uganda, is also the site of frequent cross-border movement and a prolonged humanitarian crisis....

Fake news sites have seen a drastic increase recently. These sites have always been around, but in a startling trend, they are becoming more and more mainstream. These sites create fake content with enticing headlines designed to encourage readers to click on them or, even better, share based on the title alone. Sometimes the motivation is political or social: don’t like the narrative around your favorite cause? Rewrite it! Sometimes the motivation is clearly financial....

A federal agency has proposed listing 66 species of coral under the Endangered Species Act, which would bolster protections of the animals. The proposed listing comes after a 2009 petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, asserting that the federal government needed to do more to protect coral species. Under the proposal, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would list seven coral species as endangered and 52 as threatened in the Pacific, with five endangered and two threatened in the Caribbean....

“I suddenly feel calm.” Our patient, a middle-aged woman who suffered from severe depression, uttered these beautiful words in the operating room just a few seconds after one of us (Lozano) applied electrical stimulation to a selected area deep in her brain. The operation, which took place in 2003 at Toronto Western Hospital, relied on only local anesthesia so that the woman could remain conscious and talk to us. Then, as the current’s strength was increased, we asked her if she noticed anything different....

Author Bill McKibben never saw this coming. Founder of 350.org, an environmental campaign aimed at holding atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations below 350 parts per million, McKibben sent word that this Saturday would be the day to take to the streets. The call went viral in ways far beyond anything McKibben and fellow organizers imagined: As of Thursday morning some 4,317 actions and rallies are planned in 171 countries, with 300 events in China, 1500 across the United States, 500-plus in Central and South America....

Dear EarthTalk: With all the talk of rising seas, what could happen to the rivers that flow into the oceans? Will they reverse flow? Will rising seas back up into fresh water lakes? And what happens to our groundwater should saltwater flow backwards into it? – Sandy Smith, concerned Michigander The intrusion of saltwater from the sea into rivers and groundwater is a serious issue, but the threat is not from a reversal of flow, and our far inland lakes and rivers are not expected to be directly affected by the salty water of our oceans....

When the body loses its normal abilities—due to stroke, blindness or cancer, for example—doctors must tap their creativity to engineer new ways to restore function. Researcher Molly Shoichet of the University of Toronto will tell three stories from this field, regenerative medicine, in a public lecture tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern time. The lecture will be broadcast live at the link below. Shoichet’s lab recently invented a new polymer called a hydrogel that can deliver protein drugs or stem cells to the brain and spinal cord....

Thirteen years after the legendary confrontation over the theory of evolution between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (“Soapy Sam”) and Thomas Henry Huxley (“Darwin’s bulldog”), Wilberforce died in 1873 in an equestrian fall. Huxley quipped to physicist John Tyndall, “For once, reality and his brain came into contact and the result was fatal.” When it comes to such basic forces as gravity and such fundamental phenomena as falling, our intuitive sense of how the physical world works–our folk physics–is reasonably sound....

A new analysis of human remains first discovered in 1967 suggests that they are in fact much older than previously believed. The results, published today in the journal Nature, push back the emergence of our species by nearly 35,000 years. Ian McDougall of the Australian National University in Canberra and his colleagues worked with two well-known fossil finds known as Omo I and Omo II, which were recovered from Ethiopia’s Kibish Formation by Richard Leakey....

Imagine a world without fear. It might be empowering to go about your daily life uninhibited by everyday distresses. You could cross highways with confidence, take on all kinds of daredevilry and watch horror flicks without flinching. Yet consider the prospect a little more deeply, and the possibilities become darker, even deadly. Our fears, after all, can protect us. The basic aversion that a mouse has for a cat, for instance, keeps the rodent out of death’s jaws....

The Trump administration will launch a major climate science satellite mission later this month to track the movement of water around the planet. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On satellites are scheduled to be launched as soon as May 19, NASA announced yesterday. They will monitor the polar ice caps, aquifer storage around the country and other key data related to climate change. The mission will also track changes in deep ocean currents, which drive climate change....