A team of mathematicians seeks to cut an infinitely large pancake into as many pieces as possible, in a new take on an old puzzle.
By Siobhan Roberts
Nicholas Thompson
The finding, along with the discovery of a 500,000-year-old hammer made of bone, indicates that our human ancestors were making tools even earlier than archaeologists thought.
By Franz Lidz
Patz Lab
Researchers found an antibody that seems to play a role in people with better lung cancer prognoses, but turning it into a treatment could be difficult.
By Gina Kolata
Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who leads the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said a person’s right to refuse a vaccine outweighed concerns about illness or death from infectious diseases.
By Apoorva Mandavilli
Let us know how we’re doing at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com.
Arata Nakayama
Trilobites
Cuttlefish attract prospective sexual partners by creating a pattern on their skin, based on the orientation of light waves.
By Kate Golembiewski
Andy Fraser
A newly discovered raptor had a knobby bump on its head, suggesting that, like some larger dinosaurs, it engaged in competitive head bashing.
By Jack Tamisiea
Gao et al., Nature Communications
The very capable robotic picker-upper can grasp things on both sides and roam around freely.
By Ari Daniel
Maxime Aubert
“It was hiding in plain sight all this time,” one researcher said.
By Claire Moses and Yan Zhuang
She and her staff at Union Carbide created synthetic materials that improved various industrial processes, including purifying water. She also developed a way to make emeralds.
By Richard Sandomir
He accidentally created some of the first quantum dots, tiny semiconductors that now power many electronics.
By Katrina Miller
Maja Hitij/Getty Images
Future games will need to be held at higher altitudes, and spread over multiple venues in order to adapt to a changing climate, new research suggests.
By Eric Niiler
Jalen Wright for The New York Times
Rising Arctic temperatures and melting sea ice could be causing cold air to flow into the Northern Hemisphere. But not all scientists agree.
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William DeShazer for The New York Times
Dozens of doctors and therapists said chatbots had led their patients to psychosis, isolation and unhealthy habits.
By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Kashmir Hill
Ben Denzer
The National Institutes of Health failed to protect brain scans that an international group of fringe researchers used to argue for the intellectual superiority of white people.
By Mike McIntire
Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press
Global Health
A planned U.S.-funded study of a hepatitis B vaccine drew widespread condemnation from researchers. Now the host country says it cannot proceed.
By Stephanie Nolen and Christina Jewett
Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
A crackdown on problems with fairness and safety is achieving results, including a big drop in the number of sick patients being passed over for transplants.
By Brian M. Rosenthal
The prohibition halts support for projects both inside and outside the N.I.H. President Biden had restored funding after an earlier ban by President Trump during his first term.
By Roni Caryn Rabin
The Environmental Protection Agency has stopped estimating the dollar value of lives saved in the cost-benefit analyses for new pollution rules.
By Maxine Joselow
At two congressional hearings, lawmakers slammed executives of major companies, saying they were failing to rein in the cost of medical care for consumers.
By Reed Abelson
